The Beach

The concierge at the hotel warned us that morning traffic in Bangkok would be bad during the week.  As such, we left in a taxi for the airport about 3 hrs before the flight.  After it took us 20 minutes to drive 3 blocks, we realized the concierge did not exaggerate.  It took us 45 minutes to go the 27km (16 mi).  Since we had left early, we had a fairly uneventful airport stay.  We even had time to grab Starbucks before the flight left (yes, we have seen many Starbucks in Thailand - Kat says the coffee tastes the exact same).

After leaving Bangkok by airplane, we landed in Krabi a little before noon.  Arranging a taxi and getting a ferry ticket was easy and by 1:40pm, we were on the boat headed to Koh Phi Phi island.  The boat was large, but not luxurious by any means.  While we were not the oldest people on the ferry, we definitely were not in the majority.  Most of the riders were backpackers in their early 20s.  While it was fun to reminisce about our backpacking days, it did make me feel a little old.  I realized I was no longer the carefree girl of my youth when I was annoyed by all the men stripping down to just their shirts.  While the sun was hot and the wait to get going long, Kasen did great and the boat ride was pretty relaxing. 

Here are some pictures from the ride:

We are sitting on the top deck of the boat.  There were no chairs, but an awning overhead gave us shade.  The inside of the boat was too hot for us.

Once we arrived on the island, we got some food then arranged for a longtail ride to our hotel.  We stayed at the north end of Phi Phi at Laem Tong beach (at the Holiday Inn - http://www.phiphi.holidayinn.com/).  Hiring the longtail was probably our first real hiccup in the trip.  We ended up trying to negotiate with a group of drivers and I definitely offended one of them.  In the end, we were stuck going with the original driver and at a higher price then we had been told we would have to pay.  In the light of the day, it wasn't really too bad just miscommunication based on  not enough information.  However it did prove the guidebooks right, do NOT offend a Thai or in the end you will be the one who has to give in to save face (and get to your hotel).

We were not immediately impressed by the hotel (we were dropped off at a dock in the back of the resort).  Someone did eventually come for us, but we all had to hoof it to the resort (with the hotel worker huffing our 3 largest bags).  After a good sleep, we all felt better and who couldn't love this?