Our ferry was scheduled to arrive at Suratani, one of Thailand's bigger port towns, at 6am, however, I was shaken awake by a tiny Thai man. "Boat here, get off"! I peered at my watch bleary eyed and moderately annoyed. It was 4:45am. Definitely the earliest I had been up in months. I looked to my left and Kevin was still asleep. Not even the piercing shouts of Thai ferryman could awake the other half of Team America. I packed up my sleep kit and travel pillow and debated how to wake Kevin up. A splash of water to the face or a swift jab to the ribs? I shook Kevin awake and laughed at his utterly confused expression. He, like myself, expected the ferry to arrive two hours later, thus, in theory giving us two more hours of sleep.
As a traveler sleep and money are two commodities you value highly. We stumbled off the boat and arranged for a taxi to the bus station where we could buy tickets for our journey to Krabi, Thailand's western major port city, and the jump off point for our next island adventure on Koh Phi Phi.
Even at 4AM the Surathani port was bustling with boats offloading cargo, eager taxi and tuk-tuk drivers, and sleepy, disoriented tourists fresh off the night boat. I remember feeling like a sheep being led to the slaughter as I hesitantly crept toward the awaiting queue of Thais. Kevin was still not quite awake and I was barely functional, (come on, 4:30AM is early for anyone!), so between the two of us we managed to flag down a taxi driver and get a ride to the bus station. We hopped in a tuk tuk with two English girls and were whisked through Surathani to "the bus station". Our tuk tuk driver stopped at a random corner and asked we disembark. We grabbed our bags and stepped off the tuk tuk to find ourselves directly across the street from the bus terminal. Apparently bus terminal in Thai means "small travel agency with even smaller table out front selling bananas and coffee, as well as tickets from Surathani to Koh Phi Phi, (our next destination). This was obviously NOT the bus station and the Thais were just trying to get us to buy the tckets from them rather than going to the terminal and purchasing them ourselves. Kevin made his disappointment clear from the beginning, and the next few minutes were spent negotiating a reasonable price from Surathani to Krabi and then to Koh Phi Phi by ferry. They tried to work us and even in our less than chipper state we managed to secure a reasonable transportation package. After persuading the travel agent lady to give us a free banana and cup of coffee for her disienguous scheme, we boarded a minibus and headed to Krabi. I had slept like a baby on the night boat, (thank you Xanax, and Sang Som), so the 4 hour minibus ride was bearable but boring. Kevin, on the other hand, was exhausted, I must have woke him up from a deep sleep, he definitely looked like an angry zombie. By 12:30PM we were on a proper ferry and excited to get to the island. Our boat docked around 2:00PM and we made our way to The Rock Backpacker Hostel. A grungy set of dormotories set up on a hill overlooking the central part of Koh Phi Phi. Phi Phi is a small town and, following the 2004 tsunami that devastated the region, our hostel was designated as a tsunami evacuation area. The walk up from the street to the hostel was brutal especially in the sweltering heat. We checked in to our rooms and were surpirsed to find we were sharing a large common room with 14 other backpackers. The room was hot, cramped, smelled funky and had massive amounts of graffiti scrawled across every possible writing surface. From the beds to the walls to bathroom doors, this place boasted a history of backpacker activity. Our first day on Phi Phi we organized a hike to one of the more scecluded beaches and enjoyed some less than spectacular snorkeling. Most of the coral had been bleached or finned and the marine life, while different than Thailand and Hawaii's was nothing exciting.
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| The view out toward Koh Phi Phi Ley from my spot on the beach. |
The two our long trek to the beach took the wind out of our sails and we decided to take naps. After our naps Kevin and I decided to hike to the Viewpoint. Besides a grueling hike up innumerable stairs the Viewpoint offered a magnificent view of Koh Phi Phi.
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| Sunset from the viewpoint. |
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