Koh Phi Phi and Phuket Part 1

The first part of this i am writing in my journal while sitting on a white sandy beach, in beautiful sunshine, sipping a pineapple fruit shake and gazing at a beautiful horizon(see above). Its New Year's Eve and im on the the tropical paradise of Koh Phi Phi just off the western coast of Thailand, near Phuket. Now that i've set the scene, lets recap how i got here. I left Li yesterday morning after the Teacher's New Year party the night before (so i wasnt feeling too fresh). At this we had a Kris Kringle on a larger scale and i ended up with a pink blanket to go with my fluffy cushion. This cracked most of the staff up and i just grinned and laughed along with them. Anyway i left Li on the bus in the early morning armed with my paycheck that i had received the previous afternoon with the intention of lodging it once i got to Chiang Mai. So i get there and find the nearest branch of the bank im using and walk in fully intending to walk out a few minutes later with the transaction finished. Sadly i didnt account for the complexity of the thai banking system. Lodge a cheque issued in a different bank in an account in a different branch of our group, are you crazy? Now, having worked in banks i knew what would have happened in ireland so i was perplexed at this inability to do what i wanted. I ended up having to cash the cheque in a nearby branch of the bank that had issued it, then return to the first bank and transfer the money to my account in Li. To do it any other way would have taken 7 days as they wanted to send the cheque back to li. So an hour later i had managed to get my money into my account where in ireland it might have taken 10 minutes to complete. This frustrated me and added to my tiredness made me fairly cranky heading to the airport to catch my flight to Phuket.
I bumped into Nancy, Markus and Tyler (all teachers off the same program as me) in the airport as we were all getting the same flight. Now i learned that the last ferry over to Phi Phi from Phuket would leave before i got there so i now had to figure out accomodation in Phuket for the night. I ended up crashing with Nancy and Markus, luckily. The flight was fairly straightforward except for the gang of crazy kids running amok around the place. Upon arriving in Phuket we got a minibus to the hostel and arranged a pick up and our ferry ticket for the morning. So all ready for the next day the 3 of us (Tyler had wandered off) walked around Patong in Phuket for a bit, got a nice meal and made our way to the beach beer in hand. We spent a while relaxing on the beach for a while and bought a stupidly expensive lantern but all in all it was a pleasant and relaxing evening. We got up early the next day (again) and caught our pre-ordered minibus to the ferry which brought us to the paradise of Phi Phi. We had a nice breakfast and went our separate ways. Its now early afternoon and ive been waiting for my friends to return from their day trip around the island so they can let me into the hostel. Let the fun begin......