Phi Phi island hopping

The ferry was at 9:30 am for about 2 hours. We, again, hadn’t booked any accommodation and once arrived in Phi Phi were bombarded with people promoting their hotel, guesthouse, hostel and whatever else that they had to offer. I can look at all the pics in the world of how a room looks but nothing will convince me until I actually see the place with my eyes. I want to see how it’s cleaned, how the sheets and walls look, check for bedbugs (it happens!) and all the other little things that really make me feel comfortable to stay there.

We walked about 10 mins along the path (there are NO cars here, such clean air!) and checked a couple of places before settling in one guestroom above a shop. For 20 euros a night we considered it a pretty good deal. Seaside, balcony, mini fridge, satellite television and nicely made up bed.

We had the day to choose anything we wanted to do.. and there seemed to be many options. First thing, we signed up to become certified PADI open water divers! It’s a 3 day intensive course that includes a half day in class, a contained dive in shallow water, and four open dives in the ocean. We bought the study book and vowed to read it over once we were back from the afternoon plan.

Next, we hired a private long tail boat and traveled to Phi Phi Ley, which is the scenic island just south of Phi Phi Don.

The day included a stop at monkey beach were tons of monkeys live and are visited daily by tourists. It was a scary experience since they are a wee bit aggressive!! If you get too close, they will run at you. Your only defensive is to run fast towards the water, since apparently they don’t like it much.

Mmm coca cola!

We then continued to a giant blue lagoon area where we swam in beautiful blue waters for a short while.

Next we moved to an area where we could snorkel and then we headed over to Ma Ya Beach where the movie called “The Beach” was filmed. It was beautifully scenic.

The day ended up being hugely exhausting and we made the mistake leaving the reading part of the dive course until 7pm… yea.. I was up until 12:30 am reading the text and answering the questions.

Tomorrow: Day 1 of dive school. Exciting!!

We found the sweetest bungalow on East Railey Beach for 900 baht per night which is the equivalent to about 18 euros a night. It was furnished nicely, warm and inviting. We would have stayed more nights but we were too anxious to move onto Phi Phi.

Our bungalow on Railey East

The night before we booked a day trip island hopping around Krabi that included chicken island, Poda island, Phra Nang beach and a couple of others. We visited 2 snorkel sites and enjoyed the incredibly clear water and all that was below it.

Chilling on the beach




A small crab and his hole

The day was amazing but the best part was where the tour ended – exactly where we planned to walk to that very day - Phra Nang beach, where we found a spectacular cave that we eventually explored when the tide went out around 5pm.
The sand was so fine that it was like walking on silk and the water was so clear that you could see 50 feet ahead of you easily.

Phranang Cave behind me

The weather has been fantastic. We are completely sunburned. Thailand is somewhere, imo, that every person should visit once in their life. I plan and hope that I can make it back here again in my life.

It’s nice to see that everyone around us is in our age group. We have met a ton of people while sitting at outdoor beach bars and overhearing that there are other Canadians around. It’s so easy to to about the trip, where we’ve been and plan to go. The interaction with the people really helps when choosing where to stay and what to do. I hope we’ve been an inspiration to others since we are super active every single day doing different things, booking tours and swimming in caves.

I’d like to know what the rooms are like though, for 300 baht per night (6 euros). I met a few people around who say they pay more that that, ever! I’m wondering, where the heck are you staying and what is the room like? One girl mentioned that they could hear rats running in the ceiling! We’re budget travelers but we’re not backpackers. We’re here for 2 weeks and calling it a holiday, not a lifestyle. Love me or hate me for it, but that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow morning 9am – ferry to Phi Phi Don Island. The main island of 3 ( I think) that is well talked about and listed in my 1000 places to see before you die book. Haha. Yes, I have that, and I’m not embarrassed either. I am curious to know what we will find there for accommodation since it is known to be more expensive even in low season. We planned not plan this trip. A first for me.. and even though it will take more effort to walk around and find a place to stay for the night, at least we know what the room is like before agreeing to the price. So far we’ve had a good experience implementing this concept and a bad one.

Moving on.

xoxo

Elephants in Ao Nang

Wakey wakey

The weather was looking good. We confirmed our elephant trip and invited Stacey and Giuliana who we met on the bus the day before. We rode in one of those pickup trucks with seats in the back box with the wind blowing through our hair. (Highly illegal back home.)

Stacey and I and the elephant.


mmm bananas

The elephants seemed pretty content. They weren’t being treated badly so I didn’t feel so bad riding on the back on one. Interesting ride.. to say the least. Very entertaining. The driver then dropped us off and gave us about 2 hours to hike up the the Huai Waterfall and swim. The water was too murky for me to swim but some of the others did… I really don’t like not being able to see the bottom unless I know it’s just sand.

Beautiful view of the waterfall.

After returning to the hotel we decided to get out of Ao Nang since the weather wasn’t great and the beach was crummy. The sea was too rough to rent canoes so we headed to Railey Beach. The deal is, get a cheap Long Tail boat ticket but you have to wait until there is 8 people to join the ride. We waited about 1.5 hours !!

It was worth it!

Railey Beach is beautiful. The long tail boat anchored because of the tide and we had to carry our luggage about 80 meters in the water over our head!

The last of the people coming up the beach carrying their luggage.

Railey West is the expensive side. We made our way over there for drinks on the beach that evening but stayed on the east side. Railey East in my opinion has far more character. Bars and whatnot all along the water. Even though the beach is nothing to look at and completely unswimmable, the atmosphere was calm and relaxing. With cushions on bamboo bars, just lay around with drinks and watch the sea and long tail boatmen going by and by.

Dancing in the moonlight

Sunday’s idea was to tour the surrounding islands but we hadn’t made any reservation yet. We just thought to hire a long tail boat and go on our own. UNTIL, just before closing time we stumbled across a little travel agency and bought tickets for 8 euros each for a full day tour around 4 islands.

Oh, forgot to mention that we found the cheapest ever backpacker hostel… so cheap that we hated the room. It was dark and creepy and luckily the price was cheap otherwise we would have felt ripped off. I was afraid of spiders crawling down onto my head while I slept… I would have felt safer from the bugs sleeping in a tent! We’re moving tomorrow to a place down the road. $20 for a private bungalow with air conditioning and television. DEAL! We’re budget travelers but not backpackers. We’re on a 2 week holiday, not a 3 month trip so we can spend a wee bit more on a room that is clean and bug free ;)

SO much more going on but impossible to write about it all.

Ao Nang

Our first day in Thailand and it’s news to us that it’s rainy season… just kidding. I knew that. I was prepared to deal with some intermittent rain..

Rainy season

Our flight was smooth sailing, er flying, from Bangkok to Krabi. I had called our hotel (not confirmed booking yet) on how to get from the airport down to their place. The [lady] on the phone explained to get on the “white” bus out front of the airport and show the driver where to go, and he will bring you here.

I asked, which “white” bus and she said there is only one. OK.
We saw the white bus, paid, and boarded. Then the driver asked where we were going… not to that area.. at all! So we went with it and after a long and confusing conversation on the phone with them (the mysterious lady was nowhere to be found) I hung up a little frustrated.
After arriving quite far from the original location and meeting two lovely girls on the bus we walked around a bit and priced different hotels in Ao Nang beach area. We ended up in a tourist information office and booked a room for 30 euros a nite.. not bad, but over our budget.
Right next door we found a place for only 15 euros a night and we plan to move in there tomorrow night. Also free internet, which I can’t say for this place.

Oh ya, the rain. It’s raining. We got our bathing suits on and headed for the beach. It was low tide so the water was waaaaaaay down there.. yea.. on our way down to the water the sky got increasingly darker. Then.. (sound pouring rain) -that went on for a while.

On the beach at low tide.

Beers!

We are now on our way to an all you can eat BBQ dinner for oh, $3 each. We are crossing our fingers for the rain to slow down since we’ve booked an elephant ride and waterfall visit for tomorrow morning.

-update – after the bbq we stopped by a bar across the street. I already knew that the sex industry in this country is huge.. but having never seen it before, well, this bar was a big eye opener. Good times though. We sat and had beers before we hit the sack.. played jenga with some local girls and watched as foreign men got their rocks off. Pretty ew actually but it’s good to see how it wall works here.

Hunter Bar! Lady boys anyone?

That’s all for today.

xoxo

Just arrived

I am gonna try try try to update daily..

Our flight from Shenzhen to Bangkok was at 11 30pm and arrived at 1 15am. I had no idea that Thailand is 1 hr back so the flight was a bit longer than expected. Doing the math will show that I am actually writing this at 4am.. so it's gonna be short!

Smooth flight on AirAsia. Cheap seats.. only 30 euros each, a real steal! I have to admit that the seats felt a little more cramped than usual. My knees don't often touch the seat in front of me when I am sitting at a 90 degree angle. Budget airlines.. sheesh.

The hotel we are staying at costs 15 euros for the night and I read all about how people thought how clean it is. And it is! It's beautiful actually.

There's a balcony, several English tv stations, free internet, free water and free breakfast.. plus free airport pickup. yay! Thanks tripadvisor and sawadee.com

That's a wrap for tonight. Time for some sleep... getting up in the morning at 8am to enjoy free breaky and then back to the airport for the connecting flight south to Krabi, where the beach is at.

xoxo