Koh Phi Phi, little Sweden and beer swilling monkeys!

Phi Phi consists of two islands, Phi Phi Don where people stay and Phi Phi Ley where the film starring Leonardo Di Caprio 'The Beach' was filmed. Although a little trashed by tourist's litter, Phi Phi Don is beautiful. There are no mopeds here to hurt myself on as there are no roads and the whole island is really laid back. The Tsunami hit this area pretty heavily and while there are some signs of wreckage, it is amazing how this island has survived and developed. The locals are all really friendly and happy people, something i'm not sure I would be if I had lost family members in such a huge tragedy. While staying on Phi Phi Don we took the usual sightseeing trip over to Phi Phi Ley to see Maya Beach where the majority of The Beach was filmed and to visit Monkey Beach. To get to Maya Beach we had to swim from the boat to a cave and then climb through the cave. When you think of Maya Beach you expect to arrive at a beautiful secluded beach with a few other tourists and the famous Thai longtail boats in the background to make the perfect picture...think again. Maya Beach was packed to the brim with tourists and speed boats lined up along the shore, a bit of a let down really but we managed to get the perfect picture which i'll post up soon. Monkey Island was well worth the visit...we kayaked our way to the beach and were a bit dissapointed to find that no monkeys appeared to be there. A few tourists had brought bananas with them and before we knew it, there were tons of the little things all wanting food! It was so cool to get up close to them. Once again though some tourists ruin the natural beauty of Thailand and just before I packed my camera away I managed to get a shot of a baby monkey swigging the last few drops of a Singha beer can left by a tourist on the beach... and another monkey was frantically emptying an empty packet of Marlborough cigarettes looking confused.

After Phi Phi we hopped on a boat to another island called Koh Lanta which is less visited by backpackers. What a nightmare...the boat was crammed full of travellers a bit like cattle with a huge pile of our luggage in the middle of the boat and it was boiling hot! Oh how I wish I was rich and didn't have to do things on a budget ha ha! When we arrived at Koh Lanta it was a bit of a shock...the pier is little more than a few poles of wood in the sea with slabs of wood across and we had to climb down a wooden plank which was almost vertical! Steven had to carry my rucksack down or I would have toppled over. A taxi (a motorbike with a carriage attached to it) then took us to our resort. The resort was okay but totally geared up towards Swedish people who I would say are about 70% of the tourists there. A Swedish lady told us that for some reason, after the Tsunami hit, Swede's flocked to Koh Lanta and there are now three Swedish schools on the island. We didn't do much on Koh Lanta other than go kayaking through mangroves and eat out quite a lot!