AT

01/11/11

We tried the diner attached to our hotel for breakfast and found the prices normal, so by the looks of things the only place open for food last night was the most expensive in town (I'm convinced the taxi driver took a cut from this!) and by 0930 we were on Kata beach, creamed up and ready to relax. By 10am we were both getting restless, we really are crap at sun bathing and drowning in our own sweat as the sun was beating down already. The sea cools you off, but by the time you are back to your gear your melting again, how on earth do people just lie there day after day for weeks on end and say they have had a holiday?

By midday we had both had enough and decided to walk along the beach to find a little bar or something to have a drink, once refreshed we walked another mile or so to Kata Yai beach which is around a point in the island and mostly uphill from the main beach. The heat must have been bad as I could se locals starting to wilt and I was even starting to sweat, which is very unlike me no matter how hot it gets. We decided to watch the cabaret   In the evening so we stopped off to buy tickets for that and inside the air conditioned shop the temperature was 34c according to the clock on the wall, so a little warm in the sun would be an understatement!

Dusk started to fall so we went for a run along a road loop we spotted during the day and after two loops I was ready for the meat wagon to pick me up, the humidity was almost unbearable and any fluids I had left from the day was now sitting on the pavement quickly being evaporated! After worlds longest and coldest shower we were both ready for the cabaret, but this is a cabaret with a difference, all the performers are lady-boys and very good ones at that as all three shows that night were sold out, apparently!

We were not disappointed, the show was fantastic, all the acts were spot on, including a lady GaGa, which if I'm honest, was the spitting image and could really have been her. I have not laughed so much for ages and I left the show more confused than when I entered and sure I would not last a night alone in Bangkok!

02/11/11

Early morning pickup for our ferry to Phi Phi and as usual the he had to drive around the houses to pick everyone up, but once done we made good time and found ourselves a spot on the bow for the 2hr transfer. Our intention is to stay on the Longbeach part of the island which is a bit quieter than the "clubbing" centre. Apart from a narrow footpath through the jungle the only way to reach Longbeach is by ponytail boat, and this is how they make their money ( don't worry, as anti tourism as I am I can't fault this).

The sun shone all the way to Phi Phi and just before we docked we passed Phi Phi Lay which is where part of " The Beach" was filmed, it looked very impressive but I have no idea how Di Caprio swam across the channel to get there, the current was swirling as we ploughed through.

Here is where hindsight plays a massive part, always book when going to Phi Phi. The longtail boats cost 200 baht each way to Longbeach, so in theory your looking at stumping up 400 to 800 per day depending on what your plans are, like I said, I have no issues with that as we're happy to walk the 2km path each way and with a torch you can even manage it at night. At some point in the 3 hrs since Bex was last here a major company must have bought out every single small bungalow on Longbeach, knocked it down and rebuilt it with swanky beach dwellings and because we had not booked ( we didn't know and none of the books pointed this out) we were ripe for the picking! The cheapest room we could  find was 3,000 Baht (£60) a night and strangely dispute none of the resorts looking busy at all, the cheaper rooms had all gone, I was fuming! I hate being fleeced when it is blatantly obvious that we are, but there was nowhere else to go so we had to pay.

The room was huge and it looked like no one had ever stayed in it before. On the wall was a 32" flat screen and the bathroom area was bigger than some of the rooms we had stayed in already, quite clearly somewhere that we would normally avoid, but after a shower we decided to make the most of it. Bex was disappointed that the bungalows she had previously stayed in had gone and Longbeach had lost all of it's charm and been replaced by concrete tourism. We decided to walk into town to see if we could find accommodation for another night and again we saw signs that tourism was the be all and end all here. For all but 500 meters the 2km path had been replaced by dull grey concrete and new complexes were being built in what were once pretty coves and quiet beaches. I felt sorry for Bex, in her mind she had the memories of an idillic hideaway from 2008, they were still rebuilding after the tsunami of 2004 so I suppose that is understandable but by the time we reached the town, it was decided that tonight was our only night, so we set about finding an Internet cafe to plan Koh Lanta.

The resort didnt have free wifi, I'm not being snobbish but where ever we have stayed and Internet has been available, so has WiFi and free of charge, I'm sure it's probably been absorbed into the cost of the room, but free it's been. Paradise resort did have Wifi, but you had to buy a password each day at the cost of 150 baht per day and on top of that it was limited. The other option was to use their Internet cafe at 5 baht per minute, i wanted to scream and i was almost expecting to be charged for finding out the information from them in the first place, they did tell me me however, breakfast is included and they managed to get that into the very short conversation five times!

In town the cafes were only charging 2 Baht per minute so along with booking our escape ferry we found a place in Lanta which looked ok and even gave us a discount due to the pool being out of action, so with one night booked and safe passage off we walked around the town looking for gifts and seeing if we had missed cheaper places to stay. The afternoon was spent on the beach and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters, the highlight being a large pufferfish found hiding under a small overhang and being followed around by some black and yellow fish.

Evening came and some did the humidity making the walk back into town a lot like slow torture, but at least my head torch was finally getting some use. Bex only criteria for food was a fan or aircon in the restaurant so it turned out to be Italian tonight, but I still managed to get my Thai dish so I was happy.

03/11/11

I made sure I had double helpings at breakfast, since it was all included, before loading our bags onto the longtail to the ferry for the hour and a half trip to Koh Lanta. Again we managed to secure a perch on the deck and sat there soaking up the sun and the island views,  unfortunately the plan of buying drinks onboard was foiled by the ferry not selling any! So we decided to find a cafe when we arrive rather than rushing around trying to get where we're going.

As the ferry was docking you could see them all rushing forwards with taxi signs in the air. As we were in no rush I'd not tried to get our bags yet, but those that did were falling victim to the touts, some were even grabbing the bags to make sure those people went with them, fortunately none tried it with mine or they would probably ended up with a hernia! I went first, bundling my way through the crowds as best I could, one tout had seen me and made for the cut off angle, but he was ignore too. We sat down in a cafe and watched the crowds go by, the tout who tried to cut us off realised he would never get back to the front so actually came and sat down at the table next to us, I hope he's not expecting us to pay for his drinks?

Ok he was annoying me now! Every time I looked up or moved he would say "taxi?" so much so I gave up saying no. Drinks finished and feeling refreshed we looked at the maps we had, unfortunately not knowing the exact location of Papillion Bungalows, our choice of venue, we had no way of gauging the price, but time was on outside so we could afford to be picky.

A tuk tuk arrived back at the dock just as we were deciding to leave, so to be annoying I went up and asked him the price to Papillion, 200 Baht and we had our ride leaving the tout in the cafe supping on his sprite. It turns out that the journey was only 10 minutes long and we arrived at the reception just as Jens was leaving, he quickly said hello and nipped back in to get his wife, Caroline. After filling in the usual paperwork we were shown to our bungalow, which turned out to have aircon as well as a fan, nice little bonus there I thought, tv and DVD player with free DVDs available from reception. So we settled in and immediately felt at ease, looked at each other and decided to give Krabi a miss and stay here for the 5 nights, can't explain it but everything felt right!

We walked down to the beach, ironically also called Longbeach, to see what it was like. Golden sand stretched for 4kms on what was quite a narrow strip between trees and sea, but it was flat and more than good enough for daily runs, so that was this evenings entertainment sorted. After walking back to the bungalows we started looking at things to do and where to go as well as checking messages and letting people know where we were on the free wifi (I think I've made my point!) Jens and Caroline were both very helpful, answering our questions and suggesting locations and things to see from their own experiences of the island. After picking some DVDs for later we went across the road to ask about motorbikes ( even I had been convinced they were the best way around the island and I hate bikes) and after speaking with the manager we were convinced he may have been in one accident too many, but the prices were good, 200 baht per day for a manual, 250 for an automatic ( 49 baht to a pound!) and bring it back with a full tank. With everything sorted for the next few days we went back to watch the first of our DVDs.