We want to find a nice place by the sea, not too costly, and stay there a few days just to relax, snorkel, maybe do some scuba diving. We only have a couple of weeks so I don’t really want to be rushing around from one place to another. We do some research on the Internet and pick an outlying island that seems not too touristical.

We arrive at Nandi airport and take the public bus system straight to the nearest town, four hours drive, and super cheap.

Then there’s a drive by taxi, followed by a half hour boat ride to arrive at the island.

We have to stay in town one night as it’s not possible to get a boat today and besides that we have to do some food shopping for the next few days. We check out the accommodation in the centre – there seems only to be a single motel. I check it out – Ebru understands the look on my face when I exit, but she really has no idea of the things I saw in there…. makes me shudder to think of it.

A local taxi driver of Indian descent makes us aware of a better option and takes us there. It’s reasonably priced and we like it a lot. Its rooms are preserved as from the 1970s or 1980s – the carpet, the bed spread, the little FM radio integrated into the bedside table. It also seems to be a place where many local Fijians come to stay or dine (food’s really good), so there’s a really happy, smiley Fijian atmosphere going on here. We drink beer and swim at the swimming pool outside and converse with a couple (Fijian and an Aussie) here for a wedding. Awesome place.

There are many people here of Indian descent. It’s a bit like being back in India, except there’s so many Fijians around. Fiji, being a British colonial territory, was determined to be a suitable place for sugar cane cultivation. Indians were lured over to build the rain infrastructure (which they of course had plenty of experience in) and many remained here. It’s another thing that adds to the flavour of this country: the Fijians are cool, the Indians are cool, the country is cool…. perfect!

The next day we go grocery shopping and the taxi driver, whom we befriend the day before, takes us to the pier. A boat meets us, piloted by the trusty caretaker of the property Pravesh, who is, by the way, an expert fisherman! (Thanks for all the tips and bait mate!)

On the other side we arrive on one of the most heavenly little pieces of land ever created on this earth.

We stay in a lovely bungalow, called “Bure” locally, with kitchen and bathroom, a stone throw from the beach. Perfect for two.

There are no shops here, so our supplies we need to bring along from main land. Electricity (generator) only works from afternoon to about 10PM, and the drinking water is rain water collected in a large tank behind the Bure.

Our two weeks here represent our most vivid memories of tranquility, isolation, relaxation, just pure existence surrounded by beautiful nature alone.

We find a small resort on the other side of the island with an excellent diving instructor named Steve, a South African. With him we accomplish our PADI Advanced certifications, and, in the water, we see the most dramatic displays of sea-life yet – sharks, fish, coral caverns…. Impossible to give a just description.

And the underwater beauty is not only accessible from a diving boat. Almost daily we’re out for hours, snorkelling in the vast coral gardens accessible just 50 metres out from the beach. Literally like an expansive garden of flowers in every shape and tone, with all colours of sea-life hovering around. It doesn’t get more magnificent than this.

Of course I dedicate a lot of my time to my main addiction: fishing. And contrary to the results in other places to date, I actually catch a fair bit, and of an edible size!

And believe it or not, Ebru joins me!

So we have some lovely fish BBQs out in front of the Bure.

Thanks again Graeme!

In fact, probably the most impressive catch was off the back of the diving boat, trawling a line. Within 15 minutes I landed a 1 metre barracuda!

Oh, worth mentioning (if you find this place) that there is a food menu available here in the evenings, by pre-order, and dishes are prepared by Filo, the lovely Fijian lady who manages the place day to day. She makes a mean pizza, and other guests had nothing but praise for her cooking.

We meet a few interesting people as well. Jan pilots big freight ships through a major canal around Kiel in Germany – “Helmsman”, I think it is called – and he’s is here spending some quality with his special lady, who is a nurse and thus they lack this quality time back at home. He’s a awesome chap, full of life and humour, and he comes well prepared with a stock of the local 50% rum.

We spend some nights together, drinking beer and Cuba Libres and exchanging experiences from our travels. He has plenty of fascinating stories from his ship voyages around the world, during his time in the navy and working on research vessels. The best one of which must be the crazy story of when he and a few navy mates, stationed in the Caribbean, happened by chance upon an long-lost Spanish Galleon sunken 30 metres off the island coast, hundreds of years ago!

One weekend an Irish Priest and his accomplice, a Fijian missionary, come to visit. We spend a night in interesting discussion about biblical history, whilst taking part in a Cava ceremony – an intoxicating brew made with the powdered root of the pepper tree.

Talking of trees, we finally made some progress here with our Planting Around the World *L mission!

During our time – or time-out – on Fiji, the removal from work, routine and urban life really hits home in a big way. The experience is not that of a mere vacation any more. It’s becomes a state of meditation. If there was ever a specific state of mind I was looking for out here on the journey, I think this is it.

Our boat from Bali lands at Trawangan and we get off there as we know we’ll find accommodation and hope to strike a good balance between action and secluded relaxation here. The first impression is pretty good, the sand is fine and bright, the water is clear and deep blue and it doesn’t look very crowded at all. There are a few touts trying to sell us into one accommodation or another but we just sit down on the beach for a while until the new arrivals crowd has dispersed and then we begin our search.

It turns out the island is pretty busy on the Southeast side, lots of people, bars and restaurants competing late into the night. Diving resorts and bungalows packed neatly next to one another. – Thank goodness we’ve come off season! If you walk further inland there are a few more out-of-the-way guest houses with cheap rates, but in a place like this you want to be at the beach!

After about 3 hours walking the coast line and bargaining for room rates, we find a nice accommodation on Northeast side called Beach Bungalow (120KRp/night, quite cheap compared to the centre). The breakfast (included) leaves much to be desired though and the staff are rather lethargic. But it’s away from the party zone, well away from the mosque which threatens to wake us up at inhospitable hours of the morning, and it’s right at the beach front. Of course we have a 15min walk to get to the main market, but this is a price worth paying. (This is confirmed to us several times by other guests that move up to Beach Bungalow from accommodations in the centre, due to lack of undisturbed sleep.)

Not keen to entertain more blood-boiling encounters with Bemo drivers, we decide to spend the rest of our Indonesian stay here and take it easy.

We get up in the mornings, have a breakfast and then commit ourselves to the sea for a few hours, swimming or snorkeling. Sometimes we take a walk to the centre to buy food and drink supplies and drink a good cup of coffee. In the afternoons I generally swim out and go fishing from one of the boats anchored out in the channel while Ebru sunbathes or does more snorkeling. It’s a great pace of life.

The snorkeling is fantastic around the North side of the island where the reef extends over a hundred metres out and depths reach at least ten to fifteen metres. Fish are abundant and a spectacular show of colour! We’re really gutted that we don’t have underwater camera equipment. It’s less spectacular on the East side but even here we encounter lion and scorpion fish on one occasion. Also they have a turtle sanctuary on the island, so sea turtles can be seen almost daily.

Unfortunately I cannot say that much for the fishing. I do all my fishing in the channel on the East side and occasionally off the diesel tanker that brings the generator fuel daily. But all I catch is so small it’s only good for fish food. For anyone going, please note that fishing supplies can be found in a couple of shops just around the back streets behind the night market. (Make sure you go alone so your wife/girlfriend doesn’t see you buying more fishing tackle AGAIN!)

(Mainstream media failed to inform you of the latest threat: the Suicide Fisherman!)

We get to know some good people at the Beach Bungalow as well. As I recall it, each couple moved in next door to us after a rather disturbing episode closer to the town centre (noise, obnoxious guests etc), so they decided to find a place where they could get some sleep. Here they are:

Ruth and Roel from Holland. It was really funny having a dinner with them one night, as it turned out they seem to be undergoing the same interesting behavioural phenomena on their travels: she plans everything and pushes to keep on schedule; he doesn’t care how long it taked as long as the beer is cold and they’re having a good time. LOL!

Cecelia (Uruguay) and Carsten (Denmark)

At the History Bungalows just a few metres down from us we meet a chap called Chaia. He’s from Lombok, a rice farmer, but has come here to earn some extra cash. He’s helpful and honest, and we immediately become befriended.

This is a place where everybody will bargain with you for the last buck but not him, and that is something we really appreciate. His bungalows are pretty quiet at the moment but we spend a few nights over at his bar, hanging out and talking about life in Indonesia and elsewhere, and he introduces us to a local rice wine, which is non-alcoholic but gets its kick from a type of tree bark – lovely stuff! Chaia I hope you read this some day. We were so happy to have met you and really enjoyed spending time with you on Gili. If we make it to Lombok again some day we’ll try to look you up. And thanks for letting us plant our tree for our Planting Around the World mission!

Walking around the rest of the island (about an hour) there’s not much to be found but a few resorts which look rather empty, there is one great secluded bar on the north side and on the West somewhere they have the full moon parties, but that’s about it. The only place we visit in town worth mentioning is a night at Sama Sama where they have live music and a good vibe.

Regarding food, we’re unfortunately still struggling to find something we like, as with the rest of Indonesia, but the our best meals and definitely the best value for money is to be found at the night market. Several stalls are waiting to grill you a fresh fish to serve with salad, and some other stalls sell various vegetable dishes to accompany. I don’t think we ever spend more than 50KRp for a fresh fish meal for two. And aside from that, a must try is the pumpkin curry from the old lady’s shop in the alley just off the market. Just ask around and you’re sure to find it.

Now in truth, there’s nothing much I can muster in words to convey to you the absolute tranquility and awe we felt in this place, waking up to its simple beauty day after day and letting the picture-perfect vistas wash over our optic nerves with the sound of the water rushing over coral sand. Shorts & flip-flops day in, day out (no shirt required). Sun tanning you right to the bone. We were transported away. Hypnotized. Conscious, yet dreaming.

So instead I give you these photographs to explain as best they can. Enjoy….

Once in Padangbai we walk up the street away from the main ferry terminal where some touts have already come to sell to us, and approach the agency Perama Tours mentioned in the Rough Guide. Their guy says he can get us on the speed boat to the Gilis direct for 350KRp/pp. We also consult an agency next door (which looks more like a temporary establishment) who promise the same trip for 250KRp/pp, just using a different boat company (Mahi Mahi). Since it sounds too good to be true, I ask which boat companies they use and call up some of their offices directly using numbers from brochures and the rough guide. The details for all the departures match and so we agree with the agent that we’ll purchase the tickets from them but will only hand over cash once we and our baggage are on board the boat. This works out well and we’re on a speed boat en route to Gili Trawangan about an hour later.

The sea is quite choppy which makes the journey quite exciting (wet). What makes it even more rewarding is that it seems that most of the other tourists on the boat have paid about 600KRp for their tickets and we’ve got them at a bargain.

In fact, the guys at Padangbai also try to sell us the return tickets for 300KRp/pp. They state that the tickets are only sold at the 600KRp rate on the Gilis themselves. But we’ve been burnt too many times on Indonesia so we take our chances, and it turns out to be a good decision, because an agent on Gili Trawangan sells tickets at 250Krp as well.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
– Part with your money at the latest possible opportunity and don’t be misguided by a seller’s scare tactics.

We get off the Koh Tao – Surat Thani night ferry and get tuk-tuk-ed away to a travel agency where we wait for a minivan to Krabi. I expect the main Raylei or Au Nang beaches to be pretty overrun, but we hope to find a beach further North, not too main-stream, where we can take it easy. While we wait we chat to another English chap we met on the tuk tuk on KohTao, and according to what he tells us, it sounds like Koh Phi Phi is the place we want to be: beautiful, remote, cheap and not too overrun. We scrap the idea of Krabi’s mainland beaches and are soon on the West coast, boarding a ferry to Phi Phi Don island.

The journey there is beautiful, the sea is blue, we see big fish jumping out of the water in the distance. Phi Phi itself looks spectacular as we approach it. Palm jungle topped cliffs, smooth yellow beaches; however minutes after we disembark and start our search for accommodation our hearts begin to sink: the place is like a termite mound, full of termites from Sweden, South Africa, England, Germany, Russia – it’s heaving! Most of the accommodation is full. The vast majority of budget accommodation (we have a look at just about every place in the backpacker area and a few in the town centre) is shabby, unclean, yet quite expensive (700THB+) and anything on the decent side of the scale sets you back 1500THB or more. The attitude of the guest house- and market stall owners is pushy and grumpy. Screw this for a holiday…

Aside from some luxury resorts scattered around the island (accessible by boat), saddled between the two rocky mounds there is one low-lying, inhabited strip of land, probably about 1km long, 100m wide, with a beach and bay on either side: Long beach on the South, Party beach on the North. Long beach is not too impressive but more quiet, although the entire bay is littered with boats. Party beach is beautiful but come 6PM you need ear muffs if you don’t want to damage your hearing. The music from these beach-front clubs is turned so loud that you cannot escape it. Even on the furthest opposite side of the strip where we stay, shielded by buildings and trees, we hear the booming through the night – like camping at Glastonbury festival.

We stay in the best location on the island as far as we’re concerned. It’s as far away from the commotion as you can get, behind the staff housing. A lady named Deng rents out a few bamboo bungalows there, clean and we get it at only 600THB per night (though we know prices went up to 800THB closer to Xmas). You do still hear the noise from Party Beach and the generator house is nearby, so you hear that running all night, but I think it’s the best you can get for the budget. Also Deng is really helpful and she lets us padlock our valuables in a rucksack and store it at her house for safekeeping during the day.

50 metres down the path at the beach front there’s a guy named Suleiman – he says he is Muslim but you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s perhaps Muslim-Rastafarian. He runs a little beach-bar-restaurant, very simple and away from it all. He originates from Phi Phi, from a fisherman family and he prepares set menus from the daily catch, authentic island style. Also he rents kayaks at a very reasonable rate (600THB/day), does fishing trips and is very helpful and accommodating.

We find what looks to us to be the most professional PADI dive centre (named Barakkuda) and enroll for our AOW (Advanced Open Water). We get new manuals and everything and they go about the knowledge reviews quite diligently. Our first day entails the deep- and navigation dives. Deep dive goes fine, we do some exercises at 30m and I find I am getting narc’ed at about 25m, which is quite an interesting experience. After that back to the boat for lunch (included) and off we go to the next dive site for the navigation dive. The navigation dive goes down the pan because we end up in a current which sweeps us way off course and we have to can the exercises and just treat it as a fun dive.

Back at the ranch, we arrange with the instructor to complete the exercises in shallow water in the afternoon as we’ve missed out and off we go to get some rest. At this point I start feeling really exhausted. I take a nap in the shade but don’t feel any better thereafter so we go back to the dive shop to tell the instructor we can’t do the afternoon and ask his advice about my condition. His response is to the effect, “if you’re not feeling itchy or numb you’re fine… so do you want to dive tomorrow?” If you talk to someone about lice your head will feel itchy thinking about it, and as I was examining myself it was pretty hard to tell, so I waited a bit longer, resting in our bungalow and soon I was vomiting like a fire hydrant. Off we go to the island hospital!

We’re obviously concerned about the possibility of decompression illness from the dives, but soon enough the doctor and nurse establish that I have a bacterial infection (I think from the chicken sandwich) and a fever of about 38 degrees, and I spend the rest of the night on a saline and antibiotic drip. This I have to repeat the next two days, followed by four days of tablets. A bit of a bummer, but it’s better than DCI (DeCompression Illness) and the nurse and doctor at the hospital are really excellent.

The dive instructor seemed a bit of a numpty because despite the symptoms I was describing, all he appeared to be interested in was whether we’d be diving the next day. The owner, at least, is professional enough to show some concern about my condition and gives us a discount on the dives we’ve done and sorts out the paperwork needed to let these count toward our certification, to be completed at another PADI centre at a later date. Choose your dive centres carefully kids!

Our best experience on Phi Phi is on our last two days: We arrange with a local boatsman named Ren to pick us up at 6AM and whisk us off to Phi Phi Leh island, the little one further to the South of Phi Phi Don.

It’s only beginning to dawn when we set off and we watch the sun rise over the sea on our way. At Phi Phi Leh, we are the first to arrive at Maya Bay (now famous for featuring in the movie The Beach).

This place is an absolute dream! Our boat runs ashore amongst dense schools of baby fish which we at first mistake for oil slick, but as you walk through them they separate like a blob around you. We spend an hour snorkeling there in crystal clear indigo waters, among beautiful reef fish and even a few back tip sharks. It is absolutely gorgeous!

If you don’t go really early in the morning though, the place is overrun by dozens of tour boats coming from Phuket and all over the place.

Ren also shows us a few other bays and lagoons around the island, where we swim some more and we return home around 10AM. (The whole thing costs us 1300THB).

We then pick up supplies and bait at the market and rent a kayak from Suleiman for a couple of days. He includes a cooler box and dry bag free of charge and gives us loads of advice about where we can go, camp and find food or help if we need it.

We set off paddling around the island, swimming and fishing. It’s great. Unfortunately I only catch one reef fish of edible size though.

At sunset we paddle to the deserted Lana Bay beach and set up our tent and a fire for cooking. Although we set up tent well away from the water, we later realize the tide is incoming and we have to move the thing further up-beach in the dark! Just what we need in our fatigued state!

We were exhausted, but the roasted vegetables and fish go down a treat, washed down with a couple of Leo beers. Then we sit on the beach for a while, no one else in sight, nothing to hear but jungle noises and the splashing up of the sea. Glowing green Phosphorus is visible in the waves and lays washed up on the white sand and glow worms flicker in the bushes and trees behind us. How romantic! Just too bad we’re so exhausted!

The next morning we get up early, I get the fire going and as we start cooking breakfast the first tour boats arrive. By the time food is ready, tourists are pouring off, setting up on the beach for their hour of paradise and everyone is surprised to see us there… two hobos with camping gear eating eggs and drinking hot coffee.

A funny thing is when we’re leaving Phi Phi, we notice that a few places are all decorated with Xmas tinsel and things, and for the first time we realize that it’s Christmas TOMORROW! and have to laugh at the fact that we completely by-passed the at-least-month’s worth of Xmas advertising that we’d have been surrounded by back home.

In conclusion, it must be said that the Phi Phi islands are without a doubt some of the most beautiful islands off Thailand and there are a fair few activities there (climbing, fishing, walking, diving, kayaking etc). If you’ve got an ample budget and are up for a few days of party with some interesting excursions in-between this is probably a good place to go. However if you’re looking to avoid large [drunken] crowds and want to enjoy a place of natural beauty and be able to get away from the fray, Phi Phi is not it – UNLESS maybe you have the budget to put yourself up in one of the secluded luxury resorts on the other sides of the island.

We booked the complete transfer between Luang Prabang (Lao) and Chiang Mai (Thailand) via a tour company in LP as we wanted to avoid losing time finding all the transport connections ourselves.

Overview:
– Ticket cost: 310000LAK/pp
– Get to LP North bus terminal
– Take bus from LP to Huei Xai terminal (Bokeo Province)
– Get to the Huei Xai – Chiang Khong river crossing
– Go to Immigration (exit procedures)
– Take boat to Chiang Khong (Thailand)
– Go to Immigration (entry procedures)
– Get to next transport connection to Chiang Mai

The Lao agent (Andy’s Air Ticketing Service, 49/3 Khemkong Road LP, Tel.+856-71260505) gave us a ticket receipt to the border town of Huei Xai and another one which we would show to the tuk-tuk driver there as well as their partner agents along the way for free onward transport.

Initial pick-up was at 18:00 in front of our guest house by tuk-tuk and dropped us off at the LP Nort bus station about 15 minutes later.

At the terminal office we showed our purchase receipt and got our bus tickets. The 19:00 “VIP” bus left almost on schedule (though another traveller told me the buses normally leave when they’re full so we may have been lucky). The ride to Huei Xai took 12 hours (on time).

The trip was not no luxury by western standards but no long bus trip is comfortable and all in all it was not bad. Although all seats were occupied, several pickups were made along the main road, the last being about 5 people who had rolled their car off into the vegetation. (I have no problem this as long as it doesn’t cause big delays or serious discomfort to paying passengers. These poeple also need to get somewhere and don’t have the variety of options we take for granted. They were camped out on the floor and I could only empathise with the discomfort of sitting cramped upright for several hours. There was no on board toilet as explained to us but this is a safer option as they can start to stink; several “refreshment” stops were made. Air con on older buses tends to be a problem so take something warm on board including something for your head.)

We showed our tickets to a tuk-tuk driver in Huei Xai who dropped us off at the partner agent. The partner was located right at the river crossing. They paid the tuk-tuk driver, converted our receipts to minivan tickets for the other side and put a sticker on us to signal a free ride with a tuk-tuk on the Thai side. They excorted us to the immigation office for passport stamping (no fee was involved) and then to the boat. (There is also a money exchange office right at the border office so you can convert your remaining LAK to THB).

Bye Bye Lao. The boat trip to the Thai post was about 5 minutes and there we simply filled out our arrival/departure forms and got our Visa On Arrival stamp for 14 days. Again no fee.

We got on a tuk-tuk near the immigration office, which took us to the partner agent on the Thai side (about 10 minutes). They checked our minivan tickets and half an hour later we were seated in a nice minivan en route to Chiang Mai.