The island had so many stray cats!
Waiting to be taken to our resort
By the time we got to the resort, it was after six o'clock so we decided to spend our first night on our beach. There were three other resorts on our beach and they all had their own restaurant. We were both tired from a long day of traveling so we went for dinner at our restaurant. While the resort in general was great, the restaurant left a lot to be desired. Safe to say, we didn't go back there for dinner after the first night.
Our resort had their own monkey
Our bamboo hut
The next day, we woke up bright and early to take the taxi boat from our beach into the main one BUT we missed the first one at 8AM. Noon it was! Instead we spent our morning enjoying our free breakfast from the resort, Rick snorkeled a lot and I sat in the sun and read. The reason we chose Rantee Beach out of all the beaches was because of the great snorkeling which was apparently right off the shore and what we had read didn't disappoint. Rick rented snorkeling equipment from our hotel and got right to it. He had an amazing time and I got to enjoy the sun. Win win.
We headed into the main town, Tonsai Village and our first stop was lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by our guide book, Cosmos, and we were so far from disappointed. Rick had ravioli and I had gnocchi.. probably the best pasta we have both had in over a year. If there is one thing that Taiwan can't get right its pasta but boy did this place get it right.
Next we hung out at the main beach for a bit, enjoying the water and the sun. After the beach, we went for dinner at a great Thai restaurant and then headed to a bar. We took our time because we had decided to stay in town until a bit later and take one of the taxi boats back (not provided by our resort). We knew it would be a little expensive for Thailand standards, around $20 CAD, but we really wanted to check out this one bar we had heard about. The bar offers free buckets of alcohol to any one who volunteers for an amateur Muay Thai fight so obviously we had to check it out. It was definitely an experience and I'd recommend going to anyone who is in Ko Phi Phi. The fact that guys are actually willing to get beat up just to save around $10 still surprises me but everyone is different, right?
Rick made a lot of monkey friends
Buy one get one free!
Then, it started to rain. We thought hey we better get out of here so we can take a taxi boat back. Then it started to pour. Then it got worse as we were running to the main pier. Then the streets were starting to flood. The streets that were once full of people offering their services of a taxi boat were empty. I stopped in a store and Rick kept going to find out if anyone was left. There was one taxi boat driver who said he could take us but not until the rain stopped and for $1500 Baht so around $50 CAD. Rick haggled him down to just over $30 and we began to wait out the rain. We really didn't want to have to pay that much but we also wanted to go back to our resort. Finally the rain stopped and so began the scariest boat ride of my life. I was literally convinced we were going to die, Rick was reassuring me but after the ride, he informed me the whole time he was thinking about the easiest way for us to swim if the boat had tipped. Thankfully, we made it back safely. And we never stayed in the main town past the last taxi boat provided by our resort again.
The next day we woke up early and went back into town because we had booked a half day tour around some islands, bays and it included some snorkeling. This half day tour was such an amazing aspect of our time at Ko Phi Phi. First we went to Maya Bay (the beach where the movie, 'The Beach' was filmed). After which, we went to a few beautiful bays and some amazing snorkeling spots. I am not generally interested in snorkeling. I have tried it multiple times in the past and it has given me a lot of anxiety, I could never get used to the idea of being able to breathe through my mouth under water. But, Rick really wanted me to try again so I did and I finally succeeded! It was amazing. We had so much fun snorkeling together, I was even able to see my favorite fish, NEMO! Rick was super excited that I finally got the hang of it because he loves snorkeling and now he could drag me along with him.
Maya Bay
Our half day tour ended at Monkey Beach. This beach is known for being rampant with socialized/wild monkeys. Tourists visit the island every day and feed the monkeys bananas, pineapples, anything. My friend had recommended that we go here so we were excited. When we arrived, there were a few other boats there visiting the island but no one else was getting off their boats. We decided to be brave and go try and feed some monkeys. They were totally willing to come up to anyone, as long as they had some food to offer.
After our day trip, we were exhausted so we headed back to our resort. When we got back to the room, we had the unfortunate experience of finding a tree frog on the walls of our room. We told the hotel staff and they removed it, unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my experience with creatures in this room. We later realized there was a major gap in our hut, hence the entrance of the tree frog. As well as so many mosquitoes that we were forced to use the mosquito net every single night. But that wasn't the end.
The gap in our room
How Rick fixed the gap; curtains, blankets, and rugs
We relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the night eating at a restaurant near our resort. In the middle of the night, I woke up to use the washroom. As I was leaving, I noticed a massive spider (about the size of the palm of my hand) right on the floor beside the door of the bathroom. With this bathroom, you had to lock the door every time you used it if you wanted it to fully close. I panicked. Started screaming. Woke Rick up and he was freaking out because the door was locked from the inside so he couldn't get in. Once I finally escaped the bathroom of horrors, I had the worst night sleep of my life. I knew the spider was there somewhere and I felt so sick with fear.
The next day, Rick examined the other rooms and saw that only some of them had the gap which allowed all sorts of creatures in. We were switched to a new room for our last night in Koh Phi Phi and I was pretty happy about that.
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