We arrived in Koh Phi Phi at about 11, and it was thoroughly beautiful and thoroughly quaint. It's got a population of about 2,000, and it's entirely based around tourism - but despite this, it doesn't feel horrible and rammed. There are no high rise blocks of apartments, and the winding roads are just about wide enough for a motorbike and sidecar, but little else. Therefore, there are no tuktuks, few motorbikes and even fewer pushbikes. Everything is well within walking distance, and people tend to cluster around small areas on the island. Things get progressively more expensive the closer you are to the pier, but fortunately we were well away from that.
I am almost certain our accommodation had been sold to us on the idea that it was 600m away from the beach. It may well have been, perhaps on a map - but it was at least 20 minutes away from most things, up a steep hill, around three sides of a reservoir and beyond the "waste collection garden" - an ingenious solution to deal with waste, by planting flowers all over it - unfortunately, it doesn't conceal the smell at all and someone has scrawled "poo garden" on top of the engraved sign - so that was how we came to know it. When we reached a sign to our resort, we were ecstatic to finally be there... however, upon reaching it, we saw that each small bungalow was perched precariously on the side of a steep hill that was undergoing building works. Ours was 102 steps up roughly hewn steps with hoses and logs of wood scattered randomly around just hoping to trip you up. We fought our way up and got into what was actually quite a pretty room. The view would have been lovely if not for the thick trees obscuring our view of the two beaches. Oh well.
We soon grew to hate this room. There was no air conditioning, no hot water, no english language tv channels, an ants nest beneath one of the beds and ineffective mosquito nets. As a result, we spent as little time as possible there - but we still calculated we climbed up and down those 102 steps at least 3 times a day... over 600 steps! my poor calfs!
We went straight to the beach, which was glorious and beautiful, and had bbq'd corn on the cob - delicious :) then that night we went out properly for the first time in a while. There are reps with flyers like on every clubbing island in europe, so you know where to go. They drink from buckets here also, fairly dangerous amounts of alcohol, but kemi and I fancied ourselves hardened to their alcohol levels and threw ourselves into the spirit of the thing with a gusto. We went to the irish bar - as always, but they didn't serve guinness! We were appalled! And the 'girls night' playlist consisted of green day and guns and roses.. even more unimpressed. However, we met two boys - luke and jack, who we bumped into almost constantly until we left Ko Phi Phi, so that was nice. We ended the night in Stones Bar - a dubstep bar at the far end of the beach that kem and i went mental for. Most people end the night there, chilling out on the mats by the fire-adorned sand sculptures, but Kem and I were the last ones dancing as usual. Music finishes at 1.30 officially, but i don't think anyone was complaining. We sat under the pagoda and chatted to a group of lads from london until the wee hours and then returned home, exhausted but conscious that we'd had an excellent time.
The next day, we woke up late, grabbed ourselves some lunch and booked a tour for the next day. We figured that there was no time left to achieve anything real, so we decided to go to the viewpoint. People - and the guidebook - had warned us of the sheer effort required to get to it, but living where we lived, we thought we could handle it.
We did manage it. Just about. It was 186 metres above sea level - which is where we were! Pure, seemingly endless, steps going upwards relentlessly. After the 1st viewpoint, the steps peter out and you're left with a dirt track to the top. Such a mission! However, when we got there it was -very- pretty..not sure if it was pretty in equal measure to how hard it was getting up, but i'm glad i did it.
When we reached the bottom, we bumped into Luke and Jack from the night before, who were carrying a bag of bananas. We quizzed them on this, and they said there were monkeys near their accommodation and they were going to feed them. We tagged along, and indeed, there -were- monkeys. However, they swarmed around luke and jack, and i took the bag of bananas off them... then the biggest monkey snatched the bag of bananas from my hand and they all started growling at us. So. Scary. There was a french couple near us, and the man had the right idea, he was growling back and making himself big so that they would be intimidated. However, we were not so trained and instead just shrieked and ran away.. before cautiously returning.. and repeating. One smaller monkey seemed quite friendly with the boys, but its mother ran over and started screeching at them.. so we decided to flee, while we were still intact.
We returned home and had a nap before going out again.. this time we went to Reggae Bar - recommended by the guidebook - but while we were disappointed there was no actual reggae playing, there was a thai kickboxing platform in the middle, and people would get free buckets if they volunteered to fight in there with their friends. While Kem and I were tempted, we erred on the side of caution and watched everyone else instead. It was hilarious! We ended up at Stones again, and when we decided to go home, thailand decided to monsoon shortly after. Very uncool. You get used to the rain, but sometimes, at inopportune moments like those, it's still very very very annoying.
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