From Railay, we boarded a longtail, which then transferred us to a ferry, headed for Ko Phi Phi. Woohoo.. Boat to Boat transfers are fun.. It was short ride to Phi Phi, slightly choppy, perhaps due to the many storms that were swirling around the region. We get to Phi Phi, and almost immediately we start to wonder if we should have stayed on Railay.. Phi Phi is a lot more crowded than Railay, and a whole lot more backpacker-y.. Instead of a pristine beach that we had all to ourselves, we were greeted by hordes of touts, each promising “cheap cheap” prices to stay at their bungalows.. And, it didn’t help that a storm blew in, right as we were landing.. So, after wandering Phi Phi from hotel to hotel to hotel for awhile, we decided to send out a scouting party to try and find a nice place to stay.
It wasn’t that places on Phi Phi weren’t nice, but after our super swank digs on Railay, we were a bit spoiled. Hmm.. Anyway, after a bit, we were able to find a nice place to stay in the middle of town, and then we headed for the pier for some fun.
Phi Phi actually consists of two islands, Phi Phi Don, the larger island, where most of the stuff is, and Phi Phi Le, the smaller island, which is relatively uninhabited. So, we decided to take a “sunset cruise” that would take us around the islands and visit various beaches and stuff.. Except… because of the storm that had blown in, there was going to be no sunset that day, and therefore, no sunset cruise… Grr. Oh well.. We were about to leave the pier, and then this dude pops up and is like, “I take you guys, ok?” Hmm.. sure! That sounds great!
We happily hop into the longtail as he practices what I’m sure are unsafe fueling procedures… But, I guess he knows what he’s doing, cuz we didn’t blow up or anything. That said, it sure was a harrowing ride across the channel to Phi Phi Le… Considering the “big boat” had canceled its trip for the evening should have been an indication that a smaller, more rickety longtail would have been a more harrowing ride, but I don’t think we gave it much thought until we were riding up and over like 12 foot swells. We were drenched to the bone from the rain and the crashing surf, and I was really glad that I had bought a dry bag to give some level of protection to my camera gear. The orange life jackets sat mockingly in the bow of the boat; it was too harrowing to even leave our seats during most of the ride to even think about putting them on… Weeeee. Kind of like a roller coaster, except this ride had not been engineered with a recognized factor of safety. Our intrepid cigarette-toting boatman was able to shuttle us safely to Phi Phi Le without incident.. When we got there, we pulled first into a gorgeous private turquoise cove where we did some swimming. The water is like warm bathwater, and swimming in it is a dream. And we felt like we were the only people on that whole island, which, for the most part, was true..
We get back into the boat and head for another cove, where our guide points to a small hole in a bank of sharp, craggly rocks.
“Beach, in there,” he says. “In there?” we ask. He nods. We nod. Confident that we have all the information that we need, we happily hop out of the boat and swim for shore.
The rocks are uneven, the surf is a bit rough, and I get banged around a bit on the rocks. I try not to keep visions of my newly minted ankle getting crushed between some cruel vise formed by rocks and surf. Korby screams out as he cuts his knee on some sharp bits, but soon enough, we all are able to scramble onto the rocks. Our progress through the hole in the rocks is aided by a bunch of ropes that form sort of a handhold over your head. The ADA would definitely not approve of this.
On the other side of the hole, is a small beach, and a path.. there’s a small sign that says, “Maya Beach –>”
Our feeling of being isolated on a tropical island is interrupted by a dude walking by, chattering on his cell phone. (Aside: during our entire time in Thailand, I must say that I had better cell phone coverage than I do in my own home in San Francisco. Um, good job, Thailand.)
We head down the path, and then emerge in a gorgeous white sand beach, shaped like a crescent moon, surrounded by huge sheer cliffs of limestone. We are the only ones here. Apparently, this is the beach from “The Beach” (the movie). It’s spectacular. And it’s still raining, but Korby, Jenny and I still run all around the beach, frolicking in its magnificence. It’s awesome. I mean, we only stay like 20 minutes, but it’s pretty damn cool.
It was a shame that we couldn’t stay there longer, but at least we got to hang out there for a little while. But, it was getting late, and it was starting to get dark. We headed back to the rocky hole, climbed back through, and were happy to see our longtail waiting patiently in the bay for us. Our guide handed us some snorkeling gear, and we spent like 30 minutes frolicking in the reef, swimming with all of the colorful parrot fish, clown fish, and other assorted cute little reef critters. I got pretty good at free diving, I think.. Dammit, a few months ago, I had the opportunity to buy a Suunto D3 for $35.. it was on sale, but I didn’t get it cuz I was like.. “hmm.. do I really need a freediving watch?” Grr. Freediving is hella fun. I mean, scuba is fun too, but when freediving, you’re unburdened with all of that gear, and it feels awesome, swimming underwater with just one breath of air..
We climb back into the boat, ready to continue our tour, when our guide points to a huge dark storm cloud and says, “Maybe we do island tour another day. Go back now.” We trust his judgment. For the return trip back, we don the life jackets, which seems like a good idea considering the growing size of the waves.. But, the trip back seems relatively less harrowing and we putter quickly back into Tonsai harbor on Phi Phi Don..
We get back to the hotel and learn that there was an 8.2 earthquake in Indonesia — similar to the one that caused the disastrous Tsunami in 2004. Yah, the one that destroyed Ko Phi Phi. Exactly where we were. Um. The first we heard of the “tsunami warning” was that they had canceled it. Um, that’s nice. Eep.
After an evening of drinks and fire dancing on Phi Phi at the Apache Bar, we board a ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket. The weather finally clears up a bit, and the sun greeted us for our departure from Phi Phi.. We boarded the ferry, taking a nice spot on the top sun deck. Everyone on the sun deck is spread out in full suntanning mode. A calm breeze blows from the southwest, all is good.
One of the ship crew motions to Paul, who has his SLR camera out in all of its picture-taking glory, “Put camera away. Get wet.” Paul looks at him with a puzzled look, I returned a knowing glance to him, both confident that our 30 foot perch above the water would surely keep us dry.
Um, we were wrong. As soon as the ferry leaves the calm safety of Tonsai harbor, things get real dicey, real fast. The swells we had seen yesterday in the longtail had grown bigger, and now, the huge ferry was being tossed about in the ocean like a bath toy. Waves started crashing violently into the bow of the ferry, sending sea spraying 50 feet into the air. We got drenched. The boat was rocking like crazy from side to side, and all of the plastic deck chairs were sliding all around the sun deck. Luckily, I had secured myself a nice spot in the corner of the deck, so my chair was firmly situated. After I decided I had enough, I retreated to the relative safety of the lower decks and took a nice nap for the remaining ride to Phuket. Paul, unfortunately, did not fare as well. Apparently, one of the drawbacks of being a 6′4″ polish man (in addition to his famously small bladder) is an increased sensitivity to motion sickness. Poor guy. Yah, I don’t think that he enjoyed that ferry ride at all. But hey Paul.. look what I found — next time we hit up the Andaman coast, we can take a seaplane instead. Ooo. Fun. The silver lining of Paul’s unfortunate ferry ride was that none of us took pictures of the aftermath. But don’t worry, we have plenty of other embarrassing pictures. (Now would be an appropriate time to link to paulandjablow.com.)
