Phi Phi Island - Stop, Hammock Time!

After taking an overnight bus from Bangkok to Phuket (more on sleeper buses in SE Asia on a later post), we hopped a ferry to the beautiful Phi Phi Island (pronounced "pee pee"...hehe) in Southern Thailand. This was a much needed 5-day break from being on the move for the past 3 weeks - no cars, white sand beaches, and crystal blue water. We stayed in an awesome bungalow overlooking the bay outfitted with a hammock on the deck (see above). When we weren't on the beach or in the water, we were in this hammock, relaxing away the lazy days. 

Here's Duncan floating in the Andaman Sea, with Phi Phi Ley, another island, in the background (more on this later):

On our last day there, we decided to go on a snorkeling trip to Phi Phi Ley. Since we are on a strict budget of $75 per day between the 2 of us, we booked the cheapest tour which of course turned out to be the most bush-league tour. Our "guide" (but really just longboat driver) only spoke one word at each stop: "swim"; "snorkel"; "monkey"; "maya bay". Even though it was bush league, we got in some good snorkeling (albeit with terrible, dirty gear--Duncan's leaky mask caused him to lose a contact) and saw the main attraction of the area - Maya Bay. For those of you who don't know, this is famous for being the location where "The Beach" was shot - one of Leo's more dubious films. Instead of actually taking us to the bay, our "guide" dropped us off in a different bay and pointed 50 yards to a ladder which scaled a rock cliff out of the water and told us "walk 3 minute." Since we had to swim there, we could not bring our camera to document this beautiful place. But, we took a picture of a postcard:

But, it was probably better off we didn't get a picture of the real thing because it would have been spoiled by the thousands of tourists and boats (but not our boat) that get shuffled through there everyday. I guess we'll have to watch that movie now. 

One more thing about Phi Phi - this is a big place for honeymooners and apparently many foreigners like to take seductive pictures of their new wives in the shallow waters and on the bows of boats. And they don't seem to care that there are other people are around - I was embarrassed for them because swimsuit models they were not.

Pics:

Here are some gratuitous, artsy pictures to make you jealous:

Every night, the hippies of Phi Phi put on fire shows at the bars on the beach:

This is what happens when Duncan has too much time on his hands and finds a frog in the bathroom: