World Tour The Idea of Travel, exploring other cultures, seeing the most vague corners of the world has been part of the human race. Here I am just following a dream.

Welcome to Thailand. The Thais are very friendly, either because they want to sell you something or because they are just nice. One shirt says "I don't want a Tuk Tuk, a massage or a fuckin suit. Very descriptive for Patong Beach in Phuket my first stop in Thailand.

Patong is full of tourists everywhere. Mostly Americans, germans and English men which are divorced or away from the wife looking for some time with young Thai Ladies.

Two streets are the main attraction of Patong, Bangla Road, where most of the bars and prostitutes are, and the beach road where little shacks are the shops on the sidewalk. Owners vary from thai to Burmese which crossed the border to try a new life. The shops sell a vague range of accessories; bracelets, fake watches snd tazor guns are just some of them.

Not the place I would like to stay for too long, so I booked a diving trip to the Similan Islands, Mentioned by many to be the best diving in country. The boat would not leave for three days, and staying in Patong was not an option, so I headed to Ko Phi Phi Island; paradise on earth.

Phi Phi (Peepee) is about one hour and 30 minutes from Patong Beach. It costs about 700 baht to go and come back in a arranged ticket by any of the many tour info places Keep in mind these tour places are not ran by the government, always bargain, even though most have the same prices. About 100 baht difference from one to another.

The ticket is the most advanced techonlogy in ferry tickets; it is some form of paper with some writing in Thai. That is exchanged by another paper, which then you are given a sticker to put on your shirt depending on the boat that you are going.Since not all tickets serve for all boats, make sure of the times for yours. The ferry conmpanies are private, if you have a ticket from one company which departs at 3 o'clock, you cannot go on the 1 o'clock one. The ticket costs about 350 baht oneway, not much more then the package.

Already in Phi Phi, hundreds of local come desperately offering accomodations, which tend to vary from 600 to 5000 depending on the season, if you look for the accomodations yourself, most likely it will be cheaper then getting at the pier. The same works everywhere else in Thailand, there are always rooms available, just be willing to look around.

Because of the intense competition of diving companies in such a small place, Phi Phi might have better prices then Patong for liveaboards. There are plenty of dive spots around Phi Phi as well, Similans are not the only option.

I did the mistake fo booking through the pier which costed me 100 baht extra on the regular rate of 800. The room was clean and spacious. The shower had a different odor at the beginning, but wither it would go away or I would get used to it. The smell is due to desalinated water; the island's biggest problem.

The guesthouse was on the side of the hill which is used for evacuation point for tsunamis. No extra charge for that.

At the gogeous beach, there are many full on restaurants and shacks facing the ocean. The shacks have amazing food and extremely cheap. One delicious local dish is the mango or papaya salad which will run you the whole amount of 40 baht ($1.21).

Then there is the extremely white sand which does not warm up as much as most beaches, not sure why, and the blue ocean. With all that it is still not the best beach. From there I took a long tail boat to Maya Bay, the beach from "The Beach". Enclosed in out of nowhere risen rocks, the beach is part of national park, a 200 baht per person fee  has to be paid on arrival. Camping trips are available from Phi Phi to Maya Bay even though they do not have tents. Interesting camping uh. In the back of the island there is a whole in the rock which takes you to the ocean, snorkling there is amazing, many kinds of fish in  all possible colors. From yellow boxfish to a bright red with purple mouth fish.

Back in the longtail boat we transversed to Monkey Beach, as the name says, there are monkeys around. Apart from that is a simple beach compared to Maya Bay.

Still on the works