Thailand - Koh Phi Phi
by Catriona Brown
What sweet dreams a good holiday can give you. Not one week ago that's exactly what I was doing. Two Mondays ago himself awakens and says "woman, book us a tropical holiday!" well what is a girl to do! Never one to be coy about travel I had us in the air by Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday afternoon on the remote Phi Phi islands which are nestled between Phuket and the Thai mainland.
We had flown to Phuket and then caught a large ferry to the north end of Phi Phi Don where we stopped off shore and were immediately surrounded by long boats whose viking shaped prows were draped with coloured flowers and which carried young men beckoning to us. Naturally I was intrigued, and took a closer look only to discover that they were from our hotel and were keen that we should alight from the ferry and join them on board. Suffice it to say I tried maintaining some dignity while being lowered onto the pitching boat and found laughing amiably helped. We were keenly watched by others remaining on the ferry who seemed to also find it amusing especially when himself's orange suitcase was passed over nearly squashing the young Thai boatman (have you ever heard of anyone taking 3 jumpers and 4 pairs of longpants to the tropics? but that's another story).
They shifted the truck motor mounted on the rear into top gear and sped us towards the beach, stopped 50 feet beforehand and indicated that we should now walk. Off with the shoes and into the shallow warm water we went and were followed by the young men with our cases on their heads.
We were smiling uncontrollably as we walked up the white beach and were greeted by an exquisitely dressed Thai gentleman who handed us Mai Tais and welcomed us to the hotel, asked us to relax and check in when we felt like it. It had to be the best hotel arrival I have ever experienced.
We didn't stop smiling for a week.
Those two days at Palm Beach were mostly spent on the water. The long boats were available to hire to take you anywhere, around the island, to other islands, snorkelling, swimming, diving, fishing. The water sport fellows were great and I nearly died of embarassment one day when two young Australian girls were there and talking amongst themselves were suspicious they were being ripped off, they turned to the attendant and started talking at him really loudly as if he was deaf. The poor guy was bewildered, of course there was nothing wrong with his English, he'd heard everything they were saying . Oh dear.
Actually for a resort the activities, food and drink were very reasonably priced and there was a local restaurant next door on the beach so it was easy to eat out. We ate fish and rice and fruit and drank beer and cocktails and very good it was too.
Went into the big smoke at Ton Sai Bay, in the South of the island, which is getting as busy as Bali. We came back by boat one night in the light of the the full moon, we seemed to glide over silver, it was almost unbearably romantic.
We stayed in Ton Sai Bay a night and visited an island nearby - you know more swimming and snorkelling, poor me. We also went into the Viking Cave a huge cavern on the side of a rock island with bamboo poles reaching into the darkness where twice a year the young men climb and take out hundreds of swallow's nests and sell them for the 'Bird's Nest Soup' market. It's true!
We caught another ferry to yet another beach place called Railay Bay (sometimes spelt Rae Le)which you won't find on your maps, it's east of Ao Nang and Krabi. Met an North American fellow later who said " Yeh, man, Railay Bay smokes!" I gather that meant it was a cool place to go. We got the best room in the best hotel for AUD125. It was very relaxed, mostly backpakers which we discovered was sensible. You arrive again after a transfer from ferry to long boat but they have very large tides and as it was low tide the boat had to stop a long way from the beach and you had to carry your own bags. A very nice young Greek man from Melbourne carried mine but himself was stuck with the orange monster and a good ten minute walk through tidal mud and coral. I tried not to laugh, I really did try....
Again beautiful white beach shared by three hotels, two bars and three restaurants. This time swimming, kayaking and fishing. We had a meal that night of our own fish - some in a delicious red fish curry and the others barbecued. The bar next door on the beach played classical music at sunset, moved into Latino then to Midnight Oil.
Another boat ride took us to Krabi town and I headed straight to the local markets where we bought fruit and sweets for our bus trip to Phuket. I also found a lady who wrote down in Thai the names of green vegetables which if anyone needs let me know. You see I always had a problem ordering steamed green vegies and boy am I over those horrid mixed vegetable dishes - you know the ones: carrots, celery, cabbage, onion, baby corn, bleh. So now I can just point to my ever present notebook and get my steamed greens.
We had one day in Phuket which I could have done without (except for the handbag shopping) and then one day in Singapore which was great. Hadn't been there in years and this time enjoyed it immensely, great food, lots to do and full of life.
On the night we returned we reluctantly dragged ourselves to bed (after Bruce Willis had saved the world) and I thought of the perfect antidote to the Monday morning blues. So I put my hot pink bathers on the dressing table, draped my yellow sarong over the chair, perched the blue snorkels ontop and slid under the covers saying to myself I'll have time before breakfast to throw on the bathers, walk outside, wallow in the warm water and drift around on the surface over the coral while cartoon like fish brush against my legs and watch them drift with the currents like a symphony playing in the underwater landscape.
