Picking up where I left off..
We had booked our tickets to get a bus and ferry to Koh Phanang and were now waiting for a bus to take us on a 10 hour trip to the coast. Here we met a couple of Irish girls who it turns out will be on our flight to Perth from Singapore, its a small world when travelling! The coach journey itself was actually more comfortable than our flight to Bangkok, with large seats that reclined almost fully back and plenty of leg space. A couple of innapropriate films and some sleep later we arrived at Surat Thani, where the whole coach was unloaded and we seemed to be left in the middle of nowhere waiting for the next leg of the journey. Here we discovered that poor weather was preventing the passage of the ferry to Koh Phanang. Therefore we got swindled into continuing onto Koh Phi Phi, the other side of the country. Whilst in Surat Thani waiting for the next coach to arrive we were taken into a small Travel agents where we were pretty much massively mugged. We were convinced into booking a hotel for when we arrived on Koh phi phi, the pictures looked nice and the price sounded reasonable in our heads so we booked two nights. I was then taken off on the back of a moped to a near by cash point to complete payment for this booking, I couldn't help but feel slightly vulnerable! Soon after my return a battered old coach appeared to take us onto Krabi where we would get the Ferry across to Koh Phi phi. A short 2 hour coach trip, along some of the straightest roads we've ever been on, and a smooth ferry ride later we stepped foot onto Koh Phi phi. The weather wasnt brilliant, quite overcast, but the island still looked beautiful. On the pier we met a man from our hotel (Bamboo Mountain) who put our bags in a cart and walked us through the center and up the hill to our accomodation. The long walk and the room we were put in is really why we got completely mugged off when booking in Surat Thani, as it was a complete hole with no working shower and up miles of little steps..and we paid far more than we should have done. Once unloaded and in our beach gear we headed out to explore and find a beach. The center of Koh Phi Phi is small but very busy with lots of little alley ways and many many bars, restaurants, shops and tattoo parlors (tourist central..). We walked along the coast following a small path sign posted to "Long Beach". The path was a bit of a scramble of clambering up rocks, through small tropical woodland and across neighbouring little beaches and Hotels, quite an adventure in itself. Finally we arrived at Long Beach, settled down and relaxed, having a swim and beginning work on our tans (the weather had improved a lot since the start of the day). Once the sun started setting we headed back taking a bit of a shorter more direct route across the rocks on the coast, to get us back to our hotel, picking up a few Chang beers on the way. Here we begun what would be a bit of a ritual for the next few nights of having a couple of beers whilst playing a bit of gambling "Shithead" (a card game that seems to turn us into retards when playing, fun none the less). After a few hours of mayhem we headed into the center to check out phi Phi night life, which is awesome. A few buckets and some dancing on the beach later we were all safely tucked up in our mosquito nets.
Again time is short so will update the next few days of Phi phi soon....
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