Saturday, 24 October 2009

Phi Phi Island

The next day was fairly uneventful. We were back in a van early to take us to the ferry terminal on the other side of Phuket Island. After about an hour we reached Phi Phi Lay, the more southern and smaller of the two islands. The ferry does a lap around Phi Phi Lay on the way out to give tourists & hotel guest a look at this beautiful Island.

Phi Phi Lay is uninhabited but is very popular with divers & the one beach/cove is popular with tourists who want to go for a swim & sun bathe.
There is a strange cave on Phi Phi Lay. I can't remember the whole story but I think the ancients of the area used to harvest bat guano from the cave. Bit of a tourist trap by the looks.
The ferry's first stop was Long Beach (below) on Koh Phi Phi. It's the main hub on the island. There are a myriad of speed boats, long tail boats & seemingly endless dive boats.

The Ferry left long beach, made a brief stop at a cluster of hotels half way along the island before pulling up in front of our hotel (and 2 others) to empty the remainder of the passengers onto long tail boats.
We settled into our room & set out to explore the hotel & find some lunch. I can't recall us doing too much interesting other than having a swim in the pool, relaxing & investigating the scuba diving options for the next day.

Quick Swim

Before returning to shore our boat stopped at an island about half way back. It had a nice beach (I guess) and we were encouraged to have a swim & cool off. The water wasn't much for cooling off unfortunately. It was like a warm bath. It did take the edge off the heat once we got out of the water.The trip back was uneventful & the van ride back to the hotel took forever & it was dark by the time we arrived. That night, I think we had dinner, wandered around a bit and did some shopping, then had a swim in the hotel pool. The next morning we were on the move again to Phi Phi Island.