Phi Phi Islands: going out, fighting and snorkeling

After five rainy days in Phuket we were itching to get to the Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) Islands and prayed the weather there would be good to us.

We got a ride from our apartment to a pier 45 minutes away, checked in and were at our gate 30 minutes before our boat to the island was leaving.

We opted for the speedboat as opposed to the ferry because it cut the normal travel time in half, only one hour.

Bryce and I ended up being the only ones on the boat that morning.

We enjoyed the scenery while trying to ignore all the bumps and waves. Before we knew it we were docked at Phi Phi around 9:30 a.m..

To start off, we walked around the island for a little bit, getting the lay of the land.

Within five minutes of being on Phi Phi we were talking about how much we liked it.

Next, we checked into our room, got unpacked and checked out the restaurants around us on Google Maps.

We were hungry and decided to go to a place called Cosmic, approximately a one minute walk away.

That is the beauty of Phi Phi, there are no cars or mopeds.

The island is so small and everything you need or want is a very short walk away.

Cosmic advertised “good, not great” food.

We both got paninis and after our meal there we found that statement to be true, because the food was pretty mediocre.

After we were re-energized by our “good” paninis we walked to a grocery store and got some early-20-somethings-on-vacation essentials.

Vodka, mixers and beer.

We were back in our room, putting everything in the fridge when Bryce started looking up the best bars on the island, planning where we would go that night.

Guess what the #1 bar on the island is…

A muay thai kickboxing bar called Reggae.

If you know Bryce you know he loves and trains MMA so this was a very exciting find, as you can imagine.

Without even looking into any other bar we knew where we were going that night.

We read the reviews which talked about how after the pro fights are over they open the ring up to anyone in attendance. Bryce and I were laughing at the idea of him jumping in there.

We spent some time at the beach and a few hours later we are pregaming our night out in our room with drinking games we made up because we left our go-to, Beerio-Kart, back in Phuket.

I don't know how much time passes but maybe an hour and a half later we start walking to dinner at Acqua.

We both got a cocktail and shared edamame for an appetizer before our entrees of fish and chips and a burger arrived.

Dinner was gone and paid for but it was still too early for the fights so we went back to our room to pre-game some more.

An hour or two later we headed out for Reggae, but when we got there we were too early, nobody was fighting yet. So we went around the corner to a different bar and shared a bucket of vodka lemonade to pass the time.

The bucket was gone, we took a bathroom break, then again walked over to Reggae.

Once we got closer, the excitement in the building and muay thai music playing was unmistakable, there were fights going on.

Bryce mentioned how he was too drunk to fight tonight but he wanted to come back sober the next night and give it a go.

Sounds good to me, if it's fun I’d love to come back.

We stopped at the bar, I got what they called, a “girl size” Tiger beer and Bryce got a “man size” one, then we found seats in the front row and settled in.

We watched a fight or two, and then by some sort of MMA magnetic force, a guy is asking Bryce if he wants to get in the ring with him.

Before I even know what just happened Bryce is already up on his feet agreeing to fight.

He and this guy, Finn, are gone for two minutes and then back wearing their color coded muay thai shorts, headgear, shin guards and boxing gloves.

Next thing I know I’m grabbing our drinks and Bryce's clothes, buying him water and heading to his corner.

Bryce looks at me and says, “whatever happens, record it all.”

At Reggae the customer fights are three, one-minute rounds and you can’t use your elbows or knees and cant strike once you are clenched.

The bell rings to signify the start of the fight, they touch gloves and I hit record.

In the first round Finn kept trying to punch Bryce in the clench but it gets broken up every time because those punches aren't allowed and don't count. Bryce throws a couple punches to the face and some body kicks with only a couple kicks returned and no punches (that counted) landed on him.

In the second round there's some rock-em sock-em going on where Bryce and Finn both land punches on each other. Finn threw one that dislodged Bryce’s contact and he had to finish that round and go into the third one blind.

Bryce’s strategy for the third round was to walk forward and hit him since he knew his defense would not be good if he couldn't see the punches coming. Finn kept trying to fight in the clench and they both landed a few one last time.

The three minutes were over and both the boys were awarded medals and a free bucket of some alcoholic drink for the entertainment.

And luckily I had an extra pair of Bryce’s contacts in my bag.

Bryce said that when he was changing after the fight, multiple people in the bathroom told him that he was the winner of the fight.

Afterwards, we hung out with Finn and his friends as the two fighters enjoyed their buckets together.

Sitting there, watching other drunk people punch each other, a girl I was sitting by asked me to fight.

I laughed and said no thanks.

We hung out there a bit longer and Bryce heckled the guys in the ring until we got tired and called it a night.

In the morning we talked about how crazy the night before was and how it was our favorite memory from the trip so far.

The next day we slept in, ate food, walked around the island and chilled for the day.

Night time rolled around and there was still some vodka that needed to be drunk.

So we had a couple drinks and headed out for a night of fire shows.

The first bar we went to had a show made up of four guys who all took turns throwing fire around. Some had balls of fire and some had sticks. They even went as far as to throw fire to each other, over the crowd.

That show lasted maybe an hour then we walked to the other side of the island where we found another fire show.

This one was wild.

They had a jump rope lit on fire that customers could jump through for a free shot of liquor.

And there was this one Thai guy right on the water that was making everyone else look silly with his fire skills.

He even gave Bryce the fire to try and throw around.

When we got bored of that we made our way out and found a restaurant called Burger Shop which was just a bar with a woman behind it who seemed to know her target audience of drunk people. It was cheap, open until 2 a.m. and everything on the menu seemed to be deep fried or thrown on a grill.

But it was the perfect late night snack.

After that we made our way back to our AirBnb and hung out on the hammocks on the roof until we were too tired to be awake anymore.

We loved the Phi Phi Islands so much we talked about extending our stay one night but it was going to be more of a hassle than initially thought so we decided against it.

So, unfortunately, it was our last full day on the islands.

We had a half-day snorkeling trip planned.

At 1 p.m. we met with someone who worked for the company we booked with outside the McDonalds.

Which was weird but that seemed to be the meeting spot for a handful of the tours there.

We waited there for the rest of the people who were going on the tour to arrive and then walked a bit to the speedboat we would be on.

The itinerary was to visit seven places: Maya Bay, Monkey Beach, Viking Cave, Pileh Lagoon, Loh Samah Bay, Phi Phi Leh Island, and Shark Point.

The first stop was Monkey Beach where we walked off the boat, into the water and were almost immediately met with a monkey.

We walked around the beach for about 10-15 minutes, looked at the monkeys and took in the scenery of the cliffs, boats and ocean.

We climbed back on the boat and drove a few minutes to Viking Cave. Viking Cave is at the bottom of a limestone cliff and inside there is a large quantity of bamboo scaffolding and bridges that skilled locals use to climb up the cave in order to harvest edible birds nests. The bird's nests are the main ingredient in bird's nests soup and are one of the most expensive ingredients in the world.

Nobody is allowed inside in order to protect the birds and their nests as they are valued at 100,000 - 120,000 baht ($3,000 - $4,000 USD) per kilo (2.2 lbs).

Next, it was time to snorkel. We drove to a sectioned off snorkeling area, suited up with our snorkel and mask and jumped right in.

We saw a handful of different types of fish, coral reefs and sea urchins.

We swam around for a bit, enjoyed the experience and then got back on the boat for the next destination.

Maya Bay was next. It is part of a national park and required an entrance fee to get in (which was included in our ticket to snorkeling).

Maya Bay is hands down the most beautiful place I have ever been.

The cliffs, clear water and white sand were stunning.

Some might know it from The Beach starring Leonardo Dicaprio.

We had to walk a path to get to the beach and as soon as you round a corner and get your eyes on the view you can’t help but have your breath taken away.

After marveling at the sight for a few minutes we stopped at the snack shack 40 feet away and picked up a little bag of chips to share and an ear of grilled corn each.

The six hour snorkeling trip promised lunch but turns out “lunch” was watermelon and pineapple so we were very hungry.

Regardless, we take ourselves, and our too expensive corn (100 baht / $2.60 USD each), to the beach, sit down and stare at the ocean and cliffs for 30 minutes as we talk to each other about how beautiful it is and how crazy it is that we are here.

You aren’t allowed to swim in Maya Bay though because baby sharks frequent it and the sunscreen people wear is damaging to the wildlife there.

We see our tour guide trying to wrangle everyone together so we get up and head back to the boat to see what is in store for us next.

Next on the to-do list was one more snorkeling location where we were told there would be baby sharks in the water with us if we swam up against the cliffs.

Bryce and I jumped into the water and began heading towards the cliffs.

The water here was much more shallow than it was at the last location and it was growing difficult to keep our legs and feet from touching the coral reefs loaded with sea urchins below.

So we opted not to go closer to the cliffs to see the sharks.

We stayed where we were for a few minutes, enjoyed the snorkeling then found our way to the boat.

The second to last stop of the trip was to Pileh Lagoon.

There we got to jump off the boat and swim around in the water.

Bryce did a handful of dives and flips off the boat as I took pictures and admired the beauty of everything.

At this point Bryce and I both started to feel like the trip was dragging on.

We were having a lot of fun but we were running out of energy too.

After that we slowly cruised back towards the main island while looking at the sunset (which was too cloudy to really see).

Now the sun is set and we are ready for one last stop back at Monkey Beach so that we can get in the water and see the bioluminescent plankton.

We put on our life jackets, snorkels and masks one last time as we got in the water and waited for the boat crew to turn the lights off.

Once they did, we did as we were told and flailed our arms and legs around under water.

The bioluminescent plankton glow when disturbed so we watched what looked like a bunch of sparks all around us against the blackness of the ocean.

They let us splash around for about five minutes then we all got back on the boat and made it the rest of the way to the pier we left from.

As soon as we docked, we thanked the crew and, still hungry, Bryce and I took off to pick up a pizza.

We ate the pizza, took showers and then went out to squeeze in some local shopping before we left the island.

Bryce and I got tank tops and I also got a shot glass to add to the growing collection of shot glasses from the places we’ve been.

Bryce has started his own collection of beer bottle labels peeled off of the local beers.

Phi Phi Islands has been the highlight of the trip so far for us both.

Between the lively nightlife, the warm ocean and the crazy cliffs, what isn't there to like?

We already want to go back.