Island Time Jan 12-20

After spending a couple of weeks in beautiful northern Thailand we were ready to warm up and relax with some time on the beaches in the south.

There are so many islands to choose from, and we only had time for a few - tough decision time!  We narrowed it down to the Andaman Sea side since the Gulf of Thailand was rainy and apparently flooding in some areas.   We  eventually decided on Koh Lanta since it was described as beautiful, laid back, and fairly authentic.

We flew from Bangkok to Krabi on January 11, spent one night in Krabi Town, and then caught a ferry to Koh Lanta to begin our Island Time.  We stayed at a hotel just off Long Beach, originally booking in for 2 nights, but then starting the next 2 days with "Should we stay another night"?  "Yes!", so we stayed for 4 nights.  We enjoyed the pool, the beach, the sunsets, the air conditioning, and the clean hotel room with a fridge! 

Maya finding ways to be shaded because getting out of the

pool wasn't an option!

First (and one of the best) sunset on Koh Lanta

Chris and kids swimming and snorkelling off Long Beach

It's a thing - they seem to bury Chris on every beach vacation!

Well, Lanta was pretty blissful, but we decided to move on and see another place.  Koh Phi Phi and Maya Bay had been on the list since we started looking into Thailand, so we hopped on a ferry to Phi Phi Island on January 16.  We decided to just find a place to stay once we got there, which was harder than we thought it would be since prices were significantly higher than on Lanta, and because the relatively small island was relatively booked up!   Chris and Maya hiked off in search of a place and came back with keys to 2 cute bungalows.  Well, cute on the outside at least....they  were pretty dumpy... I started to call them "Fungalows" just to put a positive spin on the experience of staying in them, but then Lucas coined them "Dungalows" and, well, that name stuck!   With torn mosquito nets, questionable mattresses, critters scurrying and cats fighting just outside, noisy partiers stumbling home at all hours, roosters crowing, let's just say we didn't get the best sleeps!

Cute, right?

Motivated to spend very little time in our rooms, we went out and took in all that we could on Phi Phi.  The main streets on Phi Phi are yellow (and red) brick roads, rebuilt after the 2004 tsunami from what we understand.  There are very few vehicles, with the main "taxis" being locals pushing wheeled carts often loaded with tourists' luggage, but we also saw them loaded with huge new mattresses, ice (see photo), and almost anything else needed in the centre parts of the island.  The drivers have to push uphill in the heat through streets that are, at times, very crowded.  They yell "beep beep" in an attempt to get people to move - maybe horns aren't allowed?  Whatever they get paid, I don't think it's enough.

 

a not too crowded street on Phi Phi

taxi in front of our dungalows

We knew Phi Phi was a "party island" but I wasn't prepared for the experience of being at least one generation older than the vast majority of people, and that the main theme of the island seemed to be to party. Hard.  At 2 pm we were walking along the beach and came across a PUMPING party in full swing, music blaring, dance party in the pool, drinks everywhere!  It looked like it might get messy!  Also every few street vendors are selling buckets of drinks, often consisting of a small bottle of hard liquor, a red bull, and a soft drink.  The young crowd was happily carrying their buckets around, sloshing and sipping.  This was not our scene, although it may have been fun in our early 20's.   Maybe.

                                                                                   

2 pm dance party in the pool

party offerings

Needing to get away from the party scene, and really wanting to see the beauty of the Phi Phi island group, we booked a longtail boat tour to various islands and bays in the area.  We originally wanted to camp for a night or two on Bamboo Island, but later found out that camping is  no longer allowed there  - too bad, it was stunning.

Our longtail boat approaching Bamboo Island

Park Ranger Chris getting a photo with a Thai Park Ranger in uniform

this view never gets old

working on the suntans!

After swimming and snorkelling off Bamboo Island we got back in the boat and headed off to some other places.  Next stop was Monkey Beach which was another gorgeous beach, this time full of tourists feeding, interacting with, and photographing monkeys.  The kids loved it but I was kind of disgusted that people would give a monkey a bag of chips or a bottle of Pepsi and then laugh and take pictures while the monkey figured out how to eat it and then toss the garbage on the ground.  Ok fine, I may have gone too far when I grabbed a plastic bag and started huffing around picking up garbage.  I understand why my family acted like they didn't know me for a bit.  How about giving them a banana or something though, they don't drink Pepsi in the wild, just saying.

having a snack and leaving the garbage

A thirsty monkey trying to take Lucas' water bottle

After leaving Monkey Beach we continued on past some more beautiful scenery.  The karst landscape is pretty dramatic, steep cliffs rising out of the sea, with some cave type formations.

Finally we headed to Maya Bay.  This bay was made famous in the movie The Beach, and it is a stunning place, although notoriously overrun by tourists.  We got there late in the day, once many tourist boats had left, but the direct sun had also left so the water likely looked more vibrant early in the day.  Still, it was beautiful and a must see for us.

beautiful Maya Bay white sand, turquoise water, surrounded by high cliffs

the kids snorkelling - unfortunately only a few types of fish and lots of dead coral

Maya on Maya beach

After Maya Bay we had one more snorkelling spot where we just jumped in off the boat - the water was fairly deep and we were thrilled to actually see lots of fish, lots of species of fish and even some live coral.   Prior to this we had only seen a few species  along with a lot of dead coral.  Lucas did some research about the coral and found out that a lot of it was broken off and died from the tsunami, and coral bleaching caused by rising ocean temperatures has killed a lot more.  It is sad to see dead and broken coral laying all over the ocean floor in these beautiful places.

The next morning we hiked up to the viewpoint on Koh Phi Phi to see the twin bays - well worth the sweaty hike!  The main part of town is between the 2 bays which is why the tsunami was so damaging here, it came from the left bay and flooded through the low lying area.

We caught a mid day ferry back to Koh Lanta where we stayed for a couple more nights, this time on a different beach full of thatched roof restaurants and hotels.  It had a great feel.

a panorama of our view from the water

dinner on the beach

Lucas hopping rocks at low tide sunset

On our last night we saw a really impressive fire dancer on the beach - here's a shot from his finale - it seemed a fitting way to end our time on the islands, we headed back to Krabi on the mainland the next morning.

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