Koh Phi Phi

Wow! That's how I can sum up my time in Koh Phi Phi. Along with beautiful, amazing, and wild. One thing you need to know about Koh Phi Phi island is that it is a backpacking tourist destination for younger people. Yes, the occassional family and older couple were spotted but the island is infested with young backpackers. When you combine beautiful beaches, bars, and some kick ass partying why wouldn't you want to go. And that's exactly Phi Phi's purpose. During the day scuba diving, snorkeling, boating, kayaking, shopping, and laying on the beach are just a few of the activities Koh Phi Phi has to offer. During the night, however, the beach turns into a dance floor, bars turn into clubs, and the streets are packed with drunk tourists looking for a good time.

It was amazing not only to be in Koh Phi Phi but to spend it with friends as well. I got to meet up with Caroline, Chris's sister (Swedish exchange student Chris), who is studying in Singapore. She brought along her friend Halvar who was studying in Singapore as well but originally comes from Norway. Halvar brought his friend Andrea who is also from Sweden.  Unlike Caroline and Halvar who took an exchange program through school, Andrea took a year off for traveling. She went to India for two months, stopped in Penang, and Singapore before coming over to Thailand. She has plans to do some traveling around Thailand before heading over to Vietnam, and is actually going to come visit me in Kamphaeng Phet to experience authentic Thailand.

 So the beginning of my trip to Koh Phi Phi didn't turn out that smoothly. I had plans to meet Caroline and her friends at the pier and it was estimated they would be there before ten since their plane would arrive at nine ten. After waiting until half past ten I tried calling Caroline only to receive an instant message in Thai which I didn't understand. I tried numerous combinations for the area code and even texting her. At 10:40 I started to panic since they had started boarding the boat. At this point I had come to three conclusions 1. Caroline and her friends had gone to the other pier by mistake 2. I could wait for them and take the next ferry at 2:30 or 3. Get on the eleven o'clock ferry and meet up with them on the island at some point in time. I decided to take option three and just as the boat was taking off I turned around to find Caroline walking toward me.

After a two hour ferry ride we finally arrived to Koh Phi Phi island where we were automatically charged a 20 baht entry fee for "keeping Koh Phi Phi clean." I think it's a load of rubbish and just a scam to get more money out of tourists. That's the first thing you notice about Koh Phi Phi is how it is designed for tourists. Clothing shops, souvenir shops, electronics shops, diving shops, Bamboo tattoo shops, and a large assortment of restaurants all ready to cater to any tourists needs. I swear people just come to Koh Phi Phi for the Bamboo Tattoos.  Another touristy thing about Phi Phi is its ridiculous high prices. Ridiculously high for Thailand at least. It was actually quiet funny cause the locals are so used to foreigners that when I spoke Thai they were absolutely shocked. Sometimes it even took them a minute to figure out what I had said since they were still thinking in English.  I actually managed to get a huge discount on a shirt since I bargained in Thai.

The one really nice thing about Koh Phi Phi other than the beautiful scenery is that there are no vehicles on the island. The locals get around by bike which at times can be a bit of a pain, especially when the street is filled with pedestrians. They make sure to ring their bell or make some other noise indicating they are coming but sometimes you end up doing the tango with them since you don't know which direction they are going to go. The only motorized vehicles on the island are two police scooters which are patrolling around occasionally. Another interesting fact about Koh Phi Phi is that there are a lot of cats. Hardly any dogs, if any but an abundance of cats which are all in really good shape.

Once we arrived on Koh Phi Phi a guy from our hotel was waiting on the pier to take our luggage and lead us to our hotel.  Our luggage was put into a wheelbarrow like cart which he pushed along.  All of us were pre-warned from online reviews about the fact that we were going to have to hike up a few hundred stairs to get to our hotel.  We were not mislead I can tell you that.  Staff was kind enough to walk our bags up the few hundred steps to our rooms and we were greeted with refreshments which were desperately needed.  All of us had a positive attitude towards the stairs.  Even though there was many we got a spectacular view of the island.  We were also in the evacuation area which gave us all peace of mind while sleeping at night.  Caroline, however, used the stairs as an excuse to eat more dessert.

Day Two: Was spent touring from one beach to another in a long boat.  It was a good day but would have been that much better if it hadn't had rained the entire time.  Along with the rain we had huge waves which insisted on splashing us.  The boat wasn't the greatest and I feared a few times that we might capsize.  It happened that one of the guys broke a board while getting in the boat and I popped one out of place while getting out of the boat.  You would think they would screw the boards down, but no.  Also we had a guide who didn't speak a word of English but answered our questions with hand motions.  Even though it rained it was still extremely beautiful.  I loved the color of the water and the rock formations.  We stopped numerous times to go snorkelling.  Bamboo and Long beach, also known as shark point, had the best snorkelling.  There was a wide variety of colorful fish and enormous amounts of coral, however, we had to watch where we got out of the boat at long beach since there was tons of spike balls (I have no idea what the official name is) around.  Also the fish can get hungry some times and may bite you.  I think I got bitten about seven times during my stay on Koh Phi Phi.
Koh Phi Phi is made up of two Islands, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley, which are only accessible by boat.  Phi Phi Ley is famous for Maya beach where the movie "The Beach," which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed.  Maya beach is surrounded by impressive rock formations, has extremely fine sand and crystal clear waters.

Apart from snorkelling we went to Monkey beach.  As its name suggests this beach is the home of a few dozen monkeys.  When visitors arrive they wade out into the water looking for food.  They can become very competitive with each other and there was a few fights which broke out during our stay.  The monkeys even attacked one guy when he got to close to the babies in the tree.  All I remember was turning around to him yelling and rolling in the sand with a handful of monkeys chasing after him.  Once they had pushed him a safe distance away from the tree they started to head towards me.

At the time the guy was getting attacked I was photographing a monkey sitting up in the tree sucking on a branch.  When I witnessed the monkeys attack I started heading back to the boat which  was in the cross roads of the angry monkeys.  As a few of them started running towards me I yelled "Hey!" at the top of my lungs, praying that would scare them off, as I continued to casually walk back towards the boat.  Yelling at them caused them to stop running but they continued to approach me.  One monkey grabbed onto my dress and just stood there looked at me, as if trying to determine if I was a threat or not.  I made it back to the boat safely just as another boat with a group of people arrived.  A monkey actually climbed aboard their boat in search of food, terrifying a few passengers.

Even though May on Koh Phi Phi is the winding down of the high season the island was extremely busy.  We managed to break away from the crowd that followed us in the morning.  Even though the day started off ridiculously slow due to the transfer of boats and we had the misfortune of the motor getting stuck in the rope, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Once we got back to the main part of the island the sun finally decided to show up.  We decided to relax and enjoy the last few rays of sun for the day and watch the sun set.  After we had all showered and gotten ready we went to the Banana Bar, the only bar on Koh Phi Phi which overlooked the town.  We ordered two buckets which we shared amongst the four of us.

Later on in the evening a guy named Troy asked to come join us at our table.  Troy actually came from Calgary where he works in a snowboarding shop.  He came to Thailand to do some backpacking but has only been to Koh Phi Phi so far.  He loved the island because of the party life and didn't want to leave due to it.  

Day Three:  Caroline unfortunately had to leave today so that she could catch her plane ride back home the next morning.  Again it decided to rain but quickly cleared up once Caroline was about to leave.  Due to the terrible weather we decided to go to the spa.  Caroline and I both had a manicure and pedicure done since they were having a special where you could get both for 300 baht, which is ten dollars in Canadian.  Halvar decided to pass on the manicure and pedicure and have a massage instead.

Since the weather had cleared up by the afternoon Halvar, Andrea, and I spent some time sun tanning on the beach.  One we felt that we had had enough sun for the day we went and bought ourselves some buckets for the evening.  We had a pre-party up in our hotel room which involved drinking card games and listening to some tunes.  Three hours later and Halvar was drunk and we were all hungry.

As we were heading out to find some place to eat we ran into a guy named Michel which Halvar started talking too.  Apparently Michal and his friends were having a private party at their hotel and asked us to join.  As we were wandering around looking for a place to eat we again ran into Michal this time with his friends. After introductions were made they recommended we go to the restaurant called "Little India"and told us once we were done eating that we should come join them in theie hotel room for some drinks.  And thats exactly what we did.
For the evening we hung out with Luna and Tim (bestfriends from the Netherlands), Michal (Czech Republic) and Tobin (aka Mr.Spoon) who says he comes from the Universe.  Tobin is as hippy as you can get.  He believes in the power of the people and that governments should be abolished.  When we first met him he introduced himself as Mr.Spoon and presented one from behind his ear.  He kept the spoon with him the entire night even when we went down to the beach to party.  We had a blast sitting around and talking with all of them.  Tobin and Michal were pretty drunk as was Halvar which kept us entertained the whole evening.
Once we got kicked out of the hotel for being too noisy we went down to the beach to party.  They always have huge parties on the beach at night.  They first start out with a fire show which is performed by the locals.  After that though its a free-for-all dance party.  It was an amazing night!  I got drunk off the atmosphere.  I absolutely loved dancing in the sand and Luna and I even danced in the ocean for a while.

The only thing I hated about the evening, was older folks trying to pretend they were young again.  They weren't fooling anyone and just made themselves looked like idiots.  Also some of the local guys hung around trying to pick up drunk females which disgusted me immensely.  A few tried to dance with Luna, Andrea, and I but we walked away instantly.  I had a guy who tried to pull me in for a kiss but I was saved by Tim who quickly dragged me away.
Other than the occasional person everyone was pretty civil.  By the end of the evening Michal was found passed out on one of the bars, Tobin was preaching free will to the moon, and a girl was being carried back to her hotel by her friends, since she had passed out.