We got to the island of Koh Phi Phi from Koh Lanta by a nice 1.5 hour ferry ride. We walked off the pier and instantly knew this place would be much more lively than our last! There were tons of little shops and people wandering around everywhere so we were able to ask for directions to the hostel we'd booked. The island was a lot smaller than expected and the walk to Backpacker's was only about 15 minutes. The hostel was definitely a step down from Pinky's in Koh Lanta (but not the worst we would see...). We were put in a room lined with bunk beds, but only a couple other beds were already claimed so we figured it wouldn't be too rough and it wasn't. Once set up, we decided to go to the beach which was just around the corner from our hostel (actually it had a through way directly to the beach but we obviously didn't figure that out until way later).
Our first day wasn't very exciting, we just hung around the beach and ate but we made some friends with a group of Russians who we hung out with for a while and learned some Russian phrases that we can barely remember, except "Rasreef Moshka" or something that basically meant awesome or breathtaking which we were constantly saying about the island sights. Even better, they invited us onto their longboat to Maya Beach the next day :-).
Still being slightly jet lagged, we both woke up at 8 for our long boat excursion only to assume our Russian friends had left without us. We decided instead to walk up to The Viewpoint, but after breakfast we heard a knock and the Russians had just woken up and were making their way to the boat then. We joined them on the boat to Maya Beach where the movie "The Beach" was filmed... It was so beautiful but also incredibly crowded! We snapped some pics and swam and eventually headed back to the main island since the Russians had to leave at 3.
Once we parted ways, we headed back to the dorm and found that most everyone had been relocated into our room for some reason - but it turned out to be good for us since we made some more friends and tagged along for an eating contest that they were going to try. Lucky for us, we didn't even bother to try the eating competition because it consisted of a 3-patty (4 bun) with condiments hamburger that was about 9 inches tall, coleslaw, potato wedges AND onion rings in 30 minutes. A group of guys a table over from us somehow all managed to finish successfully, but the 3 people in our crew were extremely full at about the halfway point. Our Croatian friend, Pacho, managed to finish the burger and coleslaw, but didn't want to ruin his night by finishing up the "fries" and onion rings. (My vomit-phobia self was also grateful seeing as we were all sharing the bathroom in the dorm now too). Exhausted and full, we ended our night relaxing on the beach watching fire shows and sipping beers until we were too tired.
The next day we were ready to leave Koh Phi Phi to head to Ao Nang so we packed up our bags and headed up to the Viewpoint for one last photo op. Gary and Aoife accompanied us to the top of what felt like 95 stairs followed by a10 minute walk up a steep hill, but the view was pretty cool so it was worth it :)
Pacho was also leaving Koh Phi Phi so we all made the 3pm ferry to the mainland, on which we met another friend, Dustin, who joined us as well. The ferry ride was nice and a friend of Dustin's who played ukulele serenaded everyone for a little while!
