I left Phuket at lunchtime and took a coach down to the port where I boarded a boat set for Koh Phi Phi Don. The journey was about two hours but sat on the top deck in the sunshine meant the the trip flew by - especially with such a gorgeous backdrop.
I met several people during the journey who would become good friends during my time on the Island. A Canadian named Scott in Phuket and David and Trinidad from Geneva. As the boat circumnavigated the cliffs of the island we were all left speechless as the main town came into view. It really was paradise. Scott and I agreed to find a hostel and then meet David and Trinidad for drinks that night. We settled upon staying at a Hostel called The Rock. A past guest had written on the dorm wall 'You don't leave The Rock, you escape' - they were not wrong. It was 300 Baht for a dorm room - 6 pounds and that was arguably too much. We used the place to simply pass out after drinks that night then the next
morning packed up our stuff and moved to a much nicer hostel and a twin room for the same price.
The Island on the other hand is spectaculor. It is, without doubt, the most beautiful place I have ever been, though there is a large amount of building work going on, some of which is the recovery from the devastating tsunami.
As Scott's Canadian friends had turned up earlier my second day on Phi Phi was spent on one of the more popular beaches with the group throwing a frisbee around and playing football before we met up with David and Trinidad for drinks that evening. Ton Sai on Phi Phi is basically a holiday resort, not too dissimilar to a Greek or Spanish island, and the party goes on late into the night. We sat on the beach and watched the fire dancers and relaxed till the early hours.
After having had spent the previous day sat on a crowded beach I decided that my final full day on Phi Phi had to be spent exploring more of the island.
David and Trinidad had decided to move to another hotel on the opposite side of the island, so I went with then in their taxi boat to the beach of their new hotel - this location was staggering. Tucked away in a private cove the beach was paradise and within minutes I was sat in a hammock and reading a book in the shade. We spent the day relaxing in the shade and snorkelling in the coral reef metres off the beach. There were such beautiful fish and marine life it was a great experience for just 50 baht.
I said my final goodbyes to David and Trinidad after dinner and then decided to not take a taxi boat back to Ton Sai but to walk to the viewpoint on my way back to the town. To get there from the beach meant trekking through the forest and up the mountain but it was worth the hard work and sweat for what waited for me at the top. I arrived at the viewpoint 10 minutes before sunset and soon the sky exploded in colour. A moment I will never forget.
The walk back to town from the viewpoint was easier - the islanders have kindly installed a path and steps - and I headed out for my final night on the island with the Canadian guys and a couple of girls from the UK, Jenny and Suzanne, that we had all met the previous day.
The next morning I was up early and on the boat back to Phuket where I would be catching my flight to Bangkok. Koh Phi Phi is somewhere I will never forget and count myself lucky that there was not one drop of rain the whole time - something the others had not been so fortunate with during their travels across Southern Thailand.
