We arrived on Bamboo Island a little after 4 pm, our top notch captain and new friend Mr Nu helped us unload all our stuff from “Hollywood” the longtail boat and get settled in a tent. A park ranger told us there were some fishermen just around the beach and if we were hungry we could buy fish from them and barbecue it, he handed us an urn of hot water and we headed quickly back to the beach to have a MaMa cup on the perfect glowing white sand, looking out across the perfect emerald and blue sea, and off to the vivid blues of the uninterrupted sky… 

I was keen to get a little further around the island before sunset because a short walk from where the tents are set up lies my favourite spot… In the whole entire world!

It’s a small stretch of beach leading around to a small rocky outcrop, fringed by vivid green bushes and trees it’s the perfect place to watch the sunset over the mainland past Moskito Island. I really can’t stress enough just how stunning a place it is, when the light starts to fade the amazingly vivid colours of the sand, sea, sky and trees all seem to get brighter and carry on doing so until the only light is moonlight.

We’ve been to so many stunning places since we were last here and all along the way if anybody has asked me where my favourite place is I’ve always maintained it”s Bamboo Island, Koh Phi Phi. I was a little anxious that maybe it wouldn’t be as good as I remember or something had changed but luckily it hadn’t and going back only compounded it even more… In my eyes its the most beautiful place in the world!

As the sun sank behind a distant storm cloud we went back to our tent to fetch some snorkels and use the last of the light to have a peek at the corals just off the beach, as with everything on Bamboo Island the snorkelling was amazing – huge colourful fish swim by as if they don’t even care and smaller ones pop over to satisfy their curiosity. In the low tide the water around the corals was shallow and often schools of tiny fish would swarm closely around us, we saw huge Eels and giant parrot fish, barracuda and little clown fish (Nemo’s).

As I said our captain Mr Nu had told us if we wanted to buy some fish for a barbecue we should wander around the beach and we would find some small fishermen huts with plenty to sell – so we did and sure enough there they were, unfortunately for Georgie they only had squid but we bought some anyway for Sarah and I and one of the rangers even made a barbeque up and helped us cook it. In our supplies was a large bottle of Sangsom and as you know, no barbecue is complete without a few drinks so we cracked that open and got stuck into it with our chef and another ranger… Turns out one kilo of squid is far too much, but we did our best and by the time the Sangsom was gone we stank of squid and were sufficiently drunk to tackle a night on the groundsheet of the tent.

Being a national park and an impeccably clean on at that Bamboo Island has an abundance of wildlife, the floor is almost alive with all shapes and sizes of friendly little hermit crabs – we fed them and the Islands only cat what squid we couldn’t finish and said goodnight to our new and fairly pissed drinking buddies then turned in for a night under the stars…

After a pretty bad nights sleep we were woken by the sun filling our tent, we decided not to fight it and instead get up to watch the last of the beautiful sunrise on the beach under the huge sky. The soft morning light was just as beautiful as the evening sunset and we sat with a coffee freshly made by our ranger friend in awe until the sun was fully up and getting hot. A morning snorkel or two around the reefs and then it was time to start packing up because Mr Nu was chugging his boat Hollywood slowly towards us…

Twice now we’ve been to Bamboo Island and twice we have been the only ones to camp there, I really can’t understand why it’s not overrun but I suppose if it was it would loose it’s appeal a little. This time we didn’t get to enjoy a huge passing lightning storm but we did have a great night with the rangers and some sangsom also the whole time we were there not another tourist came along, not even on a day trip – that little slice of paradise was all ours again…

Bamboo Island, Koh Phi Phi… Paradise!!! was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog

With the gruelling journey from Koh Phangan to Koh Phi Phi behind us we stepped off the boat to a gorgeous sunny afternoon and made our way through the small alleyways and streets at the centre of Phi Phi Don towards some cheap digs.

Our room was one that wasn’t instantly shabby, we checked it over and gave it the OK but by the time we’d returned from checking in it seemed a lot worse and within five minutes the girls couldn’t bear it any more. We choked the room with bug spray and made it hastily for the lovely little Sunflower beach bar we found the last time we were here to watch the sunset and get some grub.

We ate well and sat and watched the sun drop between the steep and rugged limestone cliffs that Phi Phi is so famous for while enjoying some beers, it felt good to be drinking something other than buckets and what with the days travelling still weighing down on us it wasn’t long before we were all ready for bed… Well tired at least but the girls were NOT keen on our room on little bit!

We are on a whistle stop tour of Phi Phi because Sarah’s time is running short and also our shaggy pal Toby is arriving soon in Bangkok and the plan is that we all meet up and have mucho mucho fun. So because of that the plan was to get out on a longtail boat and explore the surrounding area and forego the Phi Phi party nights because, to be honest, we have been partying for a week solid and the price of a bucket on Phi Phi is too much… So that’s what we did.

We got up good and early to another beautifully clear day, wandered through the stalls and markets into town for some breakfast and then hit the shops for supplies…

We settled on taking Sarah to my personal favourite place in the world… The paradise that is Bamboo Island. I feel fairly satisfied that I’m qualified to call a place paradise and if I am – then Bamboo Island is just that!

With our big bags in storage and just a few bare essentials underarm we took ourselves down to the pier to find us a good longtail boat and Captain… We settled on our days itinerary:

1. Swimming in an emerald lagoon at Phi Phi Lay
2. Check out Maya Bay aka “The Beach”
3. A spot of snorkelling
   
4. Head around Phi Phi Don for more snorkeling
5. Then off to Bamboo Island for a nights camping
6. Pick up the next morning

We haggled for a good price and picked a captain accordingly… Our very sea worthy vessel went by the name of “Hollywood” a newly stained and fresh looking longtail boat and our captain – Mr Nu, a quiet happy sort of chap and super friendly to boot. 

Everything in order we set off to our first destination to swim off the mornings sweat amongst the towering limestone cliffs around Koh Phi Phi lay, blessed with blinding white sand at the bottom the lagoon is almost illuminous green and as clear as glass. Our friendly captain let us jump off the boat while it was still going along so we had a little splish splash for a while in the vivid water before following the cliffs around, past the caves where locals harvest the swallows nests that end up on the dinner table as the delicacy that is birds nest soup, to Maya Bay. Our captain wasn’t keen on taking us to “The Beach” until later on because of high tides and strong winds he wanted to leave it until last but we insisted and said we would swim around the back and walk across the small forested bit to the actual beach… He seemed happy and left us to scramble over the jagged rocks and down a very precarious set of stairs made from branches. Just as last time the trees slowly start to thin and the huge cliffs become more imposing and then just before we are clear of any obstruction there’s a little peek of the white sand and crystal blue water… Coming at that time of day meant we were amongst a handful of other people and although the wind was rushing through the gap in the cliffs and making the water choppy we indulged in yet more splish splashing. Sarah was literally huffing and puffing at the prettiness of it all and regardless of the fact we had been here before we couldn’t help but join in!

Back over the rocks and a short, slightly desperate swim to our boat and then a quick snorkel before setting off for open water and another snorkelling spot we visited before and were blown away by. Mr Nu managed to hook a pretty big Barracuda around the cliffs and was chuffed as could be, he offered it to us for a beach barbecue but I resisted… I thought it was only right he should have it himself.

We chugged gently around Phi Phi Don, the wind had slowed and the waves were almost gone, dreaming about small huts in the hills looking out across the sea and a little longtail boat for ourselves.

We arrived at the spot and wasted no time in jumping in and exploring the beautiful coral and amazing fish around the boat, of course we made sure we brought along our secret weapon… A pack or two of Oreo’s, a couple of them crushed up and thrown in turns the water into an explosion of colourful fish… Literally thousands come from everywhere, from the surface it looks like the water is bubbling and boiling with colour and from below it looks like a giant tornado, the colourful fish all in a frenzy swirling around each other… And anyone with Oreo’s. 

We snorkelled around that spot for a good hour before setting off towards Bamboo Island, I thought it would be funny to keep bombarding the water around Georgie with Oreo’s… She wigged out a little bit and started screaming!.. But the screams gave way to hysterical laughing so I chalked it up as a success and we set sail…

Exploring Koh Phi Phi in a boat called Hollywood! was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog

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>>>CLICK HERE for info on HOW TO: Go Camping on BAMBOO ISLAND

After we returned to Koh Phi Phi on our longtail boat trip we were plotting plans of camping all the way back to our guest-house, we went out for some food and decided on a buffet BBQ with mash potatoes and pasta salads all of which we haven’t had for ages then headed back for bed…
Bright and breezy we woke up and had breakfast at a lovely cafe next door and watched the BBC news on the TV while tucking in, then went off to town to buy provisions for our trip. We managed a saucepan, instant noodle pots, beer and a bunch of bananas… what else could we need? [/column]

We met up with mr Tok again who agreed to take us over and let us do a spot of snorkelling again while he waited, so we did and took some pics on an underwater camera and then re embarked and headed for Bamboo island. We got there about 1ish i think and there was quite a few speed boats and sunbathers lined up along the beach so after we had unloaded the boat and mr Tok spoke to the ranger and sorted a tent for us to rent we headed off in search of virgin sand. At the end of the beach are crops of very jagged rocks and we humped our stuff over several and several small beaches before we found one we liked next to a solitary longtail fishing boat and a little shelter with a few people sitting inside eating waiting for the tide to come in and pick the boat from the sand ready for a nights fishing.
We got to making fires straight away and after not too much effort and about an hour we had boiling water for some delicious instant noodles… half way through eating I had noticed that the tide was in fact moving pretty quickly and that some of the rocks we had climbed over to get there werent far from the water before, so we scoffed up and headed back to the campsite stopping on the way on one beach completely empty except for a big log laying in the sand and sat on the log looking out to sea at a deep blue sky trying to sus out if it was a big storm or just the sunsetting… we had a swim and as the sun went down everything seemed so quiet and the bright colours of the sand, sea and lush forest faded away we walked around the last crop of rocks to the campsite, only to discover we were the only people camping that night and although there is a very small local population we had the paradise to ourselves and the chap who hired the tent had expertly put it up for us.
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We got to making a fire and some hot chocolates and watched the last few flicks of sunlight dissapear before we realised we had forgotton to buy a torch, and the gereators powering the lights was turned off at 10pm. We had our fire and we sat around a bench half in the forest and half on the beach and watched the storm we had been hoping wasnt a storm attack the mainland in the distance with lightning so amazingly feirce and bright it lit our table up better than any torch and it was so frequent we could take pictures of the lightning with not much effort, we ate and watched the storm for hours until it seemed Bamboo Island was the only place that wasnt under it because it seemed to be all around now, and a few spots of rain started falling we took the fire (cleverly on a sheet of tin) to our tent and sat under the porch but it never really managed to get us at all…

The morning came and we got up at 6 am when its coolest to watch what was left of the sunrise and just sat on the beach and swam in the sea for 4 of the most beautiful hours I’ve ever experienced until 11 am when Mr Tok came to take us back and the tourist boats start to thunder across the sea from Phi Phi…

Bamboo Island Camping was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog

After the 3 in 1 fun trip we were all loving the longtail boats and because Laura had been too ill to come we decided to hire one for a whole day and go exploring the islands nearby… We got up bright and early and headed down to the pier and after a few hiccups (I had left our cash card at the cash point the night before only to be found by the friendly guest house staff next door) we were on our way with our longboat captain Tok… We had 6 hours and decided on an itinerary of snorkelling and island hopping. We headed out of the bay and around Ko Phi Phi past some amazing looking deserted beaches with only a few shacks on them and locals swinging in hammocks to a spot a few hundred feet from a beach, Tok got out a pineapple and a meat cleaver and hacked some into the crazy clear water above a beautiful coral reef, there were already hundreds of fish in sight just below the boat but once the pineapple was in there was a frenzy of beautiful blue and yellow stripey fish so we dived off the boat and got amongst the hungry little buggers. It was so fun, the fish would peck anything they thought was food off of you and stare thoughtfully right through your mask inches away as if they do this every day….which i suppose they do. The reef here was much bigger than we had seen the day before with huge coral caves and big strange fish lurking around in the deeper parts, also because the floor was sand and it was a sunny day it was amazingly clear. I went back to the boat for a sip of fresh water and a snack and thought i wonder if the fishes like oreo’s, and the answer was YES! they went mad for them as they turned the water all brown and cloudy hundreds came from all sides even some bigger ones from below and it was like we were in a tornado of vividly coloured fish… We swam for probably an hour at that spot before we got back aboard our hansome longboat and Tok our captain and our new friend took us to another hotspot this time with a promise of “nemo” fish and he didnt let us down, we did much of the same for another hour or so before heading to Moskito Island which is one of 2 islands off the west coast of Phi Phi and when asked for a beach to ourselves Tok told us not many people go there so we decided to check it out. It was a lush green island with 2 massive hills jutting from the sea like a pair of giant tree covered boobies and a beach just below the low point where they meet in the middle. It was beautiful and quiet and as we messed about in the sea amongst the jumping fish Georgie had an idea we should camp there and managed to pursuade us all what a great idea it was but after speaking to Tok he told us there is no beach left at high tide and the jungle was too thick for much of a camp, not deterred Georgie asked about the other island nearby called Bamboo Island and Tok said there was fine and they hire tents too, so we asked if before we head back we can go around Bamboo island so we can pick a spot for the next days camping adventure. As we poodled around the island spotting plenty of deserted beach we were sold even though it was a tourist trap by day at sunset time it was almost completely void of people and boats. That decided we made waves for Phi Phi and our last stop was another baron stretch of sand called Ao Lo Mu Di I think, as the longboat skidded along the sand to a halt we hopped off and it was a postcard view of lush hills falling to bent old palm trees stretching over almost white sand to the emerald sea. But when you turn to face the sea it gave me goosebumps, looking out past a few longtail boats with their colourful ribbons hanging from the front over to the distant mainland with the sun setting behind a massive far away storm cloud I just sat on a log while the others had a walk along the beach. I would live here for ever more if given the smallest chance! and if to tease me more right in the middle of the bay was a spot maybe 20m square where the palmtrees almost make a perfect square back into the brush just perfect for a wooden shack… But we had to go back now for food and we were all pretty tired from a long day so we strolled back to Tok and his boat and got on our merry way… We love you all millions xxx

Phi Phi Longtail boat fun was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog

After we had checked out of our lovely rattan huts on top of the big hill we went for breakfast and the girls went on a mission to find a better place to stay, it had to be good and cheap… which on Ko Phi Phi is pretty damn easy! After about an hour they came back with slim pickings so we thought we would try the place near where we had breakfast (sacha’s guesthouse) and as luck would have it they had 2 rooms left, lovely, clean, cheap and with balconies, we snapped them up and dumped our bags. The walking about with our bags on had made us all gag for the salty sea to cool us off so as soon as we were changed we popped off to the beach, we headed along to a deserted stretch so we had a slice of beach to ourselves and just splashed about in the clear warm sea for a few hours. The beach is in a large bay almost completely surrounded by massive high cliffs covered in trees and bushes and the water is so still and emerald green. We left just enough time for food before the girls had to be at “work” at the Tiger Bar as agreed the night before… They headed off and Toby and I headed for some beers, we popped along to see how they were doing and they were loving it! new people and free drinks so we went to the tiger bar to support our fair ladies and thats where we stayed until they knocked off and we all got fairly hammered and danced the night away!… For the next day we had booked a 3 in 1 tour: cliff jumping, snorkelling with reef sharks and sunset at Maya bay… And by the time we had all got up after the night before it was time to head off. First stop…cliff jumping, there are 4 heights to choose from 8,10,13 and 20 metres and after he had parked the boat and started the climb up the razor like cliffs to the 8m jump we were all already shitting it a bit and knowing that it would be pretty impossible to climb back down what was in effect a massive cheese grater we all flung ourselves off the edge with gusto…and it stung… alot. Toby went back up for the 10 and the 13m jumps but after the 13m he was done and had managed to bust his chin open when the force of the water rammed his necklace into it, and seeing as we were about to go swimming with sharks we all fibbed and told him it was alot smaller than it was so not to scare him too much. The snorkelling was absolutely amazing! we saw so many weird and wonderful fish and even quite a few sharks, the water visibility was probably 30m or so and when its that clear you reall get a sense of how deep and massive the sea is. We were out there for probably an hour just gorping at the fishes and reefs before we headed to the boat again to sea Maya bay. To get to the bay our guide took us to a tiny hole in the rocks about 4ft round where the waves crash against them and we have to swim over and nip through the hole between big waves. Once through everything is so quiet and the cliffs around it are hundreds of feet high, we followed a path through trees for a few minutes until they just stop on a beach…The Beach… It takes your breath away just how beautiful it all is and it takes a few mins and a couple of cigarettes to take it all in. We walked from end to end and just took it in as the sun went down between the cliffs as if it was the only place it was ever meant to be seen going down, then got back in our boat and headed back…

Maya Bay aka “THE Beach” was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog

Ko Phi Phi is one of the places that was really badly affected by the 2004 tsunami but you would never know it now, we decided to pre-book our diggs on Phucket at a place called “snowwith resort” along with the boat tickets. The boat ride over was really nice and comfortable and as we got nearer to Ko Phi Phi it all very beautiful, as we pulled into the bay the water was so clear and full of colourful little fish, ive never seen anything like it despite a shitload of boats its almost too clear! But we hopped off the boat and a man with snowwith resort written on a table tennis paddle thing and a big two wheeled wheelbarrow took our bags for us and trotted off and because we had no bags we skipped along behind him through markets and streets with a million girl distracting shiny things and amazing food smells until we got to a massive hill which was as much as we could manage without our bags let alone the poor sod pushing 4 up the bastard… He triumphed and we arrived at a gorgeous rattan longhouse with amazingly big bathrooms on split levels and mattresses on the floor and outside a long porch streching along 4 bungalows and haging from the cliffs above were loads more rattan huts in amost the thick covering of trees a good hundred feet up, fuck that climb! The rooms themselves were pretty, cheap and comfortable but after one drunken stumble up the hill we checked out the next morning…
Before we checked out though we went down the hill to a bar called sunflowers which is an amazing bar made from what looks like mostly recovered wood from after the tsunami and old smashed boats cut up to make seats, along the path to sunflowers is where the evedidence of what the tsunami did is most clear and because the people are so focused on looking forward there is a really good feel to the place. We had some drinks and food and chatted away to one of the owners then sat on the beach with a beer and watched the sunset, one of the best we have seen…
After that we headed into town to the Tiger bar for some more of those buckets of fun which apparently are everywhere in Thailand, and while we were there we saw a sign saying staff wanted and seeing as we intend to be here for a few days Georgie enquired… free drinks all night and 300 baht to hand out fliers on the street outside for a few hours… so Georgie and Laura went for it and we moved onto another bar called the reggae bar, which played fuck all reggae but did have a boxing ring inside, they put on a few fights between the local thai boxers which are amazing but staged, then invite people to knock seven bells out of their friends for a free bucket and even though they all get in the ring with the best intentions and their friendship in mind after the first person land a whopper it on! They are the fights to see, its basically a pub fight with gloves on…in a pub!
After probably too many buckets we all staggered back up the hill to our hut and watched a movie…

Koh Phi Phi was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Backpacking travel blog