Arriving at Koh Phi Phi about 2 hours boat ride from Phuket, we knew that our hotel booking confirmation had not gone through, but we still had a reservation code, so off we trekked through the narrow streets, following the route we were given by one of the guys at the pier. A short stroll after passing bar after bar, tattoo studios galore, restaurants and diving centres we arrived to find out they had no reservation for us, but they could accommodate us at their normal rate which was $25 more expensive per night than the deal online. Now this is where skype came in handy as a little lifesaver, the phone call that eventually tracked down someone at the online booking agency on a Sunday morning who said they were only waiting additional information from us to process the booking and that their email to us should say that…no email received, problem solved immediately, booking processed, hotel received and not once did the hotel try and help us to make a phone call, because their phones are not for customer use. As it turns out we could have stayed in just about anywhere very easily, but 50 metres from the beach and not next door to a beach club is hard to achieve on this tiny island.

The beach is very beautiful with soft talcum powderlike sand, but a strange event happens late afternoon when the tide goes out and there is this dirty, muddy looking beach revealed that was covered by water.

The evenings are filled with bars and bars, beach clubs with fire shows and people dancing into the night, I am including ourselves in the dancing, which we managed with our travel friend Jordi, we had met on the bus from Thai – Cambodia border.

Snorkeling in the afternoon with Jordi, Paulina, Guy and David, travellers from around the world we had wonderful experiences as we saw the colourful and diverse sea life close up in its own habitat. Now the fish are one thing but when an amourous crab took a fancy to Sharki3 and just would not let go, she scrambled to the rocks, risking slicing her feet open closely followed by me, the scaredy cat trying to knock the infernal creature off her. Finally he let go and guess who he jumped on, yep now he attached himself to my trunks, thankfully I was not wearing a thong, that would have been painful, nevertheless for some reason he clung onto my bum whilst a swam back to the boat. I did not even realize I had a passenger on board, I was too excited at watching the sealife below the water.