After Koh Phangan and the Full Moon Party, we hopped back on the mainland and switched from the Eastern Gulf to the Andaman Coast. Everyone talks about how beautiful Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) is and that was where we wanted to go on the Andaman side. In order to get to Phi Phi we had to drive to Krabi and catch another ferry from there, but as things always seem to go in Thailand we arrived at the port well past the time of the last ferry. As we jumped out of the van at the port, there were tonnes of Thai hustlers yelling at us “you need a place to stay? My friend, my friend good price for you!” Tired from the long day of travel, we decided to look at these brochures and choose a place to sleep for the night, with plans to resume going to Phi Phi in the morning.
Oddly enough the place that we chose to stay was called the N.S. Mountain Resort and had a full on cowboy bar in the middle of nowhere. It was no surprise however, that the only other people staying there were Canadian (2 German girls too, but they don’t count). Animal heads mounted on the wall, staff with cowboy hats, yep that would draw Canadians in wouldn’t it. We arrived at a dude ranch in the dead of night, with a man we just met, in the middle of nowhere. Visions of a slasher movie were galloping through our minds, but we were more than thrilled when the escort to our room revealed a spacious, clean, comfortable, poolside room. In fact considering that this place was a bargain price of 500 Baht ($16 Canadian) a night, we couldn’t be happier and settled in for some much-needed sleep.
Kayaking
The next morning we woke up with the best intentions of heading to Koh Phi Phi, but the hotels hustler wasn’t letting us go that easily. The before you knew it he had us convinced that Koh Phi Phi was just too expensive to go to and he could arrange diving, kayaking, and ocean tours here, with the bargain price for our room attached. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that we kind of got “lost” here for a few days. In fact, every single day we tried to leave we were reassured once again that this was a terrible idea and wound up right in our room again. After having a Aarissca team meeting we decided that if we were going to stay in the twilight zone then we might as well make it worth while and planned to do a few things.
On day 2, we woke up early and met our tour guide at the front desk to go kayaking. For the tour we went around a few of the limestone islands, into a couple of bays, through a mangrove forest and peaked into a cave or two. Some of these areas were tight and tricky because they aren’t always accessible as the tide plays security guard. Since the tide was still high we were, barely, granted access in and we’ll let you decide on who was the kayak master to get Aarissca out of this conundrum. Maybe say who you think it was in the comments section, and we’ll reveal the hero in the next blog post. We can give you a hint though, ONE of us continued to spin us in circles, and whine how sore their arms were. The other was the master of kayaking and made sure to proclaim “look how good I am at this! I’m the best!”
After we managed to kayak back to where we started the tour, there was some refreshments and once they were done we headed back to our hotel. Our plan was now to try to head over to Phi Phi with the rest of the afternoon left in the day, but again this plan didn’t come to fruition. Later in the afternoon we decided to take a day trip and hopped on a boat from the pier by our hotel a nearby island named Railay. The cool thing about Railay is it’s connected to the mainland, but it’s not. There are sharp limestone cliffs that separates the two and make it impossible to get to here by land, so now it’s only accessible by boat. A short 20 minute long-tail boat ride (our first on the trip) later we set foot on Railay Beach, ahoy matey! Starving for both food and a sunset view we walked from the East beach where we were dropped off to the Western facing beach.
Sunset At Railay Beach
Being a small ‘island’ we didn’t have much choice once we got on the West beach and just did ennie, meanie, minnie, moe with a little bit of which one is busy. Shortly after we finished eating a fork in the road came up. Do we catch a boat back now and beat the late night hike in price or take in this sun set fully? Feeling naive and like high rollers, catching the rest of the sunset with some deep-fried ice cream was our choice (Aaron is now hooked). Once we were tired out, we walked back to the Eastern beach to hail a boat but the story didn’t go that way. We walked up and down the Eastern beach to find anything that floated that was heading back to our pier, but there was nothing. Eventually a resort worker informed us there were no boats here and nothing was probably coming to the island. He did mention a resort boat for the workers was coming, but was not sure at what time, and that we could catch a boat on the West beach to Ao Nang still… probably. With that being our only option, off we trekked back to where we caught the sunset in hopes of finding a boat to Ao Nang and then a cab back to our resort.
Once we got to the other beach we saw a taxi boat docked in the water, so we promptly started looking for its captain. Eventually we found him in a bar, half cut and eager to charge us out the ears for our misfortune. The drunk sailor wanted us to wait for more passengers and more beer, so he said just wait on the beach for a bit. We waited on the beach alright, if wait means running back to the one on the opposite side. Hoping for the last time, we made the walk to Eastern Beach to try and find a fluke boat or the resort one. When we got to the beachone half of Aarissca went to buy water, while the other half kept watch. Not a 100% sure, at the time, but there was something in the distance that resembled a boat that we needed to check out. Off we sped walked to the other end of the beach with our fingers crossed. Quickly we started asking everybody around the tractor (the tide is so low they carry people by tractor to/from boats at night) “where is this boat going?” Everything was peachy it was going to where we needed, except it was a staff only boat. After some discussion among the security guards and a few of the staff they said we could get on. Phew! That was a big relief! Once we got to the pier we gave the boat driver a big thanks (and our luck the ride was free!) and walked back to our dude ranch resort to crash.
Boat on The Water By Phi Phi Don
The following day, we made our way to another pier in Krabi to catch a ferry to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee). We were going in blind with no place to stay, until we broke down at the ferry terminal and booked four nights online at the PP Natural Resort. The ferry ride was about 2 hours long and 350 Baht a person. The ferry arrived at Tonsai Bay on Phi Phi Don (Koh Phi Phi is actually 6 different islands) and right off the boat they charge you 20 Baht to keep the island clean. Which you will notice is probably true, the island is better looking then Miss USA. We knew our resort was located on the most northern tip of Phi Phi Don and was only accessible by long-tail boat. So when one driver said 1,500 Baht to get to our resort we choked. Seeming like a lot we looked around to see if anybody else was going where we were. Eventually we pulled out our change from the keep Phi Phi clean fee and said 960 Baht is all we have. He reluctantly accepted and got his boat ready.
A 30-40 minutes long tail ride from the main pier and we were at our new place of residence. The boat dropped us off on the opposite side of the beach as our resort and we had to walk a good 500 meters to the resort. Once we got the PP Natural they greeted us with a juice, cold towel and the bags off our shoulders. This resort isn’t the nicest on the beach (Zeavola or Holiday Inn are), but it is still nice and has a lot of amenities and is less expensive. Once we got all checked in, we got into a golf cart and went to our bungalow. The place was nice, big, and private. The decor was a little dated, but wasn’t a big negative at all. That evening we went out for supper and had great pasta dinners on the beach in candle light.
Taking a Lunch Break From Diving
For our first full day, we slept in past the free breakfast buffet, did a bit of snorkeling off the coast, swam in the pool and oh yeah booked a diving trip for the next day(which Aaron did not want to do at all but Jessica made him.) We opted to try diving in the resorts pool the following morning in order to get the nerves out safely. Learning the hand signals, how to clear your mask, operating your BCD (Buoyancy Control Device), clearing your mouthpiece, etc in the pool also. The best part of this was the totally rad underwater hight five the instructor gave you when you did it right! We even got to witness some wildlife in the pool on our first dive as their was a dead giant crab sitting at the bottom. After that, we loaded up a long tail boat with all the gear and headed to the Northern tip of Phi Phi Leh to do a couple dives. On both dives we saw lots of fish, coral, artificial reefs, giant clams and eels. The seas were really rough that day (our boat just about flipped heading back). The hardest part was getting into the water because you had to hold onto the edge of the boat and jump in, with a weight belt on and hold on for dear life that you didn’t sink untill your gear was tossed into the water and was put on you to cause you to float. But we had a great time, so great, we booked to dive again the next day when we got back.
Scuba Diving on The Second Day
On day 2 of diving, we had a speed boat this time and about 10 people. However only 3 customers and 4 instructors were actually diving. We were going with the same gentleman as yesterday, Peang, and the rest were going with a German girl. I think people at this dive shop just look for excuses to go diving. We dove the same island as the day before, Phi Phi Ley, but did the southern part of the island in hopes of seeing turtles and sharks. Both dives this day were great, we hung around sea turtles for a good 20 minutes as the just swam around us and then hunted for sharks. We did manage to swim with some black tip reef sharks but when one came close to us Jess would swim over and grab the instructor to hide. Not exactly the bravest fish in the ocean. After our two days of diving we were probably better off doing our PADI or SDI (getting certified so you can dive up to 15 meters by yourself), but we only had two and a half days. Where it takes at least 3 to 4 days to complete the classroom time and dives for either PADI or SDI. Just a couple of notes on scuba diving in Thailand, Koh Phi Phi has a price freeze all dive shops comply with for getting certified, 13,900 Baht. Koh Tao on the Eastern Gulf Coast is where the most divers are certified world-wide. The diving there isn’t the best they say, but you can get a steal of a deal to get your PADI/SDI there. If we had a rewind button and more time we would have gotten certified in Koh Tao or Phangan, then head to Phi Phi and Similan Islands to dive a bunch of times for cheap.
One of Our Sea Turtle Friends
Later that evening we headed to the main pier on Phi Phi Don to meet up with Ian & Sheree, who we met in Koh Phangan, for dinner and drinks. Our first stop was for a drink at the bar formally known as Poo’s Bar, but now goes by Pu’s Bar. Pu was a really interesting guy and gave us a bunch of laughs all the way from the neck of the bottle to the bottom. Next, was finding a restaurant called the Orange House. Which we were all shocked Ian found, it was really tucked away far back. The lady who owns and cooks the food here is known as a crazy lady with a bunch of cats, but the food is to die for. The only gripe against the place is they don’t serve beer, so Ian and Aaron took care of that by borrowing the lady at the restaurants bike. Doubling up (and cradling each others male body’s oh so gently) on that tiny bike didn’t work what so ever, and Aaron just ended up biking to the store and back while Ian waited in the street. Convincing the store owner that Aaron can manage to carry ten bottles of the big Chang Beer on a bike took a bit, but 500 Baht ($16 Canadian!) later he was off to meet Ian and then back to the restaurant. Successful mission! Minus the gash on Aaron’s leg from the crash.
Once we were all full, we wandered around the town off the beach browsing here and there. Eventually we landed back at the beach at a place called Stones where we watched fire dancers. These guys were so much better than the ones on Phangan at the Full Moon Party. We thought the whole party scene here was more of our kind of party over the Full Moon actually. It’s an expensive little island, but we enjoyed it the most out of all the ones we went to. As the night went on we remembered the boat we hired was still probably waiting. We told them to wait for us till 10:30pm, but we’re having too much fun and kept on partying. When the night finally ended for us, we crashed on Ian & Sheree’s spare bed in their bamboo hut. Then the next day we all headed back to our resort so we could check out and take in some of the good snorkel right off our beach.
Hermit Crabs Hanging Out On The Beach
Then we all headed on the ferry from our resort that stopped at the main pier, so Ian and Sheree could get back to their place, while we carried on to Phuket. We arrived in Phuket late in the afternoon with no plan for the evening, just a plane ticket to Bangkok the next day. Sitting in the dock terminal finger dancing thru books to find a place to stay, we decided to head to Patong and finally just wing it. We whistled for a cab and when it came near he saw right through us and knew we didn’t have a place to stay. So he drove us to his uncle’s tourism shop where we booked a room for a really good price at the AO Mansion.
We got all checked and settled in then headed out to change over some more money (Phi Phi wasn’t easy on the pockets) and have dinner. After walking up the main drag a time and a half we decided on eating at a Korean BBQ restaurant. The food was good and really filled us up! After supper we went back to the hotel to catch some Z’s and eventually a flight; Or so we thought. The next morning we got out the door around 9am and proceeded to hound a cab to the airport down. After a lot of walking and bartering we finally got a cab for a not bad price.
Enroute to the airport we hit some bad traffic and it was now after 10am. So a little scared about our 11 am flight time we dug in the bag for our tickets and saw our departure was actually 10:20am…opps. Eventually we arrived at the airport at 10:30ish and proceeded to do the walk of shame to the ticketing office. We tried the sob story that our cab broke down on the way here, but we got no sympathy and had to pay a change fee. 2:30pm was the new time and needed no double checking. After killing a lot of time in the airport, meeting a couple Canadians and a couple hours of flight delays we finally broke the sky. The plan was to be in Bangkok for 2 full days, but now we had 1 and a bit. For the nights in Thailand we booked our stay at the Banyan Tree Hotel and boy was it nice. Bangkok has some of the top rated hotels in the world and they are cheap by North American standards. Whether it’s the roof top bar of Lebua, the unique experience of the Chakrabongse Villas, wicked infinity pool of the Hilton Millennium, the good nightlife at the Conrad or the world-class spa of the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok has something for your tastes.
Our package included a 90 minutes spa package, 2 free set meals at the restaurants in the hotel and access to the Banyan Tree Club. As you can imagine we were tired from packing our lives around every two days, a few shady places to sleep, and the life of a vagabond in general. It may sound fun but somewhere in between the bartering, living on a non replenished cash diet, adjusting, and then re adjusting, we were quite run down. This two night hotel heaven splurge was just what we needed. We were given refreshing towels, champagne glasses full of a mystery juice, and our heavy bags of burden were removed from our shoulders and we were escorted to a private check in lounge for the elite on the 19th floor. This place had everything! Smoked fish on crackers, chocolate mousse, jars full of all kinds of treats including chocolate chip cookies and m&m’s and FREE BOOZE!! In fact everything in this place was free for us big ballers, too bad our clothes made us look like we were invited here by a help the needy committee. In fact, by the way we were slurping down glasses of red vino and salmon carpaccio we defiantly looked shady… to say the least. Jess continued to repeat “have I died? Are we in heaven?” and Aaron was eating too much to even talk. The lady who escorted us up here was arranging everything for us as we enjoyed ourselves and then came over to hand us our complimentary tickets and to escort us to our room.
Located on the thirtieth floor, was our heaven. This room sported a bathroom larger than Aaron’s bedroom at home, no joke. It was contemporary in decor and the best part was a gigantic soaker tub with incense, bath oils, epsom salts, and a candle. I mean honestly, we had been showering over the toilet the entire trip. We actually had a bath tub. Incredible. The next two days, were fairly uneventful to tell our readers. We ate delicious food, snuggled, enjoyed a complimentary massage each, Jess had a pedi, and just really enjoyed spending some tlc together.
We only ventured out once to the largest farmers market in the world, the Chatuchak weekend market. This market was divided into sections, clothes, electronics, art, and pets. Yes that’s right, pets. This was the most disarming part of the market. Everytime we have seen a pet dog in Asia they have seemed a little, lets say, not right in the head, and at this market we found out why. The dogs here are smaller than any dogs we have seen in the world, obviously inbred from people wanting smaller and smaller versions and shady laws regarding animal rights in general. We both felt terribly sad to see a little pug with eyes on the side of his head instead of the front, and cages and cages full of pups crying for someone to take them home. We were not aloud to pet the dogs, or take pictures and after trying to pet one puppy a lady pointed to a posted sign that comically stated “no fingering the dogs.” We decided it was time to find our way out of this nightmare, which was a little easier said than done. Jess wandered to see them all, almost drawn to witness their plight but repelled at the same time. There was more than dogs here, turtles, fish, lizards, kittens, and flying squirrels to name just a few. Finally we wandered out of this maze and ended up on a street full of clothes. If you ever go to Thailand we recommend that you season yourselves with other markets before this one because even being avid market goers we were lost, overwhelmed, and cross-eyed by the time we found the exit of this place. In fact their was so much stuff here that we really didn’t purchase much at all. All the decisions and varying prices just made us want to run back to the hotel and crawl into a big ol’glass of wine.
So that’s exactly what we did, drank a glass a wine and looked out the window at the glittering night lights of the country we had come to love. Thailand had its hardships, and we can’t say that things always went the way we wanted them too. In fact some things in Thailand were downright confusing and frustrating, but as we were leaving our room with our packs on our back for the last time, we both had teary eyes. Neither of us wanted to leave this beautiful country, there were so many more things to do, more adventures to discover, more hardships and set backs to face, things we wouldn’t change for the world. Thailand opened our eyes to a different way of life, to accept being three hours late to everything, to plunge headfirst into a deep blue ocean, strapped with eight pound weights on our wastes, sink, and trust that whats below would be spectacular. It taught us how to let go and be free, to just enjoy whatever was thrown at us and to realise that in the end we had each other, and as long as we stuck together and looked after each other it would turn out somehow in the end. So in reflection and hesitation we caught our last cab to the airport, and had to giggle when the guy refused to take us the cheaper route and made us pay the toll fee for the “express highway.” At the airport we hit our final snag, the border police. Now don’t get carried away thinking we were drug mules or harbouring weapons. No we were just illegal aliens, having come to Thailand on foot from Cambodia we had only a 15 day visa instead of a 30 by air travel. So we were pulled out of line, had to pay a fee, and sign a ticket stating our 5 day over stay. Then with an empty wallet and shiny new stamp, we were set free to board the plane to India and leave our new home behind.
We are now safely in India and have no Internet, but keep with us, the next leg of our adventure will thrill and excite you, remember to leave your guess on who the kayak master was in the comments section below,
Thanks for reading!
-Aarissca
Abroad With Aaron 