Koh Phi Phi

After a few days in Tonsai, my friend Alexandra, who is living in Malaysia came to visit for a few days. The day of her arrival, I left with Stephan to catch a long-tailed boat at the Tonsai harbor. Once we arrived at the harbor we were informed that we would need 8 people before we could depart or spend the extra 6 Euro and depart immediately. We decided to wait seeing as we had an hour before Alex was supposed to arrive and the ride itself was only meant to be about 15 minutes. But the minutes went by and nobody was showing up. I began to get nervous at the thought that Alex might arrive at the given meeting point and not find me. Krabi has two long-tailed boat harbors and my absence might lead her to head for the other harbor. After about an hour finally we has scratched together the necessary 8 people by convincing a group of Germans to leave early. The waters were choppy and we were all soaked through as we approached the harbor. Our captain informed us that the waters would be too rough to land at the closer harbor and we would have to head for the further but safer harbor. Upon arrival I checked my watch. Alex should have arrived about half an hour ago. We jumped off the boat and looked for Alex. She wasn’t at the first harbor so we hailed down a tuk tuk and shot off to the other harbor. There was no Alex to be found. I was worried maybe that we had missed each other and proceeded to dig in my pockets and look for her cell number. I dialed the number and after a short moment I heard an automated message of Thai gibberish followed by an English message politely informing that I had no idea how to dial properly. We pleaded for a woman at the information counter to help us but her attempts led to the same frustrating conclusion. We couldn’t reach Alex and there were two possible harbors she may end up at. Perplexed we decided to wait for the next bus to arrive and if she wasn’t on it we would head to the other harbor. After about 30 minutes the bus arrived and one by one, bleary eyed passengers exited but still no Alex. I felt the anxiety rising as I watched the sad bus start up to head down the road. As it passed I scanned the windows for a sign and all of a sudden I saw a familiar face staring back at me. I could see her standing and yelling to the bus driver to stop and after about 5 more seconds the bus came to a screetching halt and out stepped Alex. We said our hellos, I introduced Stephan, and after a few errands we made our way back to Tonsai for a nice dinner on the beach. The next morning Alex and I would depart bright and early for the famed Koh Phi Phi Island. Koh Phi Phi is where “the Beach” was filmed and I looked forward to it with great anticipation knowing that it was one of the most beautiful places in the world. Alex had been there with a friend a month earlier and told me about the beauty and party scene of the island. We hopped on a long-tailed boat over to Rai Ley and then boarded another boat which would take us out to the larger ferry. The weather was overcast and as the boat motors started, dark heavy rain clouds loomed on the horizon ahead. I crossed my fingers if only in vain for better weather to come. We only had one night in Phi Phi and this was my only foreseeable chance to see it. We arrived at the harbor and were greeted with throngs of people trying to convince us that their accommodations would be the best use of our money and time but we pushed on. I had prepared myself and booked an accommodation with good reviews knowing that storms in the past years had devastated much of the island and many of the hotels were still being reconstructed. We found a representative from our hotel who told us to wait and pointed down to a bench. We wanted to explore but were assured that it would not take long. After a few moments she informed us that a connecting boat would be there shortly. Alex and I were a bit confused by this and assured the woman that we could just walk, seeing it as an opportunity for Alex to show me around town a bit on the way. The lady just smiled and said that it wouldn’t be possible. Our hotel was on the other side of the island and by long-tailed boat it would take 30 minutes to get there. We waited. Finally after about 20 minutes or so we boarded the boat and headed North. We passed beautiful resorts and even some local huts. This was paradise. Unlike Tonsai and Rai Ley the beaches here were stunning white sand and the water, despite the light rain, was crystal clear blue. Our hotel ended up being gorgeous and we spent the few dry hours we had checking into our room and hanging out at the pool over looking the beautiful harbor beyond. The storm that night raged and the thought of the distant bars in Phi Phi were warm and inviting. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be possible to catch a boat there and back during the night and we made due with a dinner and a movie. The next morning at check out the weather wasn’t much better than the day before and we decided to head to Phi Phi town and look around. It was a chaotic little beach town. There was still a lot of construction and it was full of young hungover backpackers. I could imagine that on a warm day this place would be the mecca of fun it had been described as and I decided that in the not too distant future I would have to make it back.

We went back to Tonsai for a night before heading off to Bangkok for a few days and then we would split ways. Alex heading back to KL and me heading North to meet with my mom in Chiang Mai.