Treasure Islands

Having come to terms with our predicament in the fan room helped by a timely storm to cool the air we caught some sleep before arising and renting a Honda ‘Air Blade’ and a Honda ‘Click’ from our hotel. We zoomed off into the frantic Phuket traffic with only a couple of decidedly dodgy helmets to protect our precious bodies. Having decided to head to the ferry terminal and sort out transport for the next leg of our trip we promptly got lost, a fact that was clearly very evident to the MotoTaxi driver who kindly offered to show us the way for ‘no Baht’. We weren’t sure about this but he was true to his word and led the way asking for no payment... good job too, we may still be going round in circles if he hadn’t.

Having not bought the tickets we came for we instead headed north with more navigational success, but decidedly frayed nerves as we negotiated the truly crazy main roads, with people swooping around all over the place on their various scooters/cars/buses/weird contraptions. We made it to the protected rainforest and saw some elephants!! They are very strange animals indeed, I made friends with a baby who was clearly very happy to see us (the others were far too big and scary to approach!) and can also conclude that they don’t feel like you would expect either. Unfortunately these guys were being kept for rides and we weren’t sure about the conditions (some chains etc) which gives us a mild moral dilemma as we really want to do elephant riding in Chang Mai. We will have to find some with better homes. Anywho, onwards we went to a rather disappointing waterfall and a Gibbon rehabilitation centre, which had some gibbons in it. You heard it here first. We then whizzed round the top of Phuket and decided it was beach time, so we took a wrong turn and headed in completely the wrong direction for a while before realising the folly of our ways and turning round. After some dipping, a light toasting and our first Chang beer we continued tops off. Big call, but we figured if anything happened there was a 99% chance we would die, so we might as well go down feeling a little cooler and catching some rays. To our delight we made it all the way back in one piece through rush hour uber tight gaps traffic, parked the scooters and decided that was enough! We then went across the road and found an amazing little Thai kitchen, lovely food, 80p. No complaints here.

The next day we hit up the beach again and planned to catch the Grand Prix in a beach side bar. You cheeky buggers decided to move the clocks forward without telling us though so we missed the start. Good race though! And another nice Chang beer. On the way back we caught the usual bus which unusually stopped by the side of the road a little while later and told us we had to catch another bus ‘in five minutes’. To be fair, it was about five minutes but this transport was rammed. Like packed. Cue hanging on the back of the bus for half an hour through same perilous traffic complete with weaves. Health and safety really doesn’t exist here!

Having gorged on Phukets delights we boarded a ferry on a course for the Phi Phi islands, which are truly awesome. Possibly the most like paradise of all the crazy good places we have been on this trip. We flopped around the bustling little streets and sipped on fruit shakes from spring roll lady (Yoohoo!) and after getting our head around everything on offer we booked onto a full day cruise round the island the next day. Then we did something particularly stupid (even for us). We took the Reggae at teir word and went for the 'Burger challenge' See picture for the details of this challenge. See also how we would have thought there was a slim chance of us pulling it off and getting the most amazing meal free. However, we had not accounted for the onion rings. The burger was gargantuum but manageable under pressure, the chips were piled on, but possibly sinkable with only minor pangs of sickness. The BOWL of coldslaw was unexpected but not particularly filling so may have been boshable... but the onion rings. Oh my, the onion rings. Each one as big as your fist, and generously battered witht the most filling and sickly batter. There was no hope, from the outset we know we were doomed. I can't now look an onion ring in the face. Even after our best efforts we still had 18 left each. Thats the amount we had left mind, we had already sunk hundreds of the buggers. Needless to say that got their money and we got very sick.

What a day the next day was! With so many tourists on nearby Ko Pha-Ngan for the full moon party, there was only ten people on our rather large boat, and about 7 staff, who clearly decided that there was too many of them as well and proceeded to get pissed and smoke things while they took us round the highlights of the area, pointing out the best snorkel spots, which are probably ‘best’ in much greater contexts aswell, the best and most famous beaches (including Leo’s “The Beach”) and walks and swim spots. We saw so many corals and different types of fish, some in huge shoals in front of our faces I wouldn’t know where to start; I even glimpsed a reef shark. By the time we reached our stop for sunset and rain decided to join us we had had such a good day that we cut our losses and declared Chang-o’clock and got tipsy with the crew, playing tunes and dancing on deck in the rain. The party continued into port... and on into the evening! We met up later with a couple of girls we had met on the boat, drank more Chang and then headed to the Full Moon party that was going down on Phi Phi, on the beach. We got a free bucket of cocktail each (literally a small bucket) and made merry, before catching the Man U game at half one in the morning and then collapsing. Even the slightly dodgy looking, condensed form of red bull they have out here couldn’t keep us from our pillows.

Today has been our last full day here on Ko Phi Phi and we have just wandered and enjoyed its beauty, eaten even more spring rolls from spring roll lady and browsed the markets. Tomorrow we head back to the main land before making our way to Ko Pha-Ngan for no doubt more beach side boogieing.