Phuket Day 2 (1)

Woke up at about 7am and after washing up, went to the hotel's restaurant for their breakfast. I ordered omelette and bacon and toast. The omelette was huge, and the bacon strips were crispy and salty. Together with a cup of coffee, the breakfast was super shiok.

After breakfast, a minibus came to pick us up for our trip to Phi Phi. Then it went on to other hotels to pick up six other tourists, all of them angmoh couples.

On the minibus

Besides the beaches, Phuket is full of hills too

After a thirty-minute ride, we arrived at Chalong Pier to board a speedboat to the Phi Phi islands. Together with many other tourists, we were led by a quirky guide named Jacky.

The weather did not seem very good because of the dark storm clouds. Nevertheless we all boarded the speedboat at the pier bound for Phi Phi.

Chalong Pier

It was an hour ride to Phi Phi and on the boat we realised that Sluggie and I were the youngest and the only Asians among the other tourists. It was kind of intimidating. Jacky entertained us with his lame jokes and magic tricks along the way.

Finally, we reached the Phi Phi islands! The boat took us to Phi Phi Ley, the smaller island. As there was no shore, we could only take pictures from the boat. Then it took us to Maya Bay, famously known as the beach in the movie 'The Beach'. I was kind of disgusted because firstly, it was too overcrowded with tourists and secondly, one has to pay an admission fee to set foot on that beach.

Phi Phi Ley

Maya Bay

Nobody wanted to pay for the admission fee, so the boat took us to Pileh Cove for snorkelling. Armed with snorkelling masks and life jackets, Sluggie and I plunged into the waters only to realise we did not use the snorkelling mouthpiece properly. We were struggling frantically and gulped in mouthfuls of water. We quickly climbed up the boat and I felt so sick. The water was freaking salty. The stupid boat was bobbing up and down which made me feel even sicker and I went to the toilet (on the boat) to vomit. Out came the egg and bacon bits, and the boat driver wasn't impressed when he saw it (I had trouble flushing it away and had to consult him).

So while the rest were happily swimming, we and a few elderly tourists waited on the boat. Anyway, the waters were clear but not very nice. I could jolly well skip this cove.

Pileh Cove

Waiting for our hair to dry

Finally, Jacky called the swimmers back to the boat and off we went to Monkey Beach! On the way we passed by the Viking Cave, which is a cave with a huge bird nest business going on. Jacky did explain why it was called Viking Cave but I didn't really catch that. We were all busy looking out for any bird nest.

Viking Cave