Koh Phi Phi
- Amy
- May 1, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 14, 2019
KOH PHI PHI
26th - 30th April 2019
Welcome to Thailand! Our adventure first began back in Penang where we have a little story time for you... so enjoy...
26/04/19
Hello! Welcome to another chapter! This is where I introduce our 7 journey that became over 12 hours...
We got up, packed our belongings once again and moved out of our cute accommodation to the bus station. A very busy bus station. After commotion as to when the bus would arrive and where, we finally got onto a mini bus just before 9am (even though it was supposed to arrive at 8:30).
The first section of the journey went relatively smoothly, bar two immigration queues we had to wait through. The first coming out of Malaysia and the second, into Thailand. We’d finally made it into Thailand and believed it would be a smooth journey from there... no.
About an hour into our journey they told us if we wanted to go to Krabi we had to get off and get another bus. Little to our knowledge as our ticket said it would take 7 hours to get straight to Krabi on a minibus. So, we had to lug off all of our bags once again and ended up standing on the side of the road not quite knowing what to do. After repeatedly questioning the driver as to where we were to get this next bus, he caved in and reluctantly told us to go to the travel shop nearby and they would sort it out. Angry, not only due to the inconvenience of the public transport in this part of Asia but the 37 degree Celsius weather we had just come into, we had to wait another 40 minutes before our next mini bus would arrive to take us to Krabi. We also had a failed sim adventure hunt as nobody spoke English.
At 2:20pm we waited in anticipation for our bus to arrive (baring in mind we should have technically been all the way to Krabi by 3pm which was what our ticket told us - not believable when google maps said it was still over a 4 hour drive to get there). Anyway, so there we were sat waiting for our mini bus only to find a tuk-tuk style vehicle turn up which we had to cram 7 people on (us included) which was supposably going to take us around the corner to the mini bus. Again this wasn’t accurate as about half an hour or so later we turned up at a bus station... which had mini buses!!!!!! FINALLY!
I thought life was good again until I had THE WORST seat on the bus.... crammed in the back right hand corner on a single seat, surrounded by bags and a seat in front where I couldn’t even properly fit my legs down. 4 hours of this... 4 hours. So the 3pm Krabi arrival time turned out to be more like 8pm. Right palaver to say the least!!
When we finally arrived in Krabi, we went straight to our hostel which was really nice and comfortable for the night.
We decided to explore the markets that pop up at night. Definitely one of my favourite things about Asia as you can find absolutely anything there!
27/04/19
The following day we had one of the greatest breakfasts ever... Shakshouka! Which was essentially tomato and eggs with spices and some sort of bread... yummmmm! We found the cute little cafe to eat in off of a side street and it was a great choice!
The power lines in Krabi reminded me of India... not quite to that extent though haha!
We soon got on the ferry and finally headed over to Koh Phi Phi! Woo!
Koh Phi Phi is located 2 hours ferry journey off of Krabi, the south west coast of Thailand, with Phuket being the other side of the island.
We were so excited to visit this beautiful island and the scenery didn’t disappoint!
It took us 10 minutes to walk to our hostel, Blanco Beach Hostel, which was located right on the beach. Now, we were completely aware that it was party hostel when we booked it... little did we know how run down it would be for a full £8 A NIGHT (SO EXPENSIVE!!!)
We got shown to our prison cell that had no natural light and 6 beds crammed into a very very small room. All part of the hostel experience isn’t it! Especially the endless amounts of sand in your bed as the hostel is right on the beach!!
Not being an able to stay too long in prison cell, we went to explore the town which was only a 5 minute walk away along the beach. Everything on Koh Phi Phi was very close as there is no transport on the island at all, so everyone has to walk. We treated ourselves to a yummy Pad Thai to share!
The beach our hostel was sat on was beautiful and we watched the sunset from it, soaking in all the beauty...
After the sun went down the bars began setting up stages for a fire show which we watched.
(photo to come)
Of course, especially being on a party island, we had to at least try and have a little bit of fun, haha! So we bought a bucket full of a cocktail (Sex on the Beach which is typically vodka, cranberry and orange juice). Buckets are a massive thing in Thailand where cocktails and mixers are served in essentially sand castle buckets that people just carry around. So that was us, exploring the island with our buckets of cocktails! Completely barefoot!
Little did we know what the cocktails would do to us!
We ended up walking through a lot of the streets on the island chatting and looking in different stalls, getting tipsier and tipsier by the second. Note to anyone going to Thailand and wanting a bucket: they are A LOT stronger than you think, especially the cocktails that are incredibley sweet and easy to drink (ours).
Disclaimer: If you don’t like sick or will be disappointed with Megan and I due to the consumption of alcohol as well as the events to come next, skip further down to the 28/04/19 for some lovely photos 👍🏼
The night ended with me managing to fall asleep after we got back to the hostel (who knows why) and then managing to repeatedly throw up on the bathroom floor. Note to everyone: Pad Thai does not look good pink and regurgitated on a toilet floor. Congratulations to me!
The ridiculously funny part was all Megan... who after a few more drinks and lying in bed decided that she needed to be sick. And where do you be sick when you’re on a top bunk with an extremely difficult ladder to go down? Of course, off the side of the bed and onto the middle of the floor. What a tragedy this was to listen to and it makes me laugh to even think about it!! This happened once in which Megan cleaned it up, only for it to happen again less than 5 minutes later! Haha! Again, Pad Thai does not look good regurgitated! That’s enough of that night...
28/04/19
And welcome to another morning on the Phi Phi Islands, with a surprisingly well Amy and a severely hungover Megan.
Megan, needing her beauty sleep from the mess last night, continued to sleep whilst I ventured back out into the town for breakfast with an interesting American chap from New York who was also in our room. Even though I decided I didn’t like the look of regurgitated Pad Thai, I still very much enjoyed the look of normal Pad Thai and had it for lunch (as by now it was already coming up to midday).
We had originally wanted to go kayaking on this day but decided better of it and postpond it until the next. Instead, when Megan was awake, we got her breakfast and then had a very relaxed day, enjoying the sun and the beach...
Half of the people checked out of our room so we had three new British arrivals that funnily enough were from around Aylesbury! How weird! So they had some mutual friends with Megan.
Megan and I went out for lunch and then we ended up all watching the sunset, going out in the evening, watching the fire show on the beach again.
The same bar doing the fire show was then doing a limbo competition for free shots as well as skipping. So of course we all participated in it which was a lot of fun and all had neon bands around our heads. Only had a few drinks as not having a repeat of the night before, can you blame me?
We walked into town and the guys got a bucket each (don’t worry, we warned them). We went to a few bars and had a dance...
One of the guys decided to go into a Thai boxing ring in order to win a free drinks bucket, which was quite the spectacle (spoiler: he got a black eye). He did this after finishing his bucket though so I’m not sure he felt it until the next day haha!
For some strange reason, we then decided to go to a piercing parlour where three of us ended up getting nose piercings, tragus piercings and a few others... why you ask? Why not! What a strange night!
Luckily no one ended up throwing up so I would say quite a successful night! It was a lot of fun!
29/04/19
Introducing the 3rd day on the Phi Phi Islands where 3 out of the 5 of us were hungover. And guess what? It wasn’t me!
After a leisurely morning, we decided to rent kayaks for the day and paddled over to a place called Monkey Beach. This is the time by which Megan and I discovered we actually sucked at kayaking as we were so much slower than the others in our double kayak.
Luckily the weather was slightly cloudy so we weren’t roasting in the sun like we would have been the day before.
When we’d finally managed to paddle to Monkey Beach, I hadn't even properly got onto the beach and was pulling the kayak in when of course a monkey jumped straight onto my boat and STOLE MY WATER BOTTLE! And of course, tips it all over the floor because monkeys don’t have an appreciation for water! What is with monkeys stealing my water bottles!
The beach was deceivingly beautiful for its naughty residents...
It was funny watching people’s belongings and bottles getting taken by the monkeys. I kept a close grip on mine otherwise I’m sure I wouldn’t find it funny if my stuff was taken after my water bottle was already gone!
Of course, like all the places we have been to, the monkeys enjoyed posing for the camera...
After all the fun, we got back in our kayaks and paddled further out where we found a place to tie them whilst we swam and jumped off the boats. And some people decided it would be funny to capsize the boats.... not ideal! It was a lot of fun chilling on the water where it literally felt like a bath. A far cry from the English sea!!
We headed back to the shore later in the afternoon and all went out for dinner. I had a delicious green Thai curry with tofu! Afterwards we had a chilled night of playing cards and listening to music. However, due to our hostel being a party hostel (never again as you can’t escape) the walls were vibrating from the bass of the music in the bar... so of course we just put our music louder to drown it out! It was a chilled and relaxed way to end our Koh Phi Phi experience!
Next stop: Koh Lanta!
- A
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