Thailand: Koh Phi Phi Pics

It's raining here in Singapore so here's another blog update.
Here are the pics from Koh Phi Phi- an island paradise in the Andaman Sea.  We were planning on visiting more Thai islands, but once found a quiet spot we decided to hang around for almost 2 weeks to alleviate the travel fatigue that was starting to set in.

Koh Phi Phi from the South

Thai flag over Long Beach, the area where we spent most of our time.

The center of the island- Tonasi village where most of the shops/restaurants were.  It is a maze of backpacker hangouts that we avoided most of the time, though there were some good restaurants (great hummus and coffee) that we came back to.  

Ahh...Long Beach.  Separated from Tonsai by either a 40 min hike or 10 min boat ride it was an oasis of beautiful sand beach.

Looking out at Phi Phi Ley (the small island).  It's a marine reserve and the filming location for the movie "The Beach."

Climb from Long Beach to Tonsai (Tony is up there in the yellow shirt).

By the last day we were done with negotiating longtail  (taxi boat) rides and hoofed our things back to the pier.  It's a good thing we packed light (and that Tony is so strong)!

Beached longtail boat being pushed out to sea.  They drop off passengers by backing up to the beach, though you usually have to jump off in thigh-deep surf.

Longtail boat in action

Our cabana- we stayed here for 6 nights, our longest stay in once place since we started travelling!

The inside- bed, air-con, and hot (sort of) shower for $30 US.

Another pic of Phi Phi Ley from Tonsai

Waiting for our tour boat to take us to Phi Phi Ley

Speed Boats.  View of cliffs from Tonsai.

On our Phi Phi Ley adventure- Tony on a rope!

Beautiful cliffs

When doing tours in SE Asia you have to be ready for the unexpected.  In this case, we were heading to Maya Beach, THE beach from "The Beach," and the most famous sight in the area.  Our speed boat driver dropped us off on the other side of the island in a lagoon filled with other boats.  He pointed to the shore and said "Maya Bay over there.  Easy walk but some difficult first."  We ended up swimming 100 yards through heavy surge, avoiding the other boats, and climbing up a rope ladder, some rocks, and wooden stairs. After this experience I understood why everyone walking around on Koh Phi Phi had bruises and scrapes on their legs. This pic is of the easy walk side after the swim.

Ahh Maya Bay.  We made it!  Maya Bay is enclosed by rock cliffs and has the softest, whitest sand.   To be honest, I wasn't really impressed with the beaches (compared to Hawaii) until we came here.  Beautiful!

Maya Bay

More of Phi Phi Ley on a sunny day

Islands again

Island cat- most of Thailand has dogs hanging out but on Koh Phi Phi there are cats everywhere!  So, like this one, are clearly looked after, others look more ragged.

Ok, here's a few random pics to end Thailand- rice shaped like a bear!

Here's where we hit our low for hotel standards. $10 hotel room in Phuket Town- sketchy area and complete with its own mouse (seriously Tony found a mouse in the trash can!) .

Nasty!  I won't post the pics of the bathroom......

Swensens Ice Cream- complete with American flag!