Visiting the infamous beach

Koh Phi Phi

We spent our last night on Koh Phi Phi at the Banana Bar, eating mexican food then settling down on the cushions with a jug of Chang beer to watch the film they show at sunset on big projections. It was The Beach, which I haven't seen in ages, and seemed remarkably appropriate. Later that night on the way home, we ate a huge slice of pizza and had another little complain about the atmosphere on the island, whilst watching people crowd around a man with a monkey in a diaper on a lead.
The next morning we had planned to get up at half 7 and go on a boat tour, but we woke up late (possibly due to the barman taking a shine to us and giving us free drinks) but conveniently the morning was wiped out by a big storm and it was cancelled. The torrential rain and thunder was quite exciting, until we had to check out and wander into the town, most of which was flooded and grimy. Fag buts floated in the suspiciously dark water, which I had to wade through barefoot, because I'm stubborn and don't like flipflops. It was not a pretty sight. It made for a cooler day though, which we both appreciated. After breakfast we found a much cheaper hostel in the town, dropped our stuff, and went on the later sunset trip. The beautiful long tail boat took us around the edges of some really stunning mountainous islands, stopping first in a sheltered bay where we jumped off for a swim, then to another spot for snorkeling. I've have never seen so many beautiful and interesting fish so close up! It was an incredible experience. The water was so salty you could float with no effort, just hovering over the surface of this incredible underwater world. The first fish we encountered were 4/5 inches long, striped yellow and blue, big eyes, and totally unafraid of us. They swam close to the surface, so close they would occasionally bump into your hand or face. We floated about over the coral, manically gesturing to each other underwater when we saw something new. Bright orange and black striped starshaped things stuck to the rocks, big fish up to maybe 15 inches of purple, light blue, indigo, yellow and grey. My favourite was the occasional 'Arabian angelfish'. It was so amazing, such a surreal experience, I kept wondering if I was really seeing it. After about half an hour, we climbed back onto the boat (with difficulty as the boatman threw some food next to the ladder when me and Beth were there, causing a huge school of the yellow and blue fish to crowd around, which we had to fight our way through. I didn't like the feel of their slippery scales on my body, didn't want to hurt them and also thought it was a bit irresponsible feeding them rice). 
The next stop was Ao Maya, a bay on the smaller Phi Phi Leh island, the inspiration for the Beach film. I'd always wanted to see it for myself, whilst knowing that I would most likely be disappointed and saddened by how heavily touristy it now is. It was an exciting climb up some dodgy steps and through a bit of jungle, to what is without question a stunning sandy beach and a beautiful clear bay enclosed by tall rocky mountains. But I spent most of our allotted hour there wishing we were the only people there, and that tourism or rubbish had never been inflicted on the beautiful scenery. I left feeling rather hypocritical. On the way back, the boat stopped in the middle of the sea and we all fell under a wonderful calm spell as the sun set on the horizon.

The next morning we left Phi Phi rather happily, catching a ferry over to Krabi. Found a very cheap hostel, and set off to the Wat Tham Seua - the Tiger Cave Temple. It's set into a valley between incredibly steep rocky hills, apparently previously a tiger lair. We'd heard that if you climbed to the top of what was essentially a cliff face, there were incredible views and a huge golden Buddha statue. We found the steps, all 1,237 of them, some of which were the size of 3 steps by my standard. It was very very hot, and I can safely say that I have never ever sweated as much. We were particularly unimpressed when three young monkeys, who we were ahhing at until they stole my bottle of water and bit a huge hole in the top. We managed to get it back by distracting them with another empty one, and I was forced to drink it to keep from passing out, even though I was convinced it smelled a bit of monkey saliva. They were everywhere, and disconcertingly unafraid of us. I love monkeys, and didn't feel scared working on my own in a cage full of them in Guatemala, but these were wild animals who had become accustomed to being given things from tourists, we saw some feeding them (stupid stupid people), and therefore they could easily be aggressive to get what they want. We had to stop/collapse increasingly often as we reached the top to curse and catch our breath, but we finally made it, the colour of beetroot and with burning legs. That much exercise in the heat was a bit of an unexpected shock to our bodies. It was so so worth it. The views were insanely good. Again, it was too much to actually take in and believe. We wandered around barefoot on the hot floor, taking it in from all angles, admiring the Buddha and smaller shrines. There were a few other people up there - the two Chinese lads who had overtaken us asked for a celebratory photo, and just as we were having a peaceful, awestruck moment, a few very loud Americans came and ruined it. We heard thunder not too far away over the hills, so we started back down, which made our legs uncontrollably shake. We are both now feeling like old ladies, hobbling about, struggling with steps and our rucksacks, but having a good giggle about it. As we rode away on the songthaew, the tip of the Buddha came into view on the mountain top, and we literally could not believe that we'd climbed to the top. Incredible.
That night we ate Pad Thai in the outdoor night market down by the pier for ridiculously cheap, and watched all the locals fussing around in the popup kitchens. We discovered something that was described to us as 'Chinese donut things', that people kept coming up to buy bags of. They were 3Baht each, and really tasty, like a sweet yorkshire pudding with a dip made from carnation milk. We bought a bag to take with us on our journey the next morning, but accidentally wound up playing drinking games with some English guys, and then later ate them all in bed. The morning was incredibly stressful. Our alarm, set for half 5am, failed to go off (or be noticed) and we woke with a start and very late. Ran down bleary-eyed to the meeting place with our rucksacks, and luckily the bus driver was late too. Also very luckily, I realised just as he was pulling up that I didn't have my tablet, and managed to leg it up the road to the hostel, find it hidden under the blanket on the bed, and make it back to the bus just in time but unable to breathe. To prevent similar potential mishaps in the future, we don't think we'll aim so early or optimistically with travelling times.

Koh Phangan

The ferry arrived at noon, and we were met by a troupe of locals ferociously trying to help us with accommodation. This level of attention is pretty annoying if you've just woken up from somehow sleeping on an upright plastic seat and are now battling with the midday sun. Despite knowing we prefer to just get somewhere and find our own place to stay, we were tired and flustered so eventually went along with it and ended up at a guesthouse on the West coast quite far from a built-up area, and with it's own very pretty but very stony little cove of a beach. We decided to rest and regroup there then move in the morning. Before breakfast we began walking in the direction of a beach we'd heard was beautiful. We didn't get too far before realising the roads were rather too hilly for our liking, and our legs weren't dealing very well with the weight of our rucksacks. Eventually a songthaew (shared taxi/jeep) picked us up and took us up the coast to Haad Salad. After exploring the little place for a bit, and deciding the beach was too rocky and small (I think we've become far too picky now) we thought we'd travel up to the next one...and it's much nicer. Haad Mae Haad, or Ao Mae Haad, or whatever you like, I think they're interchangeable as Haad means 'beach' and Ao means 'bay'. We've been living in a little bungalow, for 500bht a night (about £9), with our little wooden balcony facing the sea and the beautiful tiny island, Koh Ma, which you can walk to sometimes across a sandbank. It's a lovely sheltered bay calm water, so lovely for swimming if you can avoid the coral.
It's less than 30 seconds walk from our front door to a massage place - a sort of open air hut on stilts near the water. So naturally I took advantage of that this evening. I went just at sunset, when it was really quiet and I was the only one there. It was just after a huge bout of rain which lasted for an hour or so, but the thunder was still going. I lay there while she worked absolute magic on my shoulder blades, listening to the rolling thunder and the ladies chatting softly in Thai. When it got dark, they turned out the light because of the bugs, and the lightning became really fierce, I could see it through my closed eyelids. Me and Beth watched it for a good hour at least after that...huge forks over the ocean all around us, which was incredible but a little scary. Also later that night, I was kept awake for a long time by the waves, which were the loudest I've heard!!