Ferry Ride to Phi Phi

Approaching Phi Phi Island. The group of boats on the left is where the dock is.
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We enjoyed breakfast outside by the pool. They have different kinds of bread and croissants, along with a toaster. There are also a few kinds of cereal and fruit. As you have probably noticed, we are loving the fruit here. It is so much better than what we find at home. The hotel is small, only 15 rooms, so there are never that many people out here for breakfast at the same time. An interesting thing though, is that it is impossible to get all types of needed dishes when you first arrive at breakfast. There are either not enough, plates, bowls, or glasses. Throughout the time that we stayed here I used a bowl for bread and drank juice out of a coffee cup. Unfortunately there is no substitute for the bowl for cereal! If you wait long enough, all needed dished become available, but you have to be quick before someone else grabs them. I did see some people eating omelets one morning, and various hot breakfasts are available for an extra charge.

Hotel Room
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We left most of our luggage with the front desk in a closet under the stairs and our van arrived at noon to take us the ferry dock. We took what seemed to be a winding route across the island and got to sit at lots of traffic lights. It did take almost an hour to get to the dock. We were originally surprised at how early the van was picking us up, but I think in the end it was perfect timing. We boarded the ferry and they put our bag downstairs for us. The downstairs area seemed less crowded than upstairs, so we headed down as well. One tip for all the girls out there. The toilet on the ferry is a coed room with a hole that you can position yourself over to use. The toilets at the dock are fairly clean and are real toilets. Use the ones at the dock! Like lots of other public restrooms, there is one toilet paper dispenser when you first walk in the door and none in the stalls. Make sure that you enter your stall prepared! I hopped back on the ferry and settled in for the ride out to Phi Phi. It was a fairly smooth ride and after about an hour and a half we arrived. Oh, and keeping with the potty theme of this paragraph, Phi Phi is pronounced Pee Pee (you will even see it spelled that way at times).

Our new friend
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We managed to haul our bag up the stairs, and headed to the end of the dock. The dock is full of lots of people that want to take your luggage to your hotel or want to offer you a place to stay for the night. Phi Phi does have a limited number of hotels, so showing up without a reservation is a risky move. You may find a place to stay or you may not. You will probably pay more per night than if you prebook. The ferry we took out was the last ferry of the day (arriving in the late afternoon) so if you get there are discover that there are no rooms left, you best be ready to sleep under the stars! We located the representative from our hotel at the end of the dock and waited to see if anyone else was joining us. One more person was also headed to the hotel, so the representative put all our bags in a cart with nice big wheels and off we went. There are no real roads on Phi Phi and there are no cars. You see a few motorbikes here and there, but people mainly get around by foot and boat. Most things are built close to the shore. There is a very nice resort on the island (Phi Phi Village Resort) that is located away from the main area. If you stay here you have to take a long boat from the ferry terminal to the hotel. The hotel also runs its own ferry from Phuket at different times during the day. We had planned to stay there before we discovered the Layalina, but we only spending two nights on Phi Phi, we decided to stay in the main area. We stayed at the Phi Phi Villa Resort. It is about as far from the ferry dock as you can get, but its really not that far. We ready some good reviews on the place and thought that we had picked a nice place to stay. This is the only time on our whole trip that we were disappointed with our hotel. It looks (like most other places that we passed) very nice from the outside. Most of the rooms are individual one room bungalows. We got checked in and headed to ours. It was close the pool and not far from the main walk. It was quite roomy. The first issue occurred when the air conditioning was turned on. The unit started making all types of horrible noises. The hotel person who brought us to our room promised to have someone look at it. After a few minutes, we wandered to the front desk to make sure it was going to get taken care of. They sent someone in and he pronounced it fixed. We headed back to the room and on the way, I saw a cute cat. There are lots of stray cats everywhere in Thailand, but most of them steer clear of people. I talked to this one and he followed us back to our bungalow. I sat on the front porch and petted him for a few minutes and then he trotted into the bungalow like he owned the place! I figured he was hot and wanted somewhere cooler. The air conditioning unit was now running a lot quieter. The cat hung out with us for a bit and even settled himself into my lap. After a bit we evicted him from the room and headed out to find dinner.

The not so fancy shower.
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Jeff read about a good pizza place in the guidebook, so we headed out. None of the restaurants are indoors, but most have lots of fans on the walls and ceilings to help you keep cool. We started out with our standard frozen fruit drinks and picked out two pizzas. They were good! They are thin crust style, but had lots of topping and the sauce was tasty as well. We headed back to the hotel and met our cat friend again. He followed us into the room and we gave him a bit of meat from the pizza. We were surprised at how warm the room still was, but it had gotten colder than when we initially checked in. The cat hung out for a bit and then he left. We didn't see him again during our stay and I managed to resist the urge to talk to any more cats! We decided to go for a quick swim before bed. There are signs everywhere in the room telling you not to take your towel from the room, but to get pool towels. The pool towels were not really towels, but lengths of cotton fabric. These are signed out to your room and they must be returned to the front desk by 9pm (when the pool closes) or you are charged for them. We returned our towels on time and headed to bed.

The room itself isn't a bad design. It is large with a nice front porch. The bathroom leaves a bit to be desired. It is large, but not that practical. There is no shower, just a shower head mounted on the wall and a drain at the opposite end of the bathroom. The shower head is one that can be mounted or the wall or can be handheld. It didn't like to stay pointed in the right direction. The water would also go from the perfect temperature to freezing cold and then take a while to get warm again. I swear that the water was salt water as well, as it tasted salty. The water from the sink didn't seem salty, just from the shower. The room did have a fridge, but no free water. The bed was queen sized, but was only slightly comfortable. And, as previously noted, the air conditioner didn't work all that well.