The south of Thailand is basically full of island paradises, and Koh Phi Phi is a fantastic choice if you want to combine beaches with nightlife. We were looking for somewhere to kill time before heading to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party, and since Maya Bay was on our list of places to see, Koh Phi Phi was that destination.
Phuket
We took a night bus down from Bangkok to Phuket for around 630 baht. I booked ours online with Phuket Travel since it had positive reviews, and it was a relatively comfy journey down. We had reclining seats up at the very front on the upper deck with tons of leg room, there were blankets and pillows for us, a bathroom on the bus, water and a snack provided, and a midnight stop for an inclusive dinner which was basically create your own rice soup.
We arrived in Phuket very early in the morning around 6 or 7 and were forced to take an overpriced taxi to Patong. The cab drivers didn't have meters and insisted on a flat rate that was almost as much as the bus we'd just taken. I argued with them for about five minutes and they all just laughed at me and called me "farang" (foreigner). We shared the cab with some Russian girls, so we each ended up paying 150, but it was still annoying.
Lewis and I spent two nights in Patong just chilling out. Patong is the very touristy area of Phuket with ladyboy shows and plenty of bars, but this was the party section of our trip, so that was fine with me. We stayed in a private room at Balcony Hostel, just a couple blocks from the end of the beach. The room was really spacious and the staff were always helpful. They served food and alcohol downstairs at reception which was convenient for breakfast and on a very rainy day when ordering a Singapore Sling bucket made waiting for the skies to clear up a lot more enjoyable.
We spent some time laying on the beach, drinking cocktails, checking out the Bangla Road nightlife, and finally attending a certain infamous show that all the men are trying to sell you every time you walk down the party streets. It's probably not fit to write about here, but if you're my friend and not related to me, please please ask me for all of the dirty, graphic details.
The more visible side of Bangla life.
There is more to do around Phuket like visit waterfalls or take part in adventure activities like rafting or ATVs, but I was saving my money for activities I really care about in other places. Besides, a lot of the tours include activities I don't want to support like elephant trekking or photos with tigers at the tiger temples where they will tell you the cats aren't drugged but they totally are. Sorry, but if you think that gigantic tiger is letting you pose for a photo without biting your head off because he was "raised by humans," then either you're a sucker or you care more about your social media profile than the welfare of animals.
Ko Phi Phi
It cost us 400 baht for a pickup from the hostel to the pier and our 3:00 ferry ticket to Ko Phi Phi. The ferry took just under two hours, and we laid up on deck in the sun.
Upon arrival at the pier, we paid the small entry fee for the island and were immediately greeted by locals all down the pier offering boat trips and bar staff welcoming us to paradise and handing us flyers. We set out to walk to our hostel near the beach, and as we were making our way down the small streets and the winding yellow brick road, I decided I already loved Phi Phi.
It's got the charm of a small island while still being totally geared at tourists with market stalls, bars, hostels, tour companies, and restaurants everywhere. The main beach is lined with clubs and the scene gets wild at night. There are also dozens of cats everywhere you turn, so that made me happy as well.
Hangover Hostel
After spending too much time living antisocially in private rooms, I wanted to make new friends and booked us into a dorm for our four nights on Phi Phi. Hangover Hostel was a perfect place to stay.
Being old these days, I no longer want to meet a bunch of 18 year olds who just make me feel even older, so I paid close attention to the age groups of the reviewers on Hostelworld. As expected, most of the party hostels on the beach were reviewed by those in the 18-24 age group, so I eliminated those. We're not boring though and I did want a social atmosphere, so when I saw Hangover Hostel which was mostly reviewed by people in the 25-30 age group but also had lots of pictures of people hanging out and drinking, I knew it was the one.
It was everything I'd wanted in a hostel! We were right next to the beach but on the back side, the road just behind it, so we had a buffer of beachside guesthouses blocking the noise at night. Most of our roommates were the same age as us in their late 20s. Hangover Hostel consists of only one dorm room with 12 beds which opens up right onto the front porch where we sat drinking every night, so it was a close atmosphere and easy to get to know everyone. The room itself was pretty basic and the lighting was too dim, but it was air conditioned and each bunk had its own light and electrical outlet as well as a little safe.
What makes the hostel though is the host, Mr. Singh. What a legend! He lives and sleeps in the dorm room with the group. He made sure everyone had absolutely anything they possibly needed during our stay. Water, towels, mosquito spray, the hookup on the best deals for anything. If you were planning to get a tattoo, book a tour, or even buy a bottle of alcohol, you'd go to Singh and he'd direct you to the right place, book your tickets for you, or walk you to the place you were headed to knock the prices down. One day I even painfully rolled my ankle while walking around town (I'm terribly coordinated) and he disappeared into the dorm and immediately came back out with topical cream. Every night he kept us plied with Hong Thong (Thai whiskey) all night. We'd finish a bottle and he'd be right there opening another one. He was never far from the hostel if you needed him.
Hong Thong all day.
We met good people at the hostel who we headed out with as a group for drinks or food, and many were also headed to Koh Phangan afterwards. It was nice to have a social base again!
Viewpoint
If you're physically up for it (I wasn't and did it anyway), you can head up to a viewpoint overlooking the islands. It's over 300 stairs in the heat and I was sweating very unattractively before we were even halfway, so be prepared.
The first view is about 10-15 minutes up and is worthwhile more for the I Love Phi Phi sign than anything.
The second, higher viewpoint is 5-10 minutes further on and has a bar and plenty of rocks to choose from for your new scenic profile picture. Unfortunately they were all already occupied by tourists while we were there, so maybe go earlier in the day. We'd headed up with two of our roommates, my fellow Americans Jeremy and Stu, for the sunset. It was nice but I've also seen plenty of sunsets lately, so after snapping a few photos I was ready to head back down.
Nightlife
While there are bars around every corner in town (lounge bars with movies, boxing bars where you can get in a ring and fight other drunk tourists, and more), the beach is the place to be at night. There are bars all along the sand blaring music and flashing colored lights out onto the sand. Fire spinners put on shows and various bars offer beer pong, body paint, hookahs, or bucket deals.
Everything keeps pumping until 2 AM and the party definitely sets the atmosphere on Phi Phi.
Boat tour
Of course, the best activity to sign up for is a boat tour of the islands. I was a little torn over which company to book with, but Singh could book us in with Top Ten Tours for just 350 baht, so we went with that. To be honest, I wouldn't even stress over which company, just pick the one with the best price. All of the longboats look exactly the same and go to the same spots, so unless you're choosing one of the bigger boats or a booze cruise, it doesn't matter. We were allowed to bring our own drinks on our boat anyway, not that I did, because snorkeling, traveling on a rocking boat, and drinking aren't activities I feel I need to mix.
Lewis, our Colombian roommate Santiago, and I all signed up for the half-day tour one afternoon and were met at the hostel at 1:30 by a guy who walked us to the tour company and then onwards to the pier. We walked through the water to climb into our wooden longboat which had about 6 other people on the tour (four of which were Americans, actually).
The first stop was Monkey Beach which was not even five minutes from the pier. We could still see the harbor. It was much smaller than I expected and is literally just a little beach surrounded by very tall cliffs. There weren't that many monkeys while we were there, only about 4-5, and there were little crowds around all of them.
Some guys were petting them and they seemed really calm, so I desperately wanted to play with them too, but the idea of getting bitten and having to pay a visit to a hospital for rabies shots didn't seem appealing so I was forced to pass. I didn't have any food for them either so I had to settle for sitting forlornly next to them and taking photos.
I just want to be friends.
After about 15 minutes, we got back on the boat and headed into very choppy waters. Sea spray was flying over the sides of the boat and we were all drenched in seconds. Luckily that only lasted about ten minutes before we came into a calm area, floated past Viking Cave, and stopped in a bay of beautiful turquoise waters surrounded by tree covered cliffs.
The guides passed out snorkel gear and I took a life jacket as well because as I've discussed in the past, the water is not my element. I think I'm improving at snorkeling though! I barely panicked at all when water got in my tube and didn't kick any coral at all! Life jackets are great because I can just float on my back, fix whatever the problem is, and not drown. Plus my orange flotation device looks totally sexy in photos.
The water was so clear and gorgeous. We saw tons of fish! There were bright neon ones just next to the boat when we stopped, and we threw rice in from our lunches and they just swarmed up around us. There were loads of spiky black and white sea urchins on the ocean floor (I was careful to keep my feet up because one of our roommates had stepped on one the day before), florescent fish, and Lewis even saw a sea snake at one point. One of the best snorkels I've done (not quite reef sharks in Fiji, but still good).
Finally we went to Maya Bay, our last stop. This is the famous beach from "The Beach." Leonardo DiCaprio filmed on that very shore! Sadly he was not laying on the white sand waiting for me, but I dealt with the disappointment.
Getting to Maya Bay is a task though. First of all, there's a separate entry for the beach which was 400 baht (I heard it had been cheaper the day before but hey, whatever). I was actually surprised how many people that put off from visiting though. Lewis, Santiago, and I were the only three people on our tour who decided to go. The rest just snorkeled around the boat and waited. I mean, really, I understand not wanting to be scammed out of money or pay extra on top of a tour fee, but... it's like 8 pounds. It's really nothing, and if you already came all the way to Phi Phi, why not visit its most famous beach? People are silly.
After you've paid the fee, you have to jump into the water and swim over to a net. To get to the beach, you need to climb up these ropes, and it's not the easiest. There are about seven other people on it at the same time, the bottom is slippery, and as you climb barefoot the ropes cut into your feet. To be fair, I like things like this, so it didn't bother me, but it might put off others.
After we'd successfully climbed, we walked past some small cabins and through a jungle-y path to come out onto Maya Beach. It was full of people, but it was still beautiful! It was the cleanest beach I'd seen in Thailand so far, the sand was all white, the water was so blue, and it's hidden from the world on both sides by large cliffs.
Santiago had a waterproof bag, so we'd been able to bring our cameras, and we spent some time taking pictures (Santiago), swimming (Lewis), and climbing big pointy rocks (me). We had been told we only had an hour, so it seemed like no time at all before we decided we should head back to the boat.
Getting back out was a different experience. You could go back down the rope ladder, but there was an alternate way through a hole in the cliff. The problem was that waves kept crashing through as you were trying to extract yourself from it. It honestly wasn't that hard, but it was slow going because a lot of people were too afraid to just keep moving.
We made it back to our boat and started heading back towards the main island. Our boat driver stalled in the middle of the ocean to ask if we wanted to wait for the sunset, but we were all pretty tired out and voted as a majority to just head back. Great day though! Nobody should visit Phi Phi without taking one of these tours.
King of Thailand
As one last point of interest, we happened to be on the island when the king of Thailand died. He was the world's longest reigning monarch and was 89 years old. To set the perspective here, the Thais love their monarchy. Driving down the road, you'll see bulletin boards covered with portraits of the royal family. You will be arrested on lese majeste for insulting the monarchy. It's a huge deal. A lot of Thais looked at him like a father figure.
At worst, I thought that there might be some upset to public transport. The reality was way weirder. It was our last night in Phi Phi and we decided to go check out some bars in town as a change from the beach. Lewis had gone to see the Reggae bar boxing matches the night before and took me because I was interested. He immediately said the atmosphere was totally different. People were sitting around drinking, but it was really quiet. He said music had been blaring the night before and there had been tons of fights on. After waiting ten minutes, we gave up and walked somewhere else.
Well, we quickly realized that NONE of the bars were playing music. Everything was eerily silent. We had figured out by now that this must have something to do with the king, but we couldn't imagine the beach shutting down as well, so we walked over there to investigate. Same thing. All of the party lights were still on and people were sitting outside drinking, but there was no music. It was creepy.
We stopped at what is usually a party bar to ask about it. The TVs were playing memorial footage of the king, and the staff (one Western and two Thai) told us that the country was now in a period of mourning... that lasts for a year. There will be no festivities for a MONTH, maybe longer. Nobody seemed entirely sure since official announcements hadn't been made. And then one of the guys said the Full Moon Party was cancelled. What?! I actually was in shock. We planned this whole part of the trip around the Full Moon Party and were leaving the following day for Koh Phangan.
Everything was in total uncertainty, but all I can say is that for a country who makes so much income through tourism, the absence of nightlife for a month seems like a serious hit on the economy. I'm hearing about more and more even cancellations. So, as I write this blog on the ferry to Koh Phangan, I'm curious about what will happen over the next week.
EDIT: In case anyone is mistaken, I mean absolutely no disrespect in any way. As I stressed in the first paragraph, it's a gigantic deal for the Thai people and I really hope that they manage to cope over time. After 70 years, it's a huge loss. I was only trying to discuss how it's affected tourism while here and what it was like on the first night. It's not just one party, it could affect many events over the coming year and already is. Obviously the welfare of the country is more important, but these were just the immediate repercussions we could see. I took out the part about my main concern being the FMP because I didn't mean to make it sound like that was the most important impact, I just meant that it was a major disruption to our own trip. Sorry if it came off any other way, I try to keep my blog fairly light and definitely am not trying to be controversial.