Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

The rain had stopped when we travelled to Ko Phi Phi from Krabi. We sat on the front of the ferry in the sun on our beach mat. It was lovely, untill a large wake from another boat splashed up and soaked everyone on the front of the boat. We stayed out on deck, and dried off quickly, so we didnt mind.

We had no where to stay on the island, but there were lots of touts to point us in the dirrection of cheap guesthouses. We walked across the town, and back abit from the beach. We found a good room, with fan and attached bathroom, for BHT 300 (NZD$12) a night.

We were in an area that wasnt really hit by the tsunami, but we had to walk thru an area that was being rebult to get to the beach. The main area on Ton Sai got pretty much destroyed, but its running fine now. There wasnt really anything that we thought was missing.

We stayed on the island for 6 nights, and spent the first day just relaxing on the beach with our books. On the second day we went kayaking around the island to monkey bay (yes there were monkeys) where we watched the monkeys and went snorkling. We arrived there early, and the monkeys were just sitting around cleaning each other and playing. It was great to be the only ones on the beach, because just before we left 3 boats of people arrived, and the monkeys came down to eat the fruit that they were given and pose for the tourists. It didnt look as nice as them hanging out and doing their own thing on the beach.

Abou the third day I (Tim) got sick. I had 2 nights and a day of nasty fever, and then a day of feeling very unwell and not eating much. During this time Rita had a chance to get some beauty therapy, but other than that we stayed in or near our room feeling gross.

Before we left we went for a day trip on a boat. The weather was windy, and the small boat that we had booked to go on couldnt sail. We went on a big boat instead. The sea was very rough, and lots of people (Rita included, who had started to get my illness) were sick, but when we got into the sheltered side of the island the sea was fine.

The snorkling at the first 3 stops of the trip were average (we did see a sea snake thou), but the 4th was amazing. There was so much interesting coral, and fish, and general sea life. And to make it all better there was a tropical downpour, so under water was really calm and when you came up there was deafening rain.
We did'nt get to go to Maya bay (aka The Beach beach) because of the wind which was a shame, but you can't win them all.

We thought that Ko Phi Phi was great, and would recomend it to anyone. The tsunami is no reason not to go. If anything its the reason that you should. The only downpoint is the amount of rubbish floating around and on the beaches. The locals do make some attempt to clean it up but the sheer quantities mean this is a huge job.

We left the next day, and had a very rough crossing to Phuket. It was unpleasant, especially because both Rita and I were still not feeling 100% before leaving.