Ko Phi Phi, Thailand - The Tsunami Alerts

It doesn't matter how early i get up, destiny does not allow me to get to my final destination on the same day. After taking the first speed boat I took a motorcycle that could bring me to the bus station. Once there, I took the bus to Krabi Town: The exit point to the Phi Phi islands.

I was planning to avoid very touristic places during this trip, but Ko Phi Phi has been calling my  attention.  If i had to surf through a horde of tourists to see the beauty of this island, i would do so.

I arrived to Krabi's bus station at 16:30. The journey to Ko Phi Phi would take me almost two hours with a boat. I was not planning to rush and arrive at night (if there were still boats available), so I decided to take it easy  and spend the night at Krabi. This time I found a very nice guesthouse with a very  hard lady who was a not a milimeter open to negotiate. The cleanliness the guesthouse, the tiredness and the need to slow down made me decide to stay at Chanchalay.

That night, looking for a place to eat I landed in a restaurant close to the Guesthouse. I ended up sharing table with a Chilean guy travelling South East Asia for a couple of months already. The dinner ended up in a prolonged conversation, and many words spoken lead to many drunk beers.  Around 1 a.m. and after many  covered topics we decided that it was good to go back to our guesthouses if we still wanted to continue our journey at a decent time.

Next morning, at a completely not decent time I woke up. It was 11 am already and I had to check out and find my way to the pier. Going down to the reception to have breakfast and to check out, I found a time table of boats to Ko Phi Phi with transport included to the pier. I arranged the ticket there and as easy as sitting down to have breakfast, the van came to pick me up and dropped me at the pier.

The pier is behind a beautiful boat station 10 minutes away from Krabi Town. And as expected, it is crowded with dozens of tourist who want to go to Ko Phi Phi. Waiting inside the station in a beautiful garden under the roof of a kind of colonial indoor patio, the time for boarding came. The dozens of tourists and myself started boarding a big boat with two floors and a deck. Inside the boat there was air-conditioning but not a nice view. Outside was more fun. I found a place under the shade,  book in  hand and camera ready, my journey began.

Seeing the island approaching to us bit by bit,  I understood why  this island was so popular. Green mountains, turquoise beaches and white sand made of it a visual paradise. We disembarked from the boat and I  was trying to look for a guesthouse that could be good and not that expensive. I found one on the north part of town called Oasis. It was comfy, clean and not expensive. For 400 Baht i could rent a room.

Ko Phi Phi is an island with beautiful beaches but that suffers the effects of the tourism. Compared rustic Ko Phayam, Ko Phi Phi is full of restaurants, stores, kiosks, bars, pubs, hotels, hostels, guesthouses and a lot of party. If you are looking for that in a nice environment, this might be the place for you.

I decided to merge with that world that night. After going to a very good local restaurant called "Papaya", I went to a pub where there were playing acoustic live music. The good thing about this island is that you can lose yourself in hedonism or you can just have a nice time. it's up to someone.

I remember that night that it was around 5:00 a.m. when  someone knocked on my door. When I opened, there was this girl outside telling me that a tsunami alert had been given and that we all had to pack our stuff and evacuate to the mountain. Half asleep, not knowing what to expect and with the Japanese word tsunami echoing in my subconscious, i started packing everything: Backpack big and small. I started going uphill to the top of the mountain but I couldn't find the way. The backpack was too heavy to carry uphill,  so I went bucket the room and left it there. At the end  the important stuff was in the small one. I went back and I found the correct way to the top, so my ascent started. After 40 minutes I had reached a safe top but the main top was still 25 minutes ahead. I arrived  to the top of the mountain after dawn and rain. Thankfully I had the  umbrella with me and I could find shelter while the rain lasted. The effort to reach the top was not in vain, a great view unfolded in  from of my eyes. Ko Phi Phi let me enjoy her for the first time.

After a while at the top, we were told that we were safe and that we could go down. I went back to my room feeling safe and looking for a bed to sleep a bit longer. Around noon and after a shower, i went out the guesthouse and I found Gustavo and Sabrina outside. They were also staying at the guesthouse. Gustavo proposed to rent together a boat and go and explore Maya Bay that was on the second Phi Phi island called Phi Phi Leh. After looking for boats at a good price, we found one that would take us with some other tourist for 300 Bahts from our island Phi Phi Don stopping around Phi Phi Leh and finishing at Maya Bay (famous for the movie The Beach).

It was a nice afternoon watching monkey, snorkelling and swimming. Maya Bay was alright, there are better beaches at Phi Phi Don. Almost before dusk we headed back to our island.

That night we went with Gustavo, Sabrina and a Dutch girl for dinner at the second restaurant of Papaya and then for a beer at the beach. The Dutch girl had not been told by anybody about the tsunami alert. We joked about it and told her that maybe that night she was going be awoken by a bit of water in her room.

They say in Spanish that you shouldn't spit to the sky because it may fall on your face. And it did. That night Gustavo woke me at 2 a.m. telling me that there had been a real soft earthquake that was felt in the island and all people was going again to the mountains. So, here we go again. This time there were more locals going up and it was amazing to see how good they were organised. They had local motorcycle patrols going around the inhabited small part of the island and guiding everyone to the safe points They were informing everybody about the current status of the situation. After two hours they told us that it was ok to come down after 20 minutes if no aftershock was coming. After 20 minutes we climbed down and I crashed in my bed. With this I was saying good-bye to the beautiful but capricious Ko Phi Phi.