Koh Phi Phi, Diving and "BRRING, BRRING!"
Hello campers! It's been a while since the last blog post. As we are leaving KPP tomorrow, I thought I may as well update our adventures that we had this week on KPP.
When we arrived last Wednesday (2 days earlier than planned because of the Krabi debacle!)
We were already half cut due to the Chang beer we had on the ferry! Not knowing that it is about 6.8ABV!! So we needed a pee stop and went to the first bar next to the pier for a pee. Thing is, it was for punters only, so we had 2 more beers!!
It was sweltering hot and we had to lug all our bags to the other side of the island to our hotel, through all the narrow uneven streets. 10 minutes later we got there, drenched in sweat and half pissed, only to find out that, because we Did not call to confirm our reservation, they had let the room! Bastards! And KPP was exceptionally busy as well. Most of the hotels were full. In a bit of a panic, I managed to find a place just up the street, closer to the beach. It was a quaint looking bamboo bungalow, quite nice for the price I thought, and what's more, at least we had a room for the night!
How wrong was I?!!!
What I did not realise once we had booked and paid for the room, was how noisy, hot and uncomfortable it was!! Being only literally 20m from the beach, was great during the day, unfortunately, at night, at both the bars to the right and left, they had nightly beach parties, with fooking huge speakers and bass bins!! It was sooooo loud that the whole hut sook with every beat!!! Whats worse is that it was like an oven in there! The one pissy fan did bugger all to cool us down! So, after being blasted with music and sweating bucketloads, we went to find another hotel at midnight, just to get some rest!! They were all full, so we had to bed down for the night in the hellhole!! Mercifully, the music stopped about 2am and we eventually managed to sleep! Needless to say, we did not stay another night! We found a little hotel on the other side of the Island for the next night and managed to get some decent sleep at last!
For the following night, we were over on Phi Phi Leh Island, camping on the beach in Maya Bay, which was the one used in THE BEACH. ( see previous post for blog about that)
When we returned from Maya Bay we got our bags from the tour operator and then checked into our original "hotel". I say hotel loosely, as it is just a couple of dozen bungalows. Mercifully, the one we booked was made of bricks and mortar and not bamboo! It was only about 30M behind the previous hellhole, but the Walls blocked out most of the noise, so we invested in earplugs!!
Had a quiet day mooching on the beach and a lite dinner by the pier.
Next we we went to Viking Divers to start our SSI open water training. We had to sit and watch some videos in the morning and In the afternoon went diving just off the beach in the harbour side of the island to about 3-4m depth, but learning all the health and safety stuff. Things like removing masks and replacing, bouyancy, breathing. All mundane, but necessary. Ju, bless her, who is not all adventurous, did really well and managed to all tasks. Unfortunately though, she did not really enjoy it and did not want to continue the course. Also, shae was a little scared about diving too deep and having a panic attack underwater. Bless her. I am sooo proud of her for trying though!
So I ended up going on my own for the second day. I was teamed with the same Instructor, Laura, who was great, and a Bulgarian girl called Antonia, who became more whiny and annoying as the day progressed!
We went out past PP Leh to a place called Shark Point (for good reason) and I did my first open water dive. Almost as soon as we got to depth, we saw a HUGE Leopard Shark! About 6-7 foot long! Just sat there, chilling on the bottom! Awesome to see. We ended up seeing 3 or 4 more in the next hour, among thousand of other fish!
We then had a break for lunch ( at 0930!) and then did a second dive in another location, both 12m depth. I bloody loved it!
It was much the same the following day, except this time we went to 2 other locates and went to 18m and it was just Laura and myself. It is so peaceful and colourful down there and I cannot wait to go diving again! I passed my final exam, got my SSI divers license and dive log and a video of my dives! Poor Ju. She feels sad about missing out and hopefully will be able to do a controlled dive in the Maldives, which I am sure she is going to love!!
This is now our final night in KPP and, don't get me wrong, it is a lovely place- if you are young and single!! There is so much onus on partying and drinking and booze cruises, that it sort of detracts a bit from the real KPP. And, as in Pangkor Laut, the soundtrack was Ju going AIEEEE, here it is BRRINGG, BRRINGG or BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP!!! that is the soundtrack of all the locals on pushbikes, cycling up the narrow streets, trying to get past!!! If they don't have a bell, the do just say beep or brringg!! It was funny the first few days, but now, just annoying!!
Overall, I have enjoyed KPP for the experiences we have had here, the tour, the diving, the beach, but I don't think Ju was overly impressed! Next stop is Phuket tomorrow for one night before we fly to Ko Samui the following day and then on to Ko Pangang when we land. Have looked online, and there and no raves on the beach in front of our hotel!!! So until next time............
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