Koh Phi Phi

August 31^st – September 3^rd 2010

A 3-hour ferry ride from Railey brought us to a nearby island known as Koh Phi Phi. Koh Phi Phi is a Marine Park (You pay a 20 Baht entrance fee) but doesn’t really seem like it since the main area is extremely overrun with tourists. It is a popular, tousisty, party island. Unfortunately, this means more haggling with shop owners, dirtier beaches and not a lot of quiet nights. None of this really bothered us too much though since we were with a big group of people and didn’t mind the later nights and the younger crowds at bars.


Day 1

Ali and I decided to join our group of new friends (that we met at Railey) on Koh Phi Phi for a couple of days. We took the ferry with the brothers – Dexter and Mannix – and arrived at Phi Phi around noon on August 31^st. We found a nearby hostel, check-in and headed out to the bay area to find a restaurant. We at a quick lunch and then decided to check out the beach for a bit. We headed across the island to the "activity beach" and scoped out the scene. The beach was a little dirtier than we would have liked (due to all the parties/beach bars), but we found a couple chairs and hung out for a bit. Since monsoon season starts around September in Thailand, the sky soon started to cloud over and we experienced pouring rain for about an hour. We crowded under a nearby beach hut hoping it would quickly stop, but we soon gave up and decided to spend the afternoon shopping instead. We strolled along the narrow lanes between stalls quietly browsing for books, shirts and dresses. Like most places in Thailand, Phi Phi I known for it’s fake Ray-Ban sunglasses, knock-off Hollister and Abercrombie clothes, and many used book stores. Ali and I decided we were going to be fully taking advantage of the cheap Thai prices soon enough! For now, shopping was put on hold. We decided to explore the island a bit more as it had stopped raining! It was now late afternoon, and we followed the signs leading us to the "Phi Phi Lookout Point". We began to climb the many steps leading up the hill to the lookout. We climbed up and up for about 20 minutes and finally made it to the first of three lookouts. The lookout consisted of a rock cliff covered with tourists and a coffeeshop off to the side. We sat on the rocks for a while and relaxed and took pictures of the view. It was a pretty nice lookout as you could see Marina Bay, the beach, and all the restaurants and shops below. You could also see some of the smaller surrounding islands and boats off in the distance. It slowly began to grow darker, so we decided to continue upward to the next two lookouts. They were not nearly as nice, but they offered views of other areas. We stayed up at the top of the hill only for a bit and then proceeded back down the hill just in time to escape another rainshower. After the hike Ali and I really just wanted to shop, so we ditched the boys and decided to shop for new bathingsuits. Ali found a really unique colourful one for 300 Baht (about $10). Happy with her purchase we headed back to the room, showered, got ready for dinner, and went to go find a nice place to eat. The four of us ended up at a nice Western/Thai food place just down the street from the hostel. After our Western lunch, we opted for Thai food and spent the night eating cashew fried rice, curry soup, and pad thai. The rest of the night was spent exploring the local bars and pubs. We met up with the entire group from Railey (the English girls and the Irish boys) and spent the night hanging out together on the beach. We got to talk to them a bit about life in Europe and about how different/similar the university system is to Canada. Overall a successful first day on the island.


Day 2

Day 2 unfolded in a very similar way to day 1. We woke up late and had a "traditional English breakfast" (very similar to a Canadian breakfast, haha!) and the proceeded to the beach. We lay out towels, applied sunscreen, busted out the new fake ray-bans, and spent the next few hours getting a better tan. Mid-Afternoon we tired of the hot Thai sun and decided to get ice-cream and Thai Massages. Dinner was at an Italian place – which was great because it also had a salad bar J Post dinner, the four of us headed to the same bar as the night before – determined to get a few games of pool in. We partnered up and played a couple games. A Thai guy (Em) and girl (Far) joined us mid-night. Em had just come from Canada, and was excitedly telling us about his experience ice-skating and going to cottages. He LOVED Canada haha! The six of us played pool and hung out together the entire night. It was interesting to meet some Thai people and talk to them about life in Thailand and the tourism industry.


Day 3

We decided to try-out a tourist day-trip package while in Phi Phi. The English girls had spent a day doing a snorkelling, Maya Bay, Monkey Beach tour and we decided it might be cool to do the same. We woke up early and paid 500 Baht for a whole day tour. We left around 9:00am and got back to Phi Phi around 7:00pm. The tour had 7-8 spots for snorkelling, we stopped at a beach full of monkeys, and we went to the famous Maya Bay (where the movie "The Beach" was filmed). Overall, the tour was kind of exhausting and far too touristy. Ali and I actually really did not enjoy it that much. There was hundreds of tourists taking pictures of the monkeys and throwing food/garbage at them, and there were sooo many stops to snorkel at pretty much the exact same reef that we ended up stopping going into the water after the 5^th or 6^th time. To top it all off, on our very last snorkelling stop, Ali swam into a JELLYFISH! She got a pretty bad sting on her shoulder/chest and the burning remained for 24 hours L Maya Bay was the best of the experiences, as we got there when no other tourist boats where there and we were able to take pictures and relax for about an hour. After the long and exhausting day, we went back to the hostel, showered, and ate dinner. Dinner was once again followed up drinks at our usual spots with the usual group, and then we went to sleep.


Day 4

This was our final day in Phi Phi. The plan was to wake up early and catch a morning ferry out, but when we woke up at 7:00am there was a huge rainstorm going on and we had much doubt that ferries would actually be leaving in the weather. So, we went back to sleep and caught an afternoon ferry instead. We ended up checking out far too late, and after refusing to pay a ridiculously high fine for a late check-out, we escaped from the hostel and boarded the 4:00pm ferry from Koh Phi Phi to Krabi. We were on our way to Koh Tao and excited to begin our PADI Open Water Scuba Course!