The ferry from Phuket to Koh Yao Noi was not so much of a ferry as a longtail boat, crammed with about 10 wooden benches and anything else you could possibly imagine (including a washing machine, some really big potted trees and the post lady). It took about 1.5 hours and took us through some lovely beautiful karst cathedrals, which basically cover the whole area. When we arrived at the Pier there were pick up trucks lined up to take people to different parts of the Island. We asked to be taken to the cheap guest houses, and got dropped off on the strip along the beach. The first guest house we walked into had 500 baht rooms, but another couple had got there just before us, so we were offered the 800 baht room. As the bags were really heavy and it was about 1pm, and approximately 35 degrees we agreed to take it for the night and look for something else. The room was amazing, much more luxury than we have been used to, and absolutely massive.
We dropped the bags and headed straight to the beach for lunch, to be greeted by the following view.
We then trailed up the beach to find cheaper accomodation, and we found Yack @ Coconut Corner. We picked up the bungalow for 500 baht (going down to 400, depending on how long we stay) Its really lovely, everything works, there is a decent mossie net, and a little makeup shelf with mirror (what more could a girl need?)
Koh Yao, is a pair of islands Yao Noi and Yao Yai, local legend says that the strait between the two islands was created when a very angry Naga – Sea Dragon – crashed through on his way to Krabi to see his fiancee being married to someone else. For centuries it has been believed that the two islands were populated by Chao Lay people, also called Sea Gypsies – nomadic groups who travelled from island to island for fish and other seafood.
The island is basically a jungle with a tarmac/ dirt road all the way round, some of the jungle areas have been cleared for rubber farming, which along with fishing is the main industry. Below is the latex being collected from the trees, they then roll them into these mats, and sell them to Mr Goodyear amongst other people.
The last few days have been spent walking around the island exploring, there is loads of wildlife. Note - Mum & Amy, I would skip the first photo!
We have seen about 4 big lizards of varying sizes, but this one was the only one kind enough to hang around for photos. I also met a very obliging praying mantis, who stared at me for abou 5 minutes, quite unnerving!
Craig nearly stepped on a small green snake one day, and i have never seen him jump so high, but it moved far to quick to get a photo. This is one member of the family of geckos that try to eat the mossies in our shack.
There do seem to be quite a few monkeys on the island, we can hear them behind the shack all day. But when you go to approach them, they do run off. I am not suprised as we have seen a guy driving in town with two in a cage on his motorbike. Also in Koh Phi Phi there were about two or three that were dressed up every day and taken round to tourists for photos. I am finding that quite difficult to deal with as well as all the homeless puppies and kittens that seem to be everywhere.
We hired a kayak for the day and headed out to a island not far offshore
The island was postcard picture perfect and as we got there early in the morning we had a couple of hours before a couple of longtails turned up. The snorkelling was dissapointing, we have since been told that there is too much silt in the water because of the mangroves all the way round the island, Yao Yai also. But there were plenty of things to see in the shallows, and lots of lovely shells to look at.
Whilst we were sitting having lunch on the beach a really big monitor lizard (6/7 foot), walked past behind us, as soon as we saw him he ambled straight up the hill into the centre of the island, he was quite a sight. On the island there is a little area that is perfect for camping, with a little hole for a fire and lots of trees to hang hammocks from. That sounds like a plan for a night or so!
The houses are all built on stilts and apart from the rubber farming and fishing, coconut farming also seems to be everywhere, along with pineapples.
Of course with all that activity, we have had to spend a couple of days lying on the beach, and the beaches are really picturesque, but they are really rocky so not so good for swimming.
I think my butterfly photo taking skills are improving, these are a few of what we have seen so far.
Last night Craig performed his good deed for the day. Two german ladies came out of their hut screaming can someone get rid of the Cacalaca's in our bathroom. Craig went to help and i went because i wanted to know what a Cacalaca was, it turned out to be a cockroach, well two very small cockroaches!
The next few days we will be taking it easy waiting for Elliott to get here on the 15th. We then plan to go back to Koh Phi Phi for a couple of nights, then onto Koh Tao and then probably Cambodia. But when travelling plans are very flexible, so we will see what happens........
On our first day in Koh Phi Phi, we pretty much wandered around the town and then down to the beach, in a bit of a daze i think. The island is amazing, the water is an incredible turquoise blue colour and the bay is very picturesque. Our second day was New Years Eve and we decided to take an early morning walk to Long beach to try out our snorkeling equipment for the first time. The weather again was not amazing, quite overcast and the sea was quite choppy, but we have both been well trained by Mum to enjoy the beach in this kind of weather so in we went. To be fair the visibility was probably not that great, but i could see fish and the bottom, and that was enough to have me very excited. We saw lots of different types of fish, although my underwater photo-taking and videoing skills definitely need some work. i wanted to put up some video but when i watched it back i was just swinging the camera all over the place everytime i saw a different fish. In the afternoon we walked up to the viewpoint which was 4km uphill, the heat in Thailand is very different to that in India, and it was a real struggle. But as always with these things once at the top is was well worth it.
For the evening the general plan seemed to be buy a bucket of drink (yes, a bucket, like one you use to build sandcastles with), and then wander around the different bars on the beach. It turned out to be a really nice evening, as one bucket lasted us all night and everytime the music got a bit rubbish you could move onto the next bar. There were fireworks going off all over the place, it was pretty chaotic. We left about 4am, once a lot of people started staggering all over the beach and jumping into the sea.
The following day we were pretty tired, so we laid in and then walked around town. We decided the next day to hire a kayak so an early night was in order. Up bright and early the next morning to collect our kayak at 8am, we set off out of the bay. All looked very calm and then as soon as we got around the top of the bay it got very choppy, i was determined that just round the next corner it would calm so we persevered for quite some way. After realising that we were not really making headway, and getting tired (and with the intense lecture my brother gave me before i left fresh in my ears) we turned back. We decided to visit a beach we had seen on the way out of the bay, which had been empty when we passed. Of course by the time we returned it was teeming with people and boats. I believe that we found Monkey beach, we moored ourselves to a rock off the shore, in a split through the rock. One of us had to stay with the boat, so i went down to have a look. The fish were 10 times better than what we had seen the previous day and there were so many of them. They were swimming all around me and there were so many different colours. Unfortunately i forgot to mention that our camera had broken the previous day so we were unable to take photos (I was not happy!). I also sustained my first snorkeling injury on my shin, by being pushed into a rock by the waves, only a little slice, but a reminder to be careful.
We then pulled into the bay and snorkeled where the tour groups were and again, there were so many fish, the sun came out and the visibility was fantastic. We rowed back out into the middle of the bay and ate our lunch with the longtails and some very nice yachts for neighbours. Needing to feel a little bit of dry land we then went straight across the bay to a deserted beach on the other side, pulled the kayak up on the beach and went off to explore. This turned out to be the beach where all the shells got washed up, so with our shell collector heads on, we set off. It was brilliant we found some really stunning shells (although there was one hairy moment, when i picked up what i presumed was an empty shell. I checked it and then after having it in my hand for a couple of minutes the little sod emerged and pinched my hand) , i will be sending these home to mum with my fingers crossed that they make it. After a very tiring day we headed back to the beach for a mojito (hard life, i know). That evening we watched some amazing fire dancers on the beach.
The following day (today) it rained so we spent the day researching where to go next and updating the blog.
Koh Phi Phi is a beautiful island with such dramatic scenery (the weather has been a little overcast hence the picture below), but i think most people done come here for that reason, the place is totally catered to tourists and the there are parties every night. For that reason it is very expensive, but i think well worth a look. With Elliott coming out to join us in 10 days, we have saved doing the more touristy things till then.
So next stop we have decided on Koh Yao Noi, after the expense and madness of Koh Phi Phi we need to save some money before Elliott arrives. It is meant to be a lovely quiet island with lots of snorkeling and exploring potential. We catch the ferry tomorrow morning back to Phuket and then straight onto another ferry to Koh Yao Noi.........
Ok so, you all know that Christmas was rub out as Craig was sick all the way through. Well he recovered by the 28th, enough to fly. We left our hut and went down to the road to hail a cab to the airport, for the first time ever we flagged one down straight away. He drove us about 500m and then jumped out and another guy jumped in, change drivers he said. We carried on and after about 25 mins (probably about a 3rd of the way to the airport), we became aware of a motorbike right up behind us revving his engine but not overtaking. So our taxi driver jumps out and goes off the on the bike, the bike man jumped in the cab and said new driver again - Only in India. When we got to the airport it was totally heaving, we had to stand in queue outside for about 30 minutes. I hadn't felt well all day, but without going into too much detail, i nearly passed out in the queue and was really quite ill. Eventually we made it inside and through to the plane with various stops for me to dash to the toilet to be sick (nice!). By this point i was not a happy camper and really not in great state to be flying but, the implications of not were too much to contemplate. We boarded and our pilot informed us that this was not a direct flight and we would be stopping after 45 minutes in Mumbai, for 2 hours! So we stopped we got off and then we got back on again. It was then 4 hours to Bangkok, which was also totally rammed. I had spent the previous 4 hours being sick and worrying about the Thai visa, in that we didn't have one and i had been told that you had to provide a lot of documentation to get the visa on arrival. Anyway after all that panicking, we were told we didn't need a visa and were waved through, interesting. It was then a five hour lay over where we had to collect our bags and re check in with a different airline. There are worse places to spend 5 hours as Bangkok airport really is an amazing sight, from the design, the size and the sights you see. We then boarded for the last time, i had by this point kind off lost the will to live! It was then 1 hour to Phuket, on arrival we had every intention of taking the bus to the hostel, but i just couldnt face it so we took a cab, which still took over and hour. The hostel in Phuket was really nice, but the parts of Phuket we saw were not so nice. The hostel was quite close to the ferry as we had an early boat to catch but not near much else. The following morning we caught the boat from Rassada Pier at 8.30am, we left late at about 9am and it started to rain straight away. Within 10 minutes everyone was soaked, so we spent a very wet, but warm and nastily sticky 1 and half hours crossing to Koh Phi Phi. As it was quite overcast you could not see much, which was a shame. Despite that pulling into the bay of Koh Phi Phi was a breathtaking experience, there are massive cliffs rising up on either side, and then a bay linking the two sides together. There are two islands Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. Phi Phi Leh is where the beach is filmed and is only inhabited by a group of rangers. Phi Phi Don is where everything happens. We eventually found the man that was to take us to the shack and he had a big metal barrow type thing to put the bags in which was a relief as everyone knows how much i dislike having to carry my own bag! We are based on the opposite bay to the ferry right up at the side of the bay. We booked the shack before we came away and it was expensive at £36pn, but thats New Years prices. The shack is really nice, with a really big tiled bathroom, and a view of the bay. Although on closer inspection there was some sort of rodent poo in the bed, large cockroach living in the bathroom, and the whole place is teeming with mossies, but on the plus side we do have a resident gecko and the view form the room is pretty spectacular!
The ferry from Phuket to Koh Yao Noi was not so much of a ferry as a longtail boat, crammed with about 10 wooden benches and anything else you could possibly imagine (including a washing machine, some really big potted trees and the post lady). It took about 1.5 hours and took us through some lovely beautiful karst cathedrals, which basically cover the whole area. When we arrived at the Pier there were pick up trucks lined up to take people to different parts of the Island. We asked to be taken to the cheap guest houses, and got dropped off on the strip along the beach. The first guest house we walked into had 500 baht rooms, but another couple had got there just before us, so we were offered the 800 baht room. As the bags were really heavy and it was about 1pm, and approximately 35 degrees we agreed to take it for the night and look for something else. The room was amazing, much more luxury than we have been used to, and absolutely massive.
