Phi Phi Island - Aaron's first taste of Asia

Shortly after Aaron arrived we whisked off to Thailand. $0.01 flights and 1.5 hours later, we back to a place that I hadn't been in 3 years. Phi Phi island, off the West coast of Thailand, is a beautiful site replete with limestone cliffs and pure white beaches. It was devastated by the tsunami in 2004 but quickly rebuilt due to lots of aid. There are now various tsunami routes leading to higher ground all over the tiny island. It has expanded greatly, even since 2007, but it is still a piece of paradise.

Some things never change...

Boats. These puppies brought you from one beach to another. Even the black smoke spewing out of their car-modified-for-boat engines didn't ruin the novelty of these boats.

Buckets. (yes, that's $10 for a mickey of whiskey, ice, any mixer. and 10 straws...expensive by Thai standards)

Beach. White, luxurious sand, blue, fish-filled water, quiet, empty beaches. What more can one ask for? This is more or less the only picture I took of the beach (bad Kim), there are a couple of Aaron and I but we look like awkward penpals so we opted to not include them in this blog.

Banana Pancakes. pan fried with a pat of butter, crispy to perfection, filled with those tiny sweet bananas, and drizzled with condensed milk. (oh, and accompanied with a refreshing and delightful coconut shake, Aaron's snack of choice)

Our 2 hour ferry ride over from Phuket island resulted in us getting burnt (my first. and hopefully my last.)

Some lessons about life we learnt on Phi Phi:

Alcohol makes us all animal lovers

Ladyboys are only slightly closer to men than woman in eating ability


Bugs are bigger in tropical countries

By now you're probably wondering what we did on Phi Phi...we stayed at amazingly quiet bungalows on lesser traveled beaches, we did some touristy shopping on the main beach, 'haggling' with the store owners for beer logo'd t shirts and beach wear, we snorkeled reefs in the clear blue waters just steps from our bungalow doors, we camped on Maya beach, where the infamous movie "The Beach" was filmed, and, of course, we ate.

Our first bungalow was a bit fancy for our liking, it came with a flat screen tv that seemed stupid when you had a beach 3 steps from your doorstep. However, the semi-outdoor shower was a super bonus.

A buffet breakfast was included, complete with toast, stir fry, homemade omelettes, and chicken wings. And those little hot dogs. I never eat hot dogs at home, but put me in a foreign country and I can't get enough. Maybe it's the familiarity of the food. Or, maybe deep down inside I really love hot dogs and can justify them as "eating local food" when I'm traveling. Either way, I don't care. They're in abundance in asia, and I'm eating them in all forms!

Not only was our bungalow on the beach, so was the restaurant:

Our last bungalow was unbelievable. It was a couple beaches down from our first, on which there was only our bungalow company. It was family run, friendly, quiet, and right on the beach. There was only one place to eat, but thankfully it was fantastic.


We did lots of reading on our porch.

We ate the requisite green curries, Tom Yums, and Pad Thais, with some surprise dishes mixed in between.

On our second night, we took a camping trip to Phi Phi Ley (Maya Beach), a small island that is a national park just a boat ride away from the Phi Phi Don. During the day it's quite packed with tourists, but the company we went with is the only company with permission to bring in visitors to camp. So, after a stop to snorkel and play with fish, we landed on this island, just before sunset.

We had the entire beach to ourselves (a group of about 20), some people played soccer, some people explored the far end of the beach, some people enjoyed the sunset. We played with sea cucumbers.


Mine went limp. Aaron wasn't sure if he entirely enjoyed the experience.

After our echinoderm fun the sun went down and the party started. We were fed 'til stuffed and then the free buckets were passed around...Free buckets led to paid-for-buckets which led to us making friends with a fantastic French couple who love living in China, which led to us making friends with one of the locals. This particular local was enjoying some hermit crab racing action, which we somehow got involved with and ended up running all over the island looking for our own special racing crab.

First (?) bucket

After an impromptu lesson on how to pick up the big guys, we were all over it (these guys were all over the island)

While most of our hermit crabs kept pinching us, Aaron formed a special bond with his who seemed to be quite fond of him. We were all jealous.

Aaron, Marion and Erwin cheering on their crabs on our race course. Marion was enjoying a beverage, Aaron was lovingly watching his crab cross the finish line, and Erwin was giving his crab a pep talk for the next race.

Eventually we noticed the ocean was lighting up...it was subtle, but there. PHOSPHORESCENCE! Obviously a 2am dip was needed.

But first, bbq'd wings, more buckets, and a fire show from our hosts.

Eventually we passed out in sleeping bags on the beach. I think that us and the French couple were the only ones to get any sleep. The others all slept in a big bunch further up the beach, which was not a great idea since half the people were freaked out by the rats running around the beach. This led to multiple panic attacks throughout night which didn't bother us on the far end. Perhaps we should've been worried though; when we woke up the next morning, there were rat tracks around our sleeping bags...

We finally ended our camping trip with a semi-hidden sunrise, good long discussions with various groups over breakfast, visit from a large reptile, and a final snorkel on the way out. It was a beautiful and relaxing couple of days!