Phi Phi 2023

Finally, the time for Koh Phi Phi has come! We had been hyping this up to Ashley and were so excited for her to get to experience the island. Also, Tate was there at the same time as well. We planned our time there to overlap with his. It’s just more fun with more people! We were so excited to go back to one of our favorite places we’ve ever been. And even more excited to be able to share it with our friends.

We were up and at the Pier eagerly waiting to board our speed boat to Phi Phi Island by 9:30am. It was a quick, not-horribly bumpy, hour long boat ride. We stepped onto the Pier, paid our 20 baht entrance fee and walked roughly 15 minutes to our hotel for the next three nights. It was too early to check in so we left our bags at the desk and found something to eat. We ate slowly and talked about our plans for the next few days while we passed the time waiting for our room to be ready. After we got checked in we wasted little to no time getting ready to hit the beach. The tide was soooo low after we walked the couple minutes to the ocean. We had to walk about 400 meters into the water to be submerged up to our stomachs. We walked around, enjoyed the views and watched Ashley try to catch little crabs and weird worm things along the ocean floor.

After the beach we relaxed a little and got ready for dinner and a fun night out.

Of course the post-dinner, pre-night-out festivities revolved around pregaming with some beerio-kart. Tate met us at our hotel after a couple rounds of the game to join in on the fun. Around 9:30 pm we headed out to our favorite bar on the island, Reggae Bar. This is the same bar that Bryce fought in last year. We bought our admission beers and stood in the only area large enough for us four plus Tate’s friend, Corinna. We watched a handful of fights while singing and dancing along to the music.

After a while we moved onto Stone’s Bar. It wasn't far and is on the beach. There is a lot to see at this bar. They have a mechanical bull that drunk people seem to love riding for the couple seconds they're on it. Tate and Corinna even got on it which was fun to watch. Bryce was going to get on it but when he got to the front of the line he found out it cost 200 baht which he couldn't justify. In addition to the bull, there is also a jump rope lit on fire that people are lined up for. Last year when we were here they gave everyone a free shot for jumping the rope but they weren’t doing that this year. Tate, Corinna and Bryce all got their turn at the fiery rope. Ashley and I had fun watching everyone.

Around 12:30 pm/1:00 am we called it a night and went back to our hotel.

- I somehow have no pictures from this night :( -

Day Two on Phi Phi Island started out a little rainy and for some unknown reason the power on the island was out. No lights, no air conditioning, no water, no wifi. Shop and restaurant owners were doing the best they could without any power. The McDonalds and Burger King were shut down but the local owned businesses were slaving away in their dark kitchens.

Bryce, Ashley, Tate and I had a late brunch in a dark restaurant before we went to enjoy the water. What else are you going to do while the whole island is out of power? It’s screaming beach day.

So we got our bathing suits on and walked to the beach. The tide was a bit higher this time and we could get to water that we could swim in. Granted we still had to walk about 400 meters out but it was fun nonetheless. After swimming in the ocean for a bit Tate invited us to his hotel pool that was right on the beach. It was a huge pool with a gorgeous view of the ocean and surrounding cliffs. After that, it was around 5 pm so Ashley, Bryce and I headed back to our hotel and grabbed some crepes on the way. We laid in our beds, not-so patiently waiting for the power to turn back on so we could wash the beach away. Around 30 minutes later the power finally came back on. If I hadn't heard the AC kick on then the people outside cheering in the streets definitely would have clued me in.

We had dinner at this nice Italian place with the three of us, Tate, Corinna and Corrina’s friend Natasha. The pasta was mid but it was a good atmosphere and nothings ever really that bad when you’re on Phi Phi Island. After dinner, Ashley, Bryce and I stopped at a mochi stand right by our hotel for dessert. We tried chocolate, vanilla, mango, strawberry and blueberry throughout our stay. It was only 50 baht for one so obviously we had to try a bunch of them. When we were in for the night we booked our Thai Longtail boat tour for the next day. After that, I spent the rest of the night catching up on work I missed while the power was out.

We really made the most of our last full day on Koh Phi Phi. We had a yummy breakfast and got ready for our tour out on the longtail boat. It was a four hour tour and we would be seeing monkey beach and viking cave, swimming in a bay, exploring maya bay and stopping to snorkel. Very similar to our tour last year.

The first stop was monkey bay and it was a quick stop. We jumped out of the boat, walked up to the beach, looked at the monkeys for maybe 5 minutes then they were calling us back to the boat to go to the next stop. It was cool though. We spent most of our time watching three adult monkeys and two baby monkeys all sit on a rock together grooming each other. We climbed back into the boat and headed for the next destination: viking cave.

Viking cave is a quick drive by as we look into the limestone cave from the water. Inside there are wall paintings and it is a site for harvesting bird nests that is used for a traditional chinese soup. Side note: the ocean was wavyyyy and there were a couple times Ashley and I looked at each other like “this is it”. Luckily we survived to tell the tale.

Moving on we were on our way to a gorgeous bay to swim in the warm, crystal blue water. There were about 12-15 people on the boat with us and only five people got out to swim (including us three), weird but okay. We swam (a.k.a Ashley and I struggled to stand on the tips of our toes while we laughed about it) for about 30 minutes. We were (trying to) take selfies with Bryce’s GoPro but that is kind of hard to do while staying afloat. Bryce had me stand on his shoulders a handful of times and jump off which was fun. I would say that was one of the best parts of the day for me. There were lots of laughs and we were surrounded by gorgeous scenery.

Next Stop: Maya Bay Beach. Arguably the main attraction of the tour. We got off the boat and onto a floating dock while making our way up the stairs to the entrance of the island. We walked the wooden trail to the far side of the island where the view is. We left our shoes at the beginning of the beach and slowly made our way across the sand. It is really a stunning view. I don’t know if I said this in my blog about Phi Phi last year or not but The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed in Maya Bay Beach.

A few years ago people were allowed to swim in the water but they stopped allowing that in an attempt to save the ecosystem. Sunscreen was messing up marine life in the bay. And on top of that there were blacktip reef sharks galore. We saw a bunch of them while we were there this year. It was cool to see all of the dorsal fins sticking out of the water. We had an hour to spend on the beach so we really took our time enjoying everything. We took a lot of pictures, soaked in the view, searched for shark teeth and shells and wrote in the sand.

It was time to head back and our last official stop was to snorkel. They took us around the farside of the island to Maya Bay to snorkel and we were like hmmm there's a bunch of sharks here. But we got in and it was great. There were a lot of fish to see. A lot of the fish that you see in Finding Nemo were around us. We even saw one of the fish that we saw in the aquarium, it has little vampire teeth sticking out of its mouth. We snorkeled for around 30 minutes before it was time to go back to the boat.

Next the guides brought us to another location to swim but nobody got out so we watched the sun start to set there for a few minutes before heading back to the pier. We enjoyed even more of the sunset on the rocky ride back and it was dark by the time we docked. But the night isn’t over yet. It is our last night in Phi Phi, we have to make the most of it!

You know what that means… fire show! (and more shopping!)

When we got back to our hotel, we quickly showered and got ready for the rest of the night. First stop was dinner where we had a yummy Thai meal. Then we had some time to go shopping before the fireshow. Ashley pointed out this great glass-blowing stall where they were selling the cutest little animal figures. I got a turtle and Ashley got an assortment of elephants for her coworkers. We poked around a few other stores before we realized the bar where they do the fire show was quickly filling up. We grabbed our seats on the beach, ordered a drink and waited about 20 minutes for the show to start.

It was a great and entertaining show. There was one bit where they threw a stick of fire over our heads to one of the other performers behind us. It was crazy. They also do this act where they get people that smoke, line them up in chairs and spin two chained-balls of fire really fast in front of their face to light all of the cigarettes poking out of their mouths. It really is mesmerizing to watch them perform.

The next day was sad of course because we were leaving Koh Phi Phi. We had such a great time there. The memories will easily last forever.