Eterno Dia PhotographyFarewell To Paradise: Phi Phi To Phuket
Posted on November 17, 2019
Our first week in Thailand was coming to an end with this being our last day on the stunningly beautiful island of Phi Phi as well as the final day of our tour group before heading out on our own to continue our adventures. We got up early to spend every possible moment enjoying the island. While the town was still quiet, we checked out of the hotel, left our bags at the front desk to be gathered with the rest of the tour group and explored some of the more residential area of Phi Phi off of the main tourist streets.
Looking hot and tired. At this point I’m in denial about how sick I am. That soup though…
We walked through some of the shops that were open that catered more to the locals with food staples and services. We watched as workers from small hostels and B&Bs hung laundry and work in their yards. The morning was peaceful and quiet. We got an early lunch at a small restaurant with a stunning view. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for our first Thai massage. It was expensive, by Thai standards, but it the open air rooms right next to the beach were irresistible. For those that have never had a Thai massage, they are remarkably affordable and they are work- for your massage therapist- and you. There’s a lot of stretching, slapping, tapping and bending, in ways that sometimes you think you may not bend. Either way, I loved the experience and when we were done we headed back to the hotel to spend our remaining time on Koh Phi Phi at the beach.
Even an overpriced Thai massage is still a deal. Especially at the beach.
I’m a beachcomber; I’m fascinated by everything from the ocean and I love to find bits of old coral and interesting shells washed up and imagine what they might have been in life. I was was collecting some souvenir pieces when a hermit crab who’d been well hidden in his shell, objected to me moving him and gave me a bit of a scare when he poked his legs out. I inspected some of the other shells I’d collected, only to discover that a lot of them were in fact, occupied homes. I stood for a moment and scanned the area of the beach where I’d been collecting and suddenly noticed shells moving around all over the place. There were tiny hermit crabs EVERYWHERE. 
I lived my best life for an hour or so, collecting shells, followed hermit crabs, swimming in the sea and sunbathing until it was time to meet the group to catch the ferry and head back to Phuket. The same process of getting ourselves back onto the long-tail boats from two days earlier repeated itself and our luggage made it safely to the pier. 
The ferry ride back to Phuket was calm and peaceful and I spent it out on the sun deck getting last minute advice from our guide for the next two weeks of travel, soaking up some vitamin D in the sun, enjoying the salty sea air and the last moments of being on the ocean.
We arrived back into Phuket at about 5:00 pm. Two vans took us back to the hotel we’d originally started the tour at a week earlier. It felt like a lifetime ago and also like a blink of an eye all at once. We said our farewell to the group and then Shawn and I boarded another van (arranged for us by our amazing tour leader the day before) to take us to our next destination, a hotel stay in the Karon area of Phuket for one night, before heading north to Bangkok. We were relieved to be finished with the group, as I’d found the difference in our ages to be challenging, but Shawn and I were both starting to get anxious about having to go it alone now with no more tour guide to protect or advise us. As daunting as it felt, I knew we’d done enough research that we’d somehow manage. Shawn and I are great partners in many things in life, including travel. Even though we’d already had a week of incredible sights, food and culture shock, it somehow felt like our adventure was only just beginning. For now, we had one more day to enjoy the beach.
We checked into a beautiful and surprisingly affordable Centara Karon Resort and found supper at a charming little restaurant just down the road. First thing in the morning, we had a gourmet breakfast (and found bacon for the first time since arriving in Thailand) and headed to see Karon beach, a short walk from our hotel.
Very, popular but not the cleanest, Karon beach is definitely overcrowded and not the ideal place to stay if you’re looking for paradise, however, it’s a bit more family oriented and you won’t find the frenetic party vibe here that you get in the Patong district of Phuket.
Spirit house on Karon beach
For lunch, we decided on Angus O’Tool’s Irish Pub near the hotel, as I could only stomach something a bit more familiar to my usual cuisine. At this point, I was feeling pretty ill (and if I’m honest, I’d been sick since day four). I was scarfing down anti-diarrhea and anti-nausea meds like candy. I had antibiotics with me, but I wasn’t sure if this was a bug or bacteria, or just my IBS flaring up from a change in diet and routine. In hindsight, taking the antibiotics would have made the next two weeks easier, but you live and you learn… I’d been very open to trying new foods and was loving all the Thai cuisine, but maybe hadn’t been cautious enough. Either way, at that point I was feeling pretty gross and Irish food in form of a plate of fries seemed the most palatable. After lunch we headed to the airport and waited for the next journey to begin. We were leaving the beautiful beaches and heading into the city…. the city songs and movies have been written about. BANGKOK.
Bangkok Bound
As always, thanks for taking the time to read about my travels. Feel free to comment, ask questions and share. Until next time, stay tuned for the next part of the adventure. Safe and happy travels!
-L
The Breathtaking Beauty of Phi Phi
Posted on June 25, 2019
The last stop on our “Island Hopper” group tour to finish off our first week in Thailand would be Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi, pronounced “pee-pee”, (yes, have a giggle) is part of a small chain of islands just south of and administratively belonging to Krabi province. Koh Phi Phi Don (the main inhabited island) and Koh Phi Phi Lee are the most well known. You may have heard of Phi Phi only because it made the news when in 2004 a deadly tsunami hit the island and took as many as 4000 lives, though the exact number to this day is unclear. I didn’t remember this information and when we arrived into the bay at Phi Phi Don, and I was enamored. Koh Phi Phi’s beauty is simply unparalleled; stunning craggy, limestone cliffs, covered in emerald green jungle and surrounded by sparkling turquoise waters. This place is exactly what you imagine when you think of paradise.
Ferry ride from Krabi mainland to Koh Phi Phi
I love being on the ocean and watching the sea
First glimpses of Koh Phi Phi Lee
Main Pier in Phi Phi
The crowded “main street” upon arrival in Phi Phi
After a two hour voyage from Ao Nang in Krabi province across the deep indigo waters of the Andaman sea, on a big, modern ferry, we disembarked onto a very large and exceptionally crowded pier. We waited with the group under the blazing sun awaiting our tour guide to confirm passage to our hotel. We were given 30 minutes to explore Phi Phi Don’s main port while our baggage was transferred and boats were readied. The main pier was completely overwhelming. There was a giant McDonald’s next to a 7-Eleven at the main entrance and the crowds were reminiscent of being at an outdoor music festival. There were so many people, mostly backpackers, searching for lunch, getting tattoos, bartering for souvenirs, booking tours, and just hanging out. My relaxed vibe gained in Krabi was suddenly depleting and I didn’t want a repeat of the overwhelmed feeling I had in Phuket. We waited in a long lineup to get water and beer in the 7-Eleven (the tour guide warned us that things would be pricier in Phi Phi due to it’s remote location and suggested the liquor might be cheaper to buy here than at the hotel) and headed back to the pier. We were all a bit shocked, suddenly recalling that we’d been told Phi Phi has no cars, as we saw our luggage all piled into two traditional Thai wooden long tail boats. Our group was then ushered into two more boats to get to our hotel. A short boat ride down the coast, we arrived at our hotel to check in – on the beach. This was a first for me. The boat crew literally unloaded our luggage onto the hotel beach. We took off our shoes, rolled up our pants and held our camera bags above our heads as we disembarked the boat and waded to shore to collect our luggage.
The long tail boats waiting to take ferry passengers to their hotels.
Our “taxi” to the hotel
definitely a first
Check-in is literally beside the beach…
After checking into a unique hotel built up into the hillside, we went to the beach-side hotel restaurant for lunch and took in the stunning views of the bay and adjacent Koh Phi Phi Lee. The sand was soft and white, the beach was fairly clean and quiet and the water was still and shallow. After lunch, we joined the group for an afternoon swim at one of the hotels three stunning private beaches. We floated in the warm, shallow bay, had some drinks from the beach snack shack and watched an entertaining resident dog play fetch with some backpackers. On the way back to the room to clean up to go for dinner I had a bit of time to get some sunset photos from our view of the bay. I also discovered the MASSIVE millipedes that hang around here. I’m not sure if they’re harmless, but they’re slow. I’d rather hang out with one of these guys than the giant Asian wasps I’d heard about while doing bug research before the trip. Just be sure to have your phone’s flashlight handy for your nighttime walk back to your room, if you don’t want to step on a sausage sized centipede….
the long climb up and down from the beach to our room and back
the breathtaking views from the lookout at the hotel
Lunch view
paradise
This pad thai tho….
Private beach after lunch
This beach tho…
“Girl on Swing”
Headed back to the room to get ready for dinner, the bay below is gorgeous at sunset
Sunset is stunning.
For dinner, we met up with the group again and headed up at a rooftop bar in town. The walk to the main tourist area from the hotel was about 15 minutes. The evening was busy with lots of shops and restaurants to chose from, but not as bad as I’d feared from the pier earlier in the day. There was a definite party vibe in the area, and it was more crowded that Krabi, but still had a more relaxed, island vibe that Phuket. The lack of cars and traffic keeps the noise down and the general feeling less frenetic. The majority of the tour group planned to go to the “beach party” that night after dinner. Shawn and I decided to at least check it out just to say we’d been but we’d heard enough stories about the spiked drinks, druggings and just plain insane partying that we knew that wasn’t the kind of fun we were seeking. After walking along the beach and checking out the beginnings of what would be a long, debaucherous night for some, we left and strolled through town to see what there was to see.
We eventually found ourselves at a bar hosting Muay Thai boxing. They had tourists volunteer to spar with each other for one round and then actual Muay Thai professionals would have a match in between. They protected the volunteer tourists well with padded head wear and safety gear and the minute it became apparent that a fight was ill matched, they’d call it and reward both the participants with a medal and a beer; it was all in good fun. Shawn was so excited about the Muay Thai, he put his hand up while they were calling for volunteers. For a moment I considered putting my wifely foot down, but we had three travel health insurance plans (two employer provided and a third required as part of the tour package), Phi Phi has a small hospital, and this was Shawn’s epic vacation too- if he wanted to walk around with a black eye or a busted nose, who was I to stop him? Luckily for me (and probably for him) with him being a bit smaller than most the the other guys there that night, the bar didn’t have anyone in his weight class to match him up with. As consolation, one of the boxers posed for photos with him. We enjoyed the matches, some cold Thai beer to ease the heat of the night and had a great time with tourists from New York who we shared our table with.
took me a minute to figure out the red bowl is to scoop water into the toilet to flush…
Shawn posing for photos after being declined a Muay Thai fight
After a few more drinks and exploring, we walked back to our hotel along the gorgeous moonlight sand, climbed way up to our hotel room atop the hill, avoiding stepping on giant millipedes as we walked, and had a great sleep with the islands resident monkeys calling out to each other in the night. Little did I know, we’d meet the monkeys in the morning.
Have you been to the stunning island of Phi Phi? What did you think of it? Plans to travel to Thailand and wondering where to visit? Feel free to ask questions or comment! Thanks as always for coming by and stay tuned for more Thailand rambles. Until next time, safe and happy travels!
-L
Eterno Dia Photography 