Girls go gallivanting: Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi

Sunday - 22/06

Death Ferry

We left Krabi on a Ferry for the famous island of Koh Phi Phi - the island that was tragically hit by the tsunami in 2004. Fortunately since then, the Island has been rebuilt and is probably even better than before. Although, a local man in Krabi had tried to frighten us with all his stories of ghosts haunting the Island... According to him, as there were so many bodies that were never recovered or buried properly after the Tsunami, their spirits are still not at rest and as a result they continue to roam the world of the living...

Whether this theory is true is still to be established, however, what was more scary for us was the ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi. We hit really rough seas and as a result, the boat bobbed and swayed so violently that the crew even went around handing out sea-sick packets. Rox had even prepared her escape route, which involved putting the camera in a plastic bag, getting the water bottles, putting on life jackets and making her way to the exists. Needless to say we counted down every minute of the two hour ferry ride until we were safely on dry land.

Once arriving on the island we were herded like cattle with all the other tourists and got sufficiently touted but we eventually manged to break away and search for accommodation. After searching the entire Island (which is quite small and has no cars on it), we managed to find a lovely little place called Tropical Garden Bungalows for only R100 per night for a double bed fan room which had a swimming pool and a well stocked bar called the Tide and Time :)

The owner of the establishment - affectionately known by us as Mr Handsome

That night we went out to a place called Reggae Bar, where the patrons could fight each other in the ring for a free bucket. Even though Rox was keen to get the free bucket and to test her karate skills in the ring, she was wearing a dress and given the fact that Muay Thai encourages hits to the face and further that no gum guards were available, she decided to give this one a skip. This proved to be a wise choice since the girls who did enter the ring were surprisingly vicious and one guy did actually lose some teeth in a later fight (and Rox did not go two years of braces for nothing). [Right now I bet my Mom is super stocked to hear about my responsible life choices:)].

Monday - 23/06

Despite it being the rainy season and us hearing of flooding in certain parts of Thailand on the radio, it was a beautiful day and we decided to make the most of it- so we hit Don beach.

Bay-watch strut out the ocean

Later in the afternoon we hit the pool side bar for some cocktails

And of course some cheesy posing at the pool side

However, not all was paradise that day... In the middle of the night a thief got into our room. Luckily a loud storm broke out while she was there and we had to wake up to close the windows. We were quite dazed after being in a deep sleep cycle at 4.30 am but Rox soon realised what was happening and followed her in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, it was dark and Rox was bear foot so the thief lost her in one of the back roads after about a 200 metre chase. We heard later that the same thief had been to two other bungalows that night and had taken passports, credit cards, money, cameras and phones. Luckily for us we caught her in the act and she was only essentially able to steal some money.

Tuesday - 24/06

Even though we had had quite an ordeal the night before and spent most of the morning reporting the matter to the local police - we were determined not to let this invasion of privacy upset our entire day. We booked a half day tour which took us to all the tourist hot spots around the Island.

Our trusty vessel for the day 'Hagoree"

First... stop Monkey Beach

Monkeying around in the waves

Joy keeping a safe distance away from the monkeys (we had actually heard of a girl being attacked here a few days before and she had to go for five separate rabies injections- so we were definitely playing it safe!)

It is no wonder that these animals get aggressive - as people feed them all the time and as a result they come to associate us with food.

One of the crazy tour guides hyping the monkeys up

There were many caves within the limestone walls, but one of the most prominent caves was named Viking's Cave.

Viking's Cave where the birds' nests are collected to make soup

Our next stop was one for snorkeling along one of the incredibly rich reefs

Rox making sure the mask won't give her mask squeeze

We saw an array of marine life underwater - parrot fish, rainbow fish, clown fish, moorish idle fish and even a sea snake!

After braving some vicious waves and having to climb through a cave and climb over rope bridge we eventually made it to the famous Maya Beach - which is the where the movie 'The Beach' which starred Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed

This Beach was what we felt would be the perfect setting for our long anticipated Thailand beach photo shoot - it just had to happen..... Enjoy the visual artistry that you are about to witness...

Performing all the classic model positions

Sitting in the waves

Staring into the distance shot

Walking out of the ocean shot

Splashing around shots

Hand behind hair pose

Leopard crawl / hair flick pose

Working the rocks (our rock climbing a few days before came in handy in navigating this part of the shoot).

Action photos... (the 'pets and kids setting on the camera came was made full use of in these following pics)

Hand stands

Jumping for Joy

We found some poor tourist and made him join our craziness by becoming our personal photographer. After many attempts at perfecting our co-ordination we finally got some semi decent shots...

And of course no professional photo shoot would be complete without a BEACH SELFIE

Walk back to the boat through the jungle

Clear water for more snorkeling and swimming

On the ride back home we got to witness another incredible sunset

Our boat captain and his first mate

Aussie guys in our group - a dad and his two boys

Our last stop was for a night swim to view the luminescent plankton. They aren't evident at first, but if you splash around it awakens their self-defence mechanism and they light up the dark waters of the ocean - amazing to experience!