Ao Pun Te

Another travel day but no less fun. This morning we went and had the same breakfast as yesterday in the same place (it was just that good) and then realising we checked out at 10 not 11, hurried back to the hostel to pack up. All in all, a great hostel, Frank the owner was brilliant and we wouldn't have got around the island with such ease if we hadn't spoken to him. He told us all the best places to go and it was brilliant. Anyway, we left our bags at the hostel as we had an afternoon boat, and went to the beach to relax. We found a lovely spot and settled down, had a swim and watched 2 climbers high above us on the huge rock faces that tower over the island. Tom dug an ingenious even if I do say so myself sand chair and sat writing yesterday's blog, and Izzi slept and went swimming. In the early afternoon we went and found a place for lunch (burritos mmmm), picked up our bags and headed for the pier. Also while walking down the beach paddling we saw a black tip reef shark which was incredible!

We checked in our bags and chatted to the guy who was at the desk. He was from Phi Phi and told us about the island, how it used to be in the top 5 best places in the world 20 years ago. You could see why from photos, 20 years ago the island was covered in green palm trees and forest but since then has had a built up tourist town dropped onto the middle of it, with more and more developments still happening. Beautiful island though, we're really glad we went there because there so many options and it would have been very easy to neglect it to something else. We got on the speed boat and made the very bumpy journey across to our next destination, Koh Yao Yai. On Phi Phi, out of the hundreds of destinations we saw advertised on boat tours etc, we only saw one advertised for Koh Yao, so we knew it was going to be quiet. When we pulled up next to the tiny pier, a few taxis were waiting to take the 12 or so people on the boat to their various destinations. We hopped in and drove off, and it was like going back in time. This must have been what the islands were like before tourists came along. There were no markets, no stalls on the side of the roads, a couple of very simple shops we passed could have been in someone's house. It was ridiculously peaceful.

After 10 minutes or so we pulled up at the gate to our accommodation. We were greeted by a lady who checked us in and took us to our hut. We were astonished by how quiet it was, so few people and it was like we'd stepped out of a huge concert into the street, and your ears are ringing in the night air. It's a lovely little place, with a few huts dropped amongst bushes and trees looking out over the sea to other islands on the horizon. There's a small area of loungers around a small pool, hammocks and beanbag areas, all far enough apart to seem like you're the only ones there. We went into our hut which was fantasticly equipped with bed, nice toilet, bath/jacuzzi thing, and air con. A backpackers dream. We chucked our stuff down and walked the 30 or so meters down to the sea. The view is awesome. The sea isn't one for swimming at this point, too shallow, but we're going to go exploring tomorrow and see what's around.

After looking around and exploring the site, we had a 2 minute silence of remembrance, then got washed up and went for some dinner. There's a very small open air restaurant which serves most things for about £3-4, not bad at all. Izzi had a very spicy (blow your head off) spaghetti and salt fish dish, and Tom went for a chicken thigh potato peanut red curry. Both meals were excellent which was good news because I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't another place to eat that isn't a locals kitchen for miles. Also a big selection of cocktails! We're staying in Koh Yao for 3 nights, so I think we'll recharge ourselves here after being on the go, busy doing everything every day so far. It'll be an interesting contrast to the hyped up, thriving places we've been to already, and with only a week to go in Thailand we're hoping we'll have got the biggest chunk of what it has to offer by the end!Read more