#GoodMorningPhiPhi

I woke up feeling fresh and headed to the beach to catch the sunshine. So far, so good with the weather. Laura from Pai was meeting me in the afternoon so I figured I could handle a morning on my own with my kindle.

While I was on the beach I noticed a guy sitting near me. “Human!” I thought. “Could talk to another human!” It had been a while so I wasn’t sure if I would be capable of having a conversation or if I would open my mouth to talk and just say flibble by mistake.

“Oh, that wind!” Was my chosen opener. Not a great start but better than flibble. It turned out he was a teacher travelling on his own too from Germany and was in the same boat as me (metaphorical boat).

That afternoon Laura arrived and we headed out to find fried ice cream. Chocolate, peanut butter and Oreo flavour with caramel sauce and chocolate sprinkles...well that’s dinner! Apparently I’ve started replacing food with desserts and I’ve got to tell

you, it is the right way to live!

She was just as impressed by the beach as me but for some reason there was a really strong sewage smell so we had to leave. We decided to find the viewing point. More flipping stairs!! Hundreds of the things rose high into the cliffs, at least this time the handrail wasn’t covered in bag droppings.

We both emerged at the top red and sweaty. We appeared to have entered a weird garden littered with fruit sculptures. Obviously this called for a photo shoot so we posed creatively with each thing. The chicken got the best of our attention as we planted a kiss on each cheek (sculpture chicken...not a real chicken!) that would be weird... more weird...

Afterwards, we ventured on to find the main view. It was crowded on the rocks but the view was incredible. The two bodies of water were separated by a strip of trees and Thai huts, the huge cliffs jutted out of the ocean in a medley of shapes and sizes. The sun was just beginning to set; casting a soft light while pillows of clouds hung clustered above us.

Later, we headed out for dinner and drinks where Franz joined. We headed to the beach bars where we participated in all sorts of drinking activities, the limbo, skipping and trying not to trip over random shoes, stones and rocks. I couldn’t resist taking a spin on the pole in the one bar, a year out and I still got it, well, I didn’t fall and die at least.

By two am, all the bars fell into silence signalling home time.