Buckets of Fun

  Ko Phi Phi Don, Thailand
Saturday, January 3, 2009

We have managed to fall behind a bit again on our diary so here's a few days together.

It all started with New Year's Eve morning. We woke up relatively late due to the long day before. We grabbed some breakfast and hit the beach. We had been pretty badly burnt the day before as we had been out in the sun all day and the frequent trips in and out of the water did nothing for the piles of sun cream that we had layered on. Therefore when we hit the beach we stayed pretty covered up and in the shade a lot. The Canadians were at the bar beside the beach when we got there. They were trying to convince people to join in their New Year's Eve scavenger hunt. Two English guys were being convinced when we arrived but I don't think it would have taken much too convince them to socialize with three young, pretty ladies if ya know what I mean!

We received a list of nine to does before 10.30 pm that night. These involved: (1) pour your own drink behind a bar, (2) challenge a local to a beer chugging competition, (3) climb a coconut tree, (4) challenge a Thai to a Muay Thai, kick boxing, competition, (5) collect Christmas decorations, (6) dig the biggest hole, (7) build a sandcastle, (8) write your initials in the sand, and lastly (9) do cartwheels along the beach.

I nominated Alan to do the beer chugging and unfortunately he lost to a local but it was chugging from a bottle and Alan hadn't had anything to drink that day so I think he did well in all fairness. The sky started to get dark so we knew that the usual late afternoon downpour was on its way and thought it best to get home before the skies opened up. On our way back two of the other teams decided to climb the coconut tree. We got advice from A, our resort owner who recommended the ascent and descent technique and then laughed at the craziness of it. He also helped us pick out a tree that might be easier to climb. One of the English guys went first, he got a boost up from his friend and then managed to get quite far up the tree. It was a struggle for him to get back down without seriously hurting himself but he managed it without damaging anything important. His shorts were ruined from the brown trunk of the tree. Then one of the Canadian girls tried it. She got a boost up and got no further. I think upper body strength was needed which in all fairness most girls have none of! Then it was our team's turn and myself and Al both said simultaneously "We forfeit that one".

We headed back to our room and showered and got into our finest clothes for the evening. Backpacking leaves no room for fancy clothes but we each have a certain t-shirt or trousers that we consider our good outfit. We hit Nit's bar for a couple of drinks where he let me pour a drink behind the bar for our scavenger hunt.


We didn't bother doing anything else on the list as we couldn't be bothered. We found a BBQ restaurant along the beach and had a fine dinner of steak! Mmmm. We got some cocktails and then went to find the Canadians for party time. The drinks were sort of expensive along the beach front and we soon learned you could buy a bucket for 250 THB which is about €5. We both kept ordering Samsong which is supposed to be vodka and soda and lime but they kept giving us vodka, coke and red bull. Needless to say things got messy but not before we rang in the New Year on the beach surrounded by hundreds of people, fireworks and the lit lanterns floating up into the sky.


It was pretty magical. We danced and partied till about 4am when we got bored with the beach scene and decided to hit our friend Nit's bar. His bar is right beside the Pearl Beach where we were staying and he was open all night. We stayed there playing bongos, chatting to people from all over the world and having a ball till about 6am when we were both in such a state that we were a danger to others!

We woke to A knocking on our door at noon the next day. He had told us the night before that he needed us to move room on the 1st as we were in a family room and there was a family coming to stay. He moved us to a standard double room with the same facilities as before. He hadn't expected the family to arrive until 7pm that evening but they arrived early and we had to move asap. We were a little on the delicate side and so just shoved all our stuff into our bags and dumped them in the new room. We decided to get some breakfast and then go back to bed again. We had some heads on us as we waited for our food. See the pics. I think it's the most hungover I have EVER been! We stayed in bed till 6 that evening and only got up to eat more, I rang home and then we went back to our room and fell asleep watching a movie. Party animals.

It was good that we had so much sleep behind us as we had an early start the next morning. We were to catch the 8am ferry to Ko Phi Phi. We made it on time and after much wandering around we found seats. The ferry stopped just before it got to Phi Phi to let those going to Phuket change boats (mid sea). We landed in Phi Phi at about 9.45 and started the usual haggle to get accommodation. There are tourist offices at the pier of the island which help tourists find accommodation. I'm sure they get commission for it. Anyway we eventually picked a place. Accommodation here isn't cheap and to get a fan room with no hot water is 1,000Thb per night. It's a nice place though. We're in the hills but only a short walk to the restaurants and bars.

I wasn't feeling well all morning so when we arrived at our place I went to bed and Alan went to explore a bit. He went to the viewpoint from which you can see the two bays on either side of the thin stretch of land between the hills. Up there are many remembrances for those killed in the Tsunami and you can see how quickly the densely populated are must have been devastated. That whole area is now crammed with bars, restaurants, shops, dive schools and guest houses as I'm sure it must have been before.


I still didn't get much better in the afternoon and come evening I was hungry and starting to feel a little better. We ventured out for some food. We hadn't gone far when it started to rain. We got to a pizzeria just in time but the rain never let up and soon we were finished our meal and had to leave. We stopped at an Irish bar to get out of the rain. Dinner had made me feel unwell again but we'd have gotten soaked had we climbed back up the hill to get home. Alan had a couple of beers and eventually we decided to just go. The rain had eased a little but we were covered in mud by the time we got home as the track up to our place is just a dirt track and the streets in Phi Phi are also full of mucky pot holes.

We had an early night due to my illness. You really have to watch everything you eat and drink in this part of the world. Hopefully our stomachs will get a bit stronger.

Drinks of choice: Cocktails and Buckets