We never know what to expect, what is a big deal and what is not around here. When we went to check out all three of us were standing at the desk and I put my credit card down prepared to pay for the extra cot in our room as we had 3ppl. The receptionist smiled at us and said you are paying for two ppl bungalow? "Uh sure" yes. So we paid the rate for 2 ppl. (Yes this is clearly dishonest and I'm sure Karma will slap us in the face)..but I paid and we carried on to have breakfast and finally asked a bell boy to help us with our luggage to the pier. At the reception desk a small commotion had arose and the receptionist made her way to us.. Busted!
..nope we were questioned about the third coffee cup that was missing from our room. (After morning coffee on our patio, mom had carried her cup to breakfast where she set it down). ..They had looked through our room and discovered a missing coffee mug and would not let us leave until we found the cup. Mom went over to the breakfast attendants and said I "left my coffee cup here"..they all knew exactly what she was talking about and returned from the back room a minute later carrying the exact cup....
Upon presenting it the reception crew, said "yes, ok, you can go to pier now"
Seriously??
Later on, mom and Kristen were chatting with a lady from the states who had a similar experience. She had put the bath slippers in her bag, assuming they would be thrown out after one use?..nope turns out they flagged her down and made her give up the slippers .. Or pay..
Packed up and at the pier by 9 am. We were herded down a long pier to long tail boats awaiting to take us to the ferry parked further out in deeper water. This was a very long pier and we note the crazies who are rolling and maneuvering huge suitcases down the wavy walkway. Backpacks are the only way to go but lighter ones would be better!!:)
Spent the entire 2 hour trip on the open top of the boat (well mom went down into the AC of the boat for 1/2 hr). The scenery was beautiful with the variety of islands as we ferried over. Upon arrival at the island bay of Koh PHi Phi we were immediately struck by the hub bub of boat activity, the hordes of long tailed boats, hotels everywhere along the shore and people everywhere. We were shuffled quickly off the boat and again herded down a long pier where a fellow on a loud speaker was telling us all that it was 20 baht per person to enter down the pier. What?...ok who can argue at this point. For the government?
The entire pier was lined with people with signs yelling out the hotels name. We heard the " Chunut hotel ", saw the guy, nodded yes and were told to follow. Chelsey had emailed ahead to see if they could transport our backpacks knowing this hotel was a ways inland from the pier. He was on his phone, steps ahead, not carrying anything or telling us what the plan was. Chelsey asked him if he could carry Tracy's backpack and he said "not far". 5 mins later he told us to stop and wait. He came back with a two wheeled cart , threw our bags in and we followed.
Once at our hotel, we checked in, told the guy that plans had changed and instead of 5 nights, we would only be staying 3. We looked ahead and had figured we wouldn't be able to make the right connections to make our flight to Bangkok, so we revised our itinerary and decided to go back to the beautiful, quiet and comfortable sand sea at Railay.
His name was "whut". Whut works 2 jobs each day walking 3 kms to get to the 2nd job. He survived a motorbike accident 3 years ago leaving him with many injuries.
Our bungalow was cute, spacious , quiet and most importantly had AC! We ventured out to explore,
This tiny island does not have any roads so vehicles and scooters are quite rare. The main transportation is by foot.
The tons ai village had two main beaches. We went to one at the hottest part of the day. The beach was pleasant, white sand and cooling water. Young travellers were spread out tanning and swimming. Mom and Kristen didn't have their bathing suits on so Kristen sat in the shade while mom cooled off in the water in her underwear. Pretty sure no one really noticed.
Temperature is in the 40s with high humidity, as it rains or storms every night.
A hot hot day, we picked up some drinks and headed back to our bungalow where we enjoyed the shade and the cool drinks on our balcony.
eventually we ventured out for supper, settling on a beachfront restaurant with a large long tailed boat in the front with cushions to sit on and eat supper. A young Thai boy was practicing for the fire show on the sand in front of us. He said it would be at 10. We asked if he could bump it up a few hours as that was waaaay past our bedtime. He said, so sorry. He thought Chelsey and Kristen looked so much alike. He laughed a lot. Nice to find a happy go lucky Thai person. The breeze felt awesome sitting here waterfront. Nice atmosphere.
We found our way back to our bungalow on the hill and true to our word, we were in bed by 9!! This travelling is hard work:)
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