Phi Phi Islands tour (I am exhausted and taking today easy plus continued banking nightmares)

Hi Internet! Yesterday was an incredible day, seeing the beautiful Phi Phi Islands, swimming in crystal clear blue and green water all straight out of the movies (literally!). It was exactly what I was hoping for and more. I just wish my bank was all I was hoping for; more would be far too much to ask…

The tour company arranged a hotel pick-up between 4:45 and 5:00 (!!!) and we drove to the Royal Phuket Marina which was pretty swish, clearly styling along the lines of other high-end marinas around the world (not the V & A Waterfront gagging levels of money, but it’s trying). We then signed up for the insurance at the tour company offices and they tried to upsell their photography package which was almost 50% of the tour cost! I did not appreciate this. Now it was nothing to the Dollar wielding and Euro wielding fellow passengers but for me it was a lot more money. The tour itself is probably one of the most expensive things I will do for my entire stay! But after that things went swimmingly (yes, pun intended).

All the other passengers arrived, and then we headed off with the crew and tour guides (one English speaking and a Japanese speaking tour guide) to the speedboat for the trip. It was a small group, two unrelated Australian couples, a Scottish couple, a pair of female American friends and two Japanese couples (no idea if they are related, only one lady had a few English words at her disposal) and me (the only single on the boat). I chose V Marine Tours for their very good Trip Advisor rating, speedboat, prompt response via email and suggestion I book the sunrise tour because of the weather (they were right on this one).

We then jetted out of the marina and passed the surrounding islands pretty quickly and twenty minutes later we were on Egg Island (Khai Nai Island – named so because of its shape) watching the sunrise and eating breakfast. I just ate the fruit but tried rambutan and mangosteen for the first time, both being delicious! The only reason I hadn’t tried these before is I don’t want to be assaulted by something truly unpleasant. Durian, a seemingly popular fruit is banned on the Bangkok trains because of the stench, seriously there are signs up in the station banning its carriage!

Rambutan looks like a cross between a porcupine and an oversized litchi but green and a bright maroon, it is very much like a litchi, but less sweet and juicy. The pip looked like an almond, I asked the other passengers if you eat it, they said they thought not. I broke it open, it still looked like an almond and nibbled a piece, it was bitter but not gag inducing, I would no re-eat the pip in future though. The mangosteen is an interesting one, it looks kind of like a Sharon fruit in shape, a bit larger in size, is a deep maroon, purple colour (kind of like aubergine, but more maroon) and you only eat the inner, white bit. All the outer maroon stuff is like the outside of the pomegranate (again I checked, uggh) which you throw away and you only eat the inner segments – it is citrusy and also sweet. I was also chatting to some of my fellow passengers and a few people were kind enough to take photos of me as I was alone. The American ladies were interested in why I was on the tour by myself and I explained I have taken the entire trip by myself. They said that’s brave, with a hint of condescension, I quickly explained solo travel is very big in South Africa (as it is in the rest of the world, welcome to the twenty-first century!) and that I am loving doing my own thing.

Khai Nai was gorgeous a real picture postcard with the sun rising over it, we ate in a wooden structure as we watched the sun rise. Then it was back on the boat and off to the next destination Maya Bay. This is the site of the Leonardo Di Caprio film The Beach which I watched years ago and thought a total snooze-fest other than the scenery and the All Saints song, Pure Shores, that went with it. Apparently, it was already a tourist hotspot at the time but was closed for 6 months for the filming of the movie. After that tourism exploded and in more recent years the beach was getting 5000 to 6000 visitors a day in peak season! Unfortunately, this almost destroyed the coral and the government banned landing on the beach to allow the coral to recover. The beach will still be closed for another two years to let the environment continue to be rehabilitated. Still absolutely gorgeous from the boat!

Phi Phi Le was next, this is one of the big Phi Phi Islands. Here we went into the lagoon as far as the boat would go and given fins, mask and snorkels and told we could snorkel around the bay for a given period of time. We encountered the first additional tour boat here and they were divers. I put on the gear, feeling rather nervous as there were no instructions but followed everyone off the boat and into the water. I promptly spent two minutes nervously sticking my face in the water and trying to position the snorkel in my mouth so as not drown myself. After sucking in a mouthful of water and getting sea water in my mouth twice more, I looked back at the boat. I was alarmed to see it was much father away from me than when I had started my abortive snorkelling attempt. Clearly there were currents at work and being a barely passable swimmer at best and obviously disastrous at snorkelling at worst, I thought bugger this and promptly doggy paddled my way back to the boat with the mask on top of my head. There I met back up with one of the Australian ladies who was holding onto the boat ladder. Clever, I thought and went and perched on the other ladder. There we had a nice chat about our trips so far while bobbing in the beautiful sea and admiring the view, while I went about not drowning myself.

Then it was back on the boat to Monkey Beach and Viking Cave. V Marine does not land there being environmentally conscious of the monkeys and for the safety of the tourists (think the idiots who feed the baboons at Cape Point back home, some people need to be protected from themselves!). I appreciate them being sustainable and preserving the ecology. We also couldn’t get too close because of the time and tides. But still we saw the scampering monkeys on the cliff walls.

We then quickly sped off to Bamboo Island to get in more swimming/snorkelling (haha!) before the rest of the tourist boats got there. The water was amazing and warm but not boiling, it was crystal clear and blue and turquoise further out, the beaches were pure white sand and the whole experience felt surreal. I was chatting with the Scottish couple. Donna’s brother lives in Thailand and this was her fourth time while it was Simon’s first, he has a friend from SA and was considering visiting a few years back. Simon was going to do more snorkelling but Donna and I were happy to stay near the beach. As it was, the current kept sweeping us away from our starting point. Near the time we were due to leave we hurried back to our things as the beach had filled up and was teeming with other tourists at this point. We scooted back to the boat as our tour was trying to keep us away from the throngs. At this point the sun had been up for some time and I was getting a little fried even with my hat and I was pleased to be back on the boat and out of the sun. I then re-upped my sunscreen and we were taken to another snorkelling spot. Well, clearly, I wasn’t going to snorkel and I had had so much sun by this point I was happy to be on the boat. The others in the water were feeding fruit to the fish and it made them swarm. Jasmine (my Australian ladder friend from earlier) was throwing bits of banana to the fish and I was taking photos. The blue and green ones only ate the flesh whilst the brown-spotted ones also ate the skin!

Then it was off to Phi Phi Don (the other main island) to a restaurant for lunch, included in the tour. It was here I discovered that many on the boat had booked the later, cheaper tour and had been offered free upgrades to this tour, I on the other hand was advised to take this one at full price (an almost R230 difference)! This annoyed me immensely but either way, I realised I was grateful to have been on the earlier trip. More fruit for me for lunch and then more walking along the beach for photos, being a little tuckered out by now. After that it was back on the boat to return to Phuket. We were almost back at the marina when the rain started and because of the speed we were going, boy did it blast us, not that it was cold (what is this otherworldly nonsense of warm rain?). It was a very soaking dash back to the tour offices when we did dock at the marina and then back to the hotel.

The Phi Phi island tour was incredible, it was completely surreal to be experiencing that level of beauty in real life, myself. It sort of feels like places like this and these sorts of things are reserved for the big screen or TV or the lives of the rich, not for average people like me, so here I am having seen and felt and visited such amazing places!

Then it was back to the reality of still not being able to book my flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai and even with millions of emails, loads of calls from South Africa, posts on Hello Peter, I still do not have the ability to make online purchases, which includes flights. But an intrepid plan between Thailand and South Africa is afoot to solve this dilemma. Soon, soon hopefully…

As for today, my plan is leisurely beach time when it cools off a little, some food and night marketing…follow the red hat lazing around and shopping!