Partying on Pi Pi

Sorry for the radio silence - been a busy few days.

Climbing on Railey was amazing. It's such a beautiful location - a small bay nestled in amongst the vast limestone cliffs with the jungle spilling down into the bay. And it had a really great atmosphere - everyone climbing all day, then towards evening up on the cliffs you hear the reggae music starting up in the rasta bars and everyone heads down to eat and drink.

I tore myself away from there and got a boat to Ko Phi Phi. It was really badly devestated by the tsunami, but you wouldn't really know it now. I think they rebuilt the bars first, now the accommodation's almost back to normal (though still in pretty short supply and relatively expensive). The only thing I've noticed is that when you get off the main drag you see where a lot of the Thai folk are staying - basically sheds made of corrougated aluminium and a few beams. Pretty tough.

I've been staying in a dorm in the Rock Backpackers with a great bunch of folk. I didn't realise how much of a party town this is. I went out last night with a Croatian/South African, a Jewish Chilean, an Israeli, an Irish guy from Cork, an Australian and a Dutch guy. We watched a couple of Muay Thai boxing matches (completely staged) then they have a thing here where tourists fight - really bizarre and funny. No serious injuries last night. Though during the Muay Thai tagteam fight they had a staged ruckus where all four fighters came out of the ring and were brawling with a group of Thai guys. A metal tray was being used as a weapon, and at some point it flew across and smacked me on the head. Nothing too serious though.

Anyway, a hungover morning this morning - I didn't make it snorkelling - so climbed up a hill on the island over the cliffs to admire the view and sweat out the alcohol.

I'm now about to catch a ferry back to the mainland and try to get myself and my bike on a bus to Bangkok to start cycling north...