Phi Phi Don Paradisio

Sinead and I on Bamboo Island
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Having been in Phi Phi before the tsunami I was dead curious as our ferry pulled up at the port after a little over 2 hours sailing from Krabi. I expected to see lots of things had changed since the tsunami occured (I was in Phi Phi one week before the tsumai) but was surprised to see that I recognised lots of the buildings. I later found out that most of the damage from the tsunami was at the other side of the island - which I never went to before.

Phi Phi itself is relatively small with no motorised vehicles on the islands or proper roads for that matter. Everything can be reached by foot or long tail boat. Having lived it up in nice resorts since we started out we decided to slum it a little and found a room in a guesthouse called Oasis that is run by a German lady. The room is costing is 400BHT a night (approx 10 euros). The room is basic, clean and with own bathroom but cold water - not that it matters after a day in the sun! The 3 of us are sharing a double bed so we are lying sideways - hasn't proved a problem so far!

Sunset - absolutely amazing. Have gone back a second night to watch is while drinking a beer
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We chilled out on ? Beach on the far side of the island on our first day, the beach itself is not that great but the sunset is amazing with the sky changing into a rainbow of colours - best way to view it is with a beer in hand while in a sun lounger. On the walk to a beach you can see a lot of the affects of the tsumami walking to this beach - people living in little shacks and washing themselves from a basin on the side of the road. We spent another day on Long Beach and ended our sun bathing with a massage just off the beach listening to the sounds of the waves as you relax - 300bath for 1hr massage (great way to end the day)!

Fire show at the Hippie Bar
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Yesterday was the most eventful day we had. We took an organised trip around several of the islands. It cost 400BHT per person and along with 10 other people we boarded a long tail boat. The start of the day was relaxing visiting Monkey Beach, Bamboo Island, Viking Cave and stopping at various points along the way for snorkelling. Some of the fish you can see really are amazing and they are swimming all around you - it is at times like that that you wish you had an underwater camera.

Viking Cave - there appeared to be someone actually living here
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The last stop on our trip was to be Maya Beach, which was made famous from the film The Beach. As the water was getting so choppy at this point & the rain was pelting down, our boat driver dropped us off at the far side of the beach behind a massive rock formation and we had to swim across over to a cave entry (with serious waves making this really difficult) and use a rope to pull ourselves up and onto dry land. We felt like we were on one of the reality shows such as Shipwrecked or Survivor....it was definietly a challenge and more work that we had been used to all week! Once we walked through the forest clearing we found ourselves on Maya beach - only disappointing thing was we didn't have a camera to take any snaps! The water there was really calm here with no rain which was very weird so we enjoyed a calm swim before making our way back through the choppy water at the other side - it was insane the conditions everyone was dropped off to swim in. I don't think insurance comes into there minds over here for things such as that....!

Coming back on long tail boat from Long Beach
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The trip started at 11am and we arrived back at the port at 6pm so by this point we were soaked to the bone, absolutely freezing and in need of a warm shower. But it was back home for a cold shower and then on to the Hippie Bar down on the beach for some well deserved drinks and food. They put on an amazing fire show later in the night which was fantastic to watch - the youngest guy was only 10 years of age!

So we are leaving Phi Phi in the morning...not sure where to yet......will update once I know!