In the vehicle-less island of Phi Phi, guesthouses have sturdy wheelbarrow/dolly hybrids that they use to transport luggage through these narrow streets: 

We thought we got a deal when we found a place for $15 right next to the beach, but then we stepped into the lobby: 

We checked in, thinking maybe our room was better? Nope. There were also two dead cockroaches in the bathroom. As soon as we turned on the air conditioner, a HUGE cockroach slowly poked out of it. I saw Louie’s face of pure disgust and internally laughed because that’s when I knew we were going to gtfo. 

We found a much, much nicer (and more expensive...) and cleaner place, but although Phi Phi is probably one of the nicer Thai beaches we encountered, it is very run down by tourism and well, cockroaches.

It’s also very much a party island, with lots of young people and fire shows. This is a bad picture, but there were 4+ people playing with fire like it was one of those ribbon twirlers from Barney. 

Oh, and the leader dude walked a tightrope WHILE twirling the fire. Louie’s got a video in case you’re interested in seeing insanity.

And of course the leader dude can jump rope on his butt. As in parallel to the ground. As in pulsating plank position. As in horizontally: 

We rented kayaks for the whole next day to explore the surrounding beaches, one of which was Monkey Beach: 

They were not at all afraid of humans, and they even knew (more than we did) that there was a cap in the front of the kayak where you could store things, so they would come and undo the cap to look for things.

 After seeing how they could chase people around with their teeth showing if they don’t have a paddle on hand, I stayed with my feet in the water and pretended to be a big monster because they seemed to be afraid of it. 

We also found a little beachy area with no one in it on our way around the island. It was pretty tiny: 

After that, the waves started getting pretty rough, so getting out of that beach was a struggle. We also attempted to keep going to more beaches, but by that point the waves were SO big, and we were getting closer and closer to where they were crashing against some rocks that we decided to call it quits a little early and go back. 

The morning we left, we decided to climb up to the viewpoints, and it was definitely worth all the stairs and sweat: 

And finally (this is for you, Austin) we got back on a ferry back to Phuket for our flight to Malaysia, and Louie saw Chase De Leo and his bag.