Koh Phi Phi
So i've been on Koh Phi Phi for 3 days now and I have to say this island is beautiful but at the same time the tsunami devastation is apparent everywhere. It's a shame because I would have liked to have seen this place in all it's glory. The entire landscape still appears to be marred with trash and debris as you walk around to where hotels and bungalows once stood.
Don't get me wrong; It seems the main infustructure of the island has almost been entirely rebuilt. Bars everywhere are open, bungalows are easy enough to find and shops everywhere on the main plaza/strip are all busy with customers almost oblivious to what happened. Development here seems to be continuing at an alarming rate to the point where Phi Phi will surely be overdeveloped to its' previous state.
The first night I got here I found two girls from Holland who had been wondering around for about an hour trying to find their resort and had no idea where they were. They managed to walk in the complete opposite direction to where they were staying and got hopelessly lost. Being the nice guy I am and with my extremely limited geography of the island, I had them describe anything that seemed familiar. Suprisingly, I managed to figure out where they were staying and I walked them back to their place. Crisis averted. Now who says Americans aren't helpful? 
Since this is the monsoon season it has been heavily raining off and on for a few days, only stopping for brief periods and then continuing on with more showers. Today is the first day I've seen the sun out in a while. The weather on the Andaman coast during this time of year is very sporadic with bouts of heavy rain and occasional spots of sunshine.
Because of the amount of my money I spent on accommodations and food on Railay, I decided that I would trim my expenses by finding somewhere cheap to stay. I managed to find a shithole of a place for 250baht (6.50USD)/night. It's pretty much the worst place i've stayed so far but it has a bed, a bathroom and a fan so it will surely suffice for a bit longer. The only major problem is that it is really far away from the main town with all the night life and restaurants so it requires me to walk about 15-20 minutes up a hill to the middle of no where. I've only got 3 days left on this island so i'm debating whether or not it's worth it to find someplace better.
A few other interesting things about this island. There are no cars or motorcycles here. Everybody walks or takes a bicycle. Ironically, where motorcycle traffic on the other islands can be a hazard, the only dangerous thing here is being ran over by a peddling Thai on a bicycle. In effect, not so deadly. Even with the hundreds of bars on the island, night life here seems to be centered on about 3 main bars: Apache Bar, Carlito's and the Reggie Bar. You tend to see the same people over and over again because Phi Phi is small compared to Koh Samui or Koh Phangan. Every backpacker more or less follows the same route so i've met many people that i've seen in Bangkok and at other places. It's really funny. Half the people you don't remember their names or have any idea where you met them but you know at one point you were drinking with them somewhere along the line.
Another strange thing about this island is that there are hundreds of stray cats everywhere which are extremely friendly. Most seems obviously well fed and taken care of. I had one kitten follow me half-way back to my bungalow after I gave it some attention. This is contrast to the other islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao where the problem is not cats, but stray dogs. Dogs seemed to have become such a plague on all the other islands that a dog rescue fund was started. For some reason, Koh Phi Phi appears unaffected. I haven't seen one dog since I got on the island and I much prefer cats.
I did manage to met up with the two English guys, Alex and Chris that I hung out with on Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Since they're sort of doing a similar itinerary i'm going to follow them down to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia for a while. We also briefly and randomly met up with the two Canadian girls, Tiko and Chloe that we met at our bungalow on Koh Phangan at the Apache Bar. I also met up with two other English girls, Lauren and Laura, one of whom I met on a travel website and was supposed to met up with on Koh Phangan but I never got the chance. I knew she was going to be on Phi Phi as well so I called her cellphone and i've sort of been chilling with them off and on. I believe they're also headed to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia so i'll most likely see them again on my trip.
We all sort of drank heavily last night so I haven't been feeling too well. I finally got a bit of sun today to aid my ailing tan and I managed to walk around the island to explore a bit more.
