The Return to Phi Phi Leh

I got up this morning and headed out to walk along the beach before heading to the docks. It was a beautiful morning. The fresh warm air and the sounds of the waves crashing in, I have never been here before but felt welcome, felt safe, and had a small grin on my face as I walked down the beach, this is after all, the land of smiles.








I then checked out and headed to the docks. Like most docks in Thailand they are not really docks, just old barges that have boat after boat tied up to them side by side. Krabi only had three boats leaving unlike the 10 to 12 that left from Phuket, so locating the correct ferry was actually quite easy. And these were steel hull boats, unlike the old wooden ones leaving from Phuket. I jumped aboard and we were off. They said something in Thai and then we stopped about 20 minutes later. This was an unexpected stop for me but turned out to be a planned stop for the boat, just off shore from Railay Beach. This was perfect as I was planning on hitting Railay Beach after Phi Phi and now I knew I could catch the return ferry and get right there. After swapping some passengers we headed to Phi Phi, possibility my favorite place on earth so far. It seemed like a shorter trip from Krabi then from Phuket but if memory serves it was about one and a half hours from both ports. At this point I was just shooting with my video camera as I had already taken plenty of shots with my still camera from my previous trip here (see my first blog on Thailand for those).


I had stayed at two places on Phi Phi Don in the past, one which was great but a little out of the way, and another that was not so great but right on the beach. This time I was heading to Bayview, and as it turns out, right on the beach and very nice, all for the same price as the others. In fact next time I’m back here I’ll be heading right for Bayview. View of Phi Phi Leh from my room.


It was great to be back on Phi Phi Don, knowing exactly which stands had the best Thai pancakes, which corners had the best massage girls, and of course which bars played the best music. If fact one of my goals was to find out what CDs Carpe Diem was playing, a hang out from last time, and a bar that finished a close second after Banana Rock. I almost felt like a local, well, would have if I did not stand out like the typical western white guy. After I grabbed a Thai pancake and checked in I went in search of someone with a longtail boat as I wanted to get to Phi Phi Leh as soon as possible. It only took a few steps down the beach before I found someone who agreed with me on price.

I was off and it felt amazing, riding in some old wooden longtail powered by an old V8 car engine again, man I love this place. We made a brief stop at Viking cave and circled some of the inlets. The water was high, in fact for all of you who were with me on my first trip here, you may remember swimming to shore then walking over coral to grab on to a rope which helped you pull yourself up through this rock hole which eventually got you on the island of Phi Phi Leh. Not sure if any of you remember but there was a second rope there that went up over the arch that we crawled through. That is because when the water is high and that hole is submerged underwater you have two options, diving down and swimming through that hole or using that second rope to climb over the arch. I’m a weak swimmer so I climbed over, hiked down the path, and emerged at Maya Bay, truly paradise. Although I have to admit I almost did not recognize it with the water level consuming so much of the beach. At this point I realized I made a minor mistake, while I took great care in making sure my camera did not get wet, I forgot to take my wallet out of my pocket before swimming to shore, but other than having to dry out my money later it was no great loss, thank God it was still in my pocket. I took some time to further explore and bond with Phi Phi Leh then headed back to the longtail. On the way back we encountered a few wild dolphins, I tried to catch them on camera but if you watch the video I only briefly caught them, even when slowed down. Knowing that it was almost impossible to film them I jumped in the water hoping to swim with them a little, this time leaving my wallet behind. This was largely a pointless exercise as they did not stick around once I was in, so I returned to the longtail and the captain helped me back in the boat once he stopped laughing at me.

Once I got back to Phi Phi Don I wanted to walk around a little, and I was surprised at how much this place has changed, some structures torn down, others newly built. You kind of forget that this island is also home to a handful of people, except for some subtle reminders, like the Phi Phi longtail school boat and the kids outside at recess playing beach volley ball. Man, a guy could almost enjoy school out in these parts. I guess I should have had on some sandals as my feet later blistered from the hot ground, at least I had on a good coat of sun screen. I figured I could self medicate and relieve some of the pain with a Singha beer from Carpe Diem, and how appropriate that they were playing my favorite track from Buddha Bar: Nature when I arrived, yea sometimes things just work out perfect. I ordered a fried rice red curry, forgetting that Kyle ordered this last time and it was hotter than the scorching sun of Vietnam. However Thai food is hot in a different way than US food, the US just tries to make it hot without regard to flavor. The Thai really go for flavor and then hot, and believe me its hotter than anything you will find in the US, but because it tastes so good I was a member of the clean plate club within minutes. I quickly found the need for further self medication and sucked in a couple more Singha(s) and a Chang to try and cool down. However the damage was done and for the next four days my sinuses were a wreck from this.

I wanted to get some cash for tonight and found that my Visa card worked in less places then before, not sure why, but there was only one cash machine that accepted it when I knew I had successfully gotten cash with this same card only six months ago from any number of other machines. With a few thousand Bhat soaking up the moisture in my wallet I headed out to catch some fire dancing. This was a little disappointing until I realized that last time I was here it was New Years. I shot some video at both Apache Bar and Carpe Diem, both of which I would only give an average rating compared to New Years which was so far above excellent they have not invented a word for it yet. However unlike New Years I found my way home pretty easily, slept pretty well, and woke up with only the slightest headache.


VIDEO: Journey to Phi Phi Leh