Jeff's arrived down from Bangkok ready for a break away from work. As we'd had such a lovely time in Ko Phi Phi the last time we were there we decided that's where we'd go for a couple of days away.
It's easy booking the tickets and making all the arrangements. But don't get too impatient when the minibus that takes you to the boat is 45 minutes or more late. We were up at 6:30am, ready and waiting by 7:00am. The minibus decided to arrive about 7:40am. They had to hold the boat at the pier for us for 15 minutes. At least they held it, anywhere else I think it might just have taken off on time.
Knowing the accommodation is pretty slim on Ko Phi Phi we positioned ourselves to get off the boat first and made a beeline for the Pavilion Resort Bungalows. It was worth the effort. Once we checked in we returned to put our valuables in the reception lockers and at that point they were turning customers away because they were full.
Swimming on the beach again was just amazing. That evening we went in search of our favorite Beach bar. The bar is litterally on the beach, has straw mats set in the sand and candles lit to see by. Sadly it wasn't there anymore and worse, had been replaced by it's evil twin. Someone had taken the casual beach bar idea and spiffed it up, made it popular and destroyed the original idea and atmosphere.
Later on we ate at Salsa & Pepe and figured out a snorkelling trip for the next day.
To our surprise the next day the snorkelling boat was big. We'd expected a little speed boat, but this was comfy and the crew were great. We snorkelled off Monkey island, Phi Phi Ley. The visibility and coral reefs were not the best, but we did manage to snorkel through the Viking cave, timing the swim-through to co-incide with the waves crashing through the cave hole.
That evening we had dinner in the muslim district of Ko Phi Phi. Boy can they make hot (ie bird pepper hot) food. I could nearly see the steam coming out Jeff's ears. After dinner we sat at a new beach bar we found, had a Samsong set and watched the night crabbers at work.
The following day we rented some Kayaks and took off to do our own little snorkelling tour back to Monkey beach. This time we saw an absolutely huge Parrot fish, a really long Flute fish. In the evening we had Pizza, ice-cream and beer - what else!
The next day we made the reverse boat/minibus trip back to Patong. The boat trip was just gorgeous, sitting up on the top deck for the nearly 2 hours it took to get back to the mainland. However finding our minibus for the final leg back to Patong was pretty difficult. To find your minibus you gave the tour guide the village you were going to, he then shouted out the village name and the driver of the bus to that village raised his hand for you. But the tour guide guy was surrounded by everyone who had just got off the boat. Hundreds of people, it was utter chaos. We did get the right minibus finally and headed 'home' to Patong and the iNet Guest House.
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