October Half Term Wanderings...

Well, I've now been working at BIS for two months, and have recently returned from the October half term break, where I managed to squeeze in my first bit of travelling this year. I've been a little bit inconsistent with the old blog posts recently (my last one being about quarantine, a whole eight weeks ago), so thought I would take the opportunity to fill you in on my latest adventures... This half term, Georgia and I decided to venture to the nearby island of Koh Phi Phi Don and then move back to the mainland to visit Krabi from there. Despite some rather unsettled weather (when I say unsettled, think tropical storm...), we had an incredible time and met some amazing people along the way. So, that's my little introduction out of the way - now for the stuff you actually came here to read...

After a big celebratory night out on the Friday, we woke up early on Saturday morning to jump on the 9am ferry to Phi Phi (not our wisest idea yet). Bearing in mind that it's still the rainy season here, the ferry isn't the smoothest of rides at the moment, so I think we can agree that it wasn't the most pleasant of journeys... We eventually made it to Phi Phi (in more or less one piece) around two hours later, and attempted to find our bearings and set off for our hostel. After wandering around aimlessly for about half an hour, and being pointed in more or less every direction possible by various locals; we made the executive decision to call for help, and were subsequently rescued by our hostel owner. We had chosen to stay in a really cute bamboo bungalow for our time in Phi Phi, and it was a great find. It was super basic with just two single beds and a bathroom (no hot water or air con), but it had the most beautiful view over the bay so was totally worth it.

For our first afternoon in Phi Phi, we decided to head out and explore the local area (bear in mind that Phi Phi is tiny, so it really doesn't take long to find your way around). Just as we got to the end of the road from our hostel, the heavens opened and it absolutely threw it down for about an hour. We had taken shelter in the porch of a shop, but were swiftly rescued by a very kind man who invited us to shelter on the deck of his tattoo shop. We sat and chatted to him about our plans and how we'd ended up in Thailand during the pandemic (this is the first question that most people ask us!). We soon discovered that like most other businesses on Phi Phi Don, his tattoo shop had had to be closed as there are no tourists in Thailand at the moment. The Phi Phi Islands are normally a tourist hotspot, with so many people filling the streets that it can be hard to move, so the pandemic has thrown local business owners into really difficult times. I think a lot of people are under the misconception that Thailand is dealing really well with Covid, and although that is true on the healthcare front, it is in the midst of a huge economic crisis. This is highlighted when you visit places like Phi Phi, which relies entirely on tourism to survive. It has recently been announced that Thailand won't be opening its borders until a vaccine is generally available worldwide, and so it is very uncertain as to when tourism will be able to start up again. After sitting and speaking to Boy (the tattoo artist) for a while, he offered to design each of us a special drawing for good luck and good fortune, which he drew straight onto our arms (don't panic, not an actual tattoo). By the time he'd finished each drawing, the rain had stopped and so we managed to head out and do some exploring.

Due to our time in Phi Phi clashing with the storm, most of our days were spent wandering the tiny streets, visiting shops, getting massages (definitely one of the perks of living in Thailand - you can get an hour long massage for around £5...), and eating a lot of food. The food in Phi Phi was awesome, and we visited a mixture of both Thai and more international restaurants and cafés. You can pretty much find any kind of food you like, from Thai to Indian to Turkish to French. So that was how we spent a pretty large portion of our time (food pun absolutely intended). Unfortunately the bad weather meant that we couldn't head out on a long tail boat to the neighbouring island of Koh Phi Phi Leh - home of the famous Maya Bay and Pileh Lagoon, with its crystal clear, turquoise waters and incredible snorkelling - so that was the only real disappointment of the trip. The weather really was something else (see videos for evidence..); torrential downpours, gale force winds, thunder, lightning - the whole works... Most of our morning walks to breakfast were spent wading through ankle deep flood water! On our penultimate night, a tree actually fell on one of the main electrical wires for the island, and there ended up being an eight-hour power cut across the whole island! So that night was spent stumbling round in the dark with our phone torches and with zero power in our bungalow, meaning no fan...and in thirty-degree heat, that isn't so fun.

Weather aside, we did still have an amazing time, and I think this is largely due to the incredible sense of community in Phi Phi. Everyone was so unbelievably friendly and happy to see us, and couldn't have done more for us if they tried. We also met another group of teachers (all from an international school in Bangkok) while we were out there, so that was really nice. We spent our final night on the island with them and had such a good time. We went to a small gathering at one of the dive centres to start with, before heading off for dinner and drinks, and eventually ended up at one of the beach clubs to finish, where we saw an amazing fire show. So, although it wasn't quite the experience of Phi Phi we were hoping for, we still had a great time and I would go back in a heartbeat.

After spending four nights in Phi Phi, we hopped on another ferry to the mainland destination of Krabi. We were staying in the resort town of Ao Nang, which is usually the tourist centre of Krabi, but is a little bit of a ghost town at the moment. However, one of the plus sides of the current situation in Thailand is that hotels have some amazing deals on, so we managed to book somewhere nice, even with our tiny budget. It was certainly a lot more comfortable than our bamboo hut in Phi Phi anyway - having hot water and air con definitely helped! We spent our first day exploring Ao Nang, but there really wasn't a huge amount to see as it was so quiet. It also isn't the prettiest place in the world, so, coming from Phi Phi which is so beautiful, it was a bit of a disappointment in my opinion. However, we did stumble across an amazing Indian restaurant and the best Indian food I've ever eaten, so that was definitely a bonus! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, however the weather was still fairly dodgy and its not that great a beach, so it wasn't very long-lived.

The main reason that we chose to visit Krabi was to see the beautiful Railay Beach, which is just around the corner from Ao Nang, but only accessible by long tail boat due to the sheer limestone cliffs. The weather still wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either, so we decided to hedge our bets and book the boat trip. Unfortunately, it was a lot more expensive than usual as there isn't enough tourists to fill the boats, so we had to opt for a private trip. We ended up having an amazing time despite the drizzle, and I absolutely loved Railay. The boat trip there is spectacular in itself, passing through all of the towering limestone cliffs and even in the rain, the sea was such a beautiful shade of blue. Railay itself has everything you could wish for, from white sand beaches and towering cliffs, to caves and even monkeys! We actually stumbled upon the monkeys by accident when we were trying to find one of the beaches. It was amazing to be so close to wild monkeys (they were only about a metre away from us), but we soon came across a couple of much larger male monkeys, so swiftly back tracked as we didn't know how friendly they would be... Since the weather wasn't the most special, we spent our afternoon exploring the tiny shops, restaurants and bars that inhabit the area. There are only footpaths on Railay - no traffic at all - so it felt really surreal and special, particularly as we were some of the only people there.

It really was just our luck that the next morning we woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine... It was then even more typical that on venturing down to the seafront, we were offered a boat ticket to Railay for a quarter of the price we had paid the day before... As it was so cheap, we decided to take them up on their offer and head back to Railay for the day, just so that we could see it in all its glory. I'm so glad we made that decision because oh my was it worth it! The boat trip there was totally mesmerising. I have never seen such turquoise sea and the limestone cliffs looked even more spectacular than they had the previous day! This time, our boat moored up directly on the beach, and we had to hop off and wade through the shallows to get to shore. It really did feel like we were arriving in paradise. The first thing we did was found a spot on the beach (not difficult when there are only a handful of people about) and headed straight into the sea for a swim. The sea in Thailand is like bath water and just so beautiful and clear - you really could just float around for hours. On our way into the sea, we had noticed that you could hire a kayak for around £2.50 an hour, so decided that that would be our next activity. We ventured out round the cliffs in our little kayak, spotting a huge monitor lizard en route, and then out into the turquoise waters. It was amazing winding our way around the caves and cliffs, and we soon stumbled upon the most idyllic beach you could ever imagine. It was only accessible by kayak and so there was only us and about three other people there. It had the purest white sand you could imagine, crystal clear sea, and was lined with beautiful green palm trees. It was honestly like something out of a film. We enjoyed our paradise beach for a little while, before jumping back in our kayak to do some more exploring. However, with the weather being so fast and unpredictable, we soon found ourselves caught in the craziest downpour! We quickly paddled back to shore, getting slightly battered by the waves in the meantime, and were absolutely drenched by the time we returned! It was good fun but it's so crazy how quickly the weather can go from one extreme to the other here! Unfortunately that storm marked the end of our sunshine for the day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon sheltered in a bar, before catching a very bumpy and wet boat ride home!

So, that pretty much marks the end of my half term travels! We really did have the most amazing time and I'm so glad that we did manage one day of sunshine to really see Krabi in all of its glory - definitely worth the wait. We nearly didn't make it back to school when our taxi driver dropped us at the wrong bus station to catch our coach back to Phuket... However luckily, some very kind people at the station managed to get hold of our bus and convince the driver to swing by and pick us up! It's in moments like that, that you really see the difference between here and the UK; back at home if you went to the wrong bus station, there would be no way that anyone would help you, it would just be your problem to deal with! Everyone here really is so friendly and willing to help - the people are definitely one of the best things about Thailand. Typically, as soon as we returned to school, the sun decided to come out for a few days - basically summing up our luck with the weather so far... So, that's my half term adventures in a nutshell. It's nice to finally have a more exciting and positive post, rather than just me moaning about the struggles of getting out here and quarantine! I'm hoping to write my next post blog post soon, which will probably be on my job at the school and life in Phuket, as lots of people have been asking for updates on that. I hope you enjoyed reading this rather brief and incoherent summary of my travels - it's hard to write cohesively when the trip itself was so chaotic!

Rosie x