Koh Phi Phi

Today we went on a full day, speedboat tour of Koh Phi Phi and its surrounding islands. We’d had a really early night so we were good to leave the hotel early, but still slept through our bus ride.
After about an hour or so we arrived at Phuket Marina, I took a load of sea sickness tablets and had a couple coffees. Or tour guide (pretty sure it was she-male) gave us a hilarious talk. It was hilarious because he was charismatic and his jokes were hilarious, and also the fact this English wasn’t the best. While we were sitting there we met two people who’d been travelling Asia for a few months named Mick and Emma, they were from Perth and Melbourne respectively.
We boarded our boat, a monstrous vessel with three 225HP engines on the back, I was very nervous after my last boating experience, which ended in my spending about 6 hours vomiting over the side of the boat (sorry Speedy).
We departed, the waves were quite small, so we sat up the front, but of course there wasn’t going to be any waves in a marina. Once we left, the driver pretty much stayed full throttle the whole way there, we were flying, bumping and bouncing over all of the waves, it was fantastic. Every time we launched over the top of a wave and the bow was dropping It was a little freaky.
We pulled into a little bay, protected from the crashing of the waves and went for a paddle in the crystal clear waters. It was so refreshing, the sun came out and I was definitely getting a little sunburnt. After about half an hour, we swam back to the boat and shot off to another island to do some snorkling. Everyone lined up at the back to drop in using the stairs…. All of us thought it was a great idea to jump in from the front of the boat, little did we know where we jumped was about 1.5m.
It was pretty cool, there were schools of colourful fish everywhere, one of the blokes we were there with said that he’d seen a sea snake swimming around. The coral was quite nice too. We’d been warned about sea urchins. Pretty sure jarrad managed to kick one on the way into the boat, which was hilarious for everyone, except him.
our guide (getting more flamboyant by the hour) came and looked at it, and said smacking his foot would help to break up it little piece in his foot. So grabbed a snorkel and started smashing jarrad’s foot, It was HILARIOUS.
after this, the skies turned grey, and it started raining, the wind was insane. The group of aussies the we’d met on the tour all decided to sit in the back of the boat for a smoother ride.
The waves were getting fierce, the boat was getting tossed around, and there might have been a couple times where I did fear for my safety. The first time was when the driver put on a helmet….. and the second time was when all of the Indian blokes and all of the asian tourists started putting on life jackets.
They were all freaking out, and our little corner of Aussies were all having a laugh, making jokes and talking about the movie The Perfect Storm with George Clooney.
for a few, the vomit bags came out and were well used, as for me, I was fine, it was probably my favourite part of the trip, we also got to know a brother and a sister, Jacob and Kaitlyn who were travelling with their parents from Brisbane.
The final island we went to was like a mini-paradise, trees, white sand a bar in a palm hut, was beautiful, so Mick, Emma, Jarrad and I started having beers and cocktails.
Jumped back on the boat, sat right up the front and bounced around all the way back to Phuket Island. We jumped off the boat, and Emma announced she was gonna have all of us back at her hotel (Jarrad, Jacob, Kaitlyn and myself) for pre-drinks and head down Bangla Road for a big one.
We went home for a shower, rushed over to their hotel and she had a stack of her old contiki friends there with her too, so there was about 12 of us, ready to go.
After a few Changs and a few Mai Tai’s at the hotel, we went to dinner (which was more about cocktails then food) I took them back to the same bar that we’d been at a few nights before, had more cocktails and plenty of shots. Went to Seduction Nightclub, probably the best club I’ve ever been to. Then I wandered back to base for some much needed sleep.
I would have to say that today was my favourite day of the trip. The speedboat is what won it for me.
Tomorrow will be a much needed rest day.
adios amigos.