Phi Phi was our favourite! Even though it was quite busy, and the habitable part of the island is quite small, it was definitely the one that had us feeling like we were on a small tropical island the most. Perhaps our room at The White 2 helped. Surprisingly I can’t find a picture of it. But it was a whitewashed white room, semi-outdoors shower and toilet and a little veranda set of table and chairs. Quite rustic but very comfortable. Interestingly all these islands have issues with, er, waste disposal. So all our hotel rooms had signs requesting that we please don’t throw anything into the toilet, including toilet paper! I saw this once on Crete with my cousin, but it was an horrific shock to Cath! You’re given the alternatives of either throwing the used bogroll into a dustbin next to the toilet, or alternatively using a little mini hand-held showerhead to blast clean the offending body parts.
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| Main jetty on island | Not 20m beyond jetty we stopped for our first of many Nutella pancakes |
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| Just fantastic | Where we WISHED we were staying |
Another problem with Phi Phi being so compact is it was almost impossible to get a decent picture of all the little alleyways filled with shops and people. Consequently I have stolen a few online…
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| That’s it for habitable land. You can see how badly they got taken out by the tsunami | A network of these little lanes bursting with pubs and travel agents |
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| Love this sign! | Relaxing into a Chang beer |
Given the denseness of the living area I expected pumping noise and drunken screaming at all hours of the night, but while we did hear a few bars nearby playing music late, with the windows closed and aircon on we hardly noticed. And almost everyone is there to dive, so most people were very well behaved.
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| The new tsunami sirens installed on all the islands | And tsunami warning signs with clearly marked escape routes to higher ground |
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| Rock climbing offered up that limestone face | Unopened bottles of Thai rum (space shuttle fuel) |
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| This Hello Kitty thing is following me around! | Early evening when the lights come on |
We hired a kayak for a couple of hours and just paddled along the edges of the island. Once you leave the sandy shore in the middle its pretty much jagged limestone walls all the way around. But the water is consequently crystal clear. This was where I nearly broke my knees being forced to jump off the kayak onto coral 30cm underwater because water 2m deep was apparently “where all the sharks live”. We snorkelled around for a bit before stopping off at monkey beach where I was mugged of my sunscreen bottle by an aggressive female. She growled, bared her teeth and lunged at me and I leapt back in a manly fashion, leaving the bottle behind.
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| Shoals of fish just below the surface | Well, um… |
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| Barrel-shaped coral | On monkey island – down the beach from the masses of tourists |
The monkey proceeded to gnaw and chew at the bottle trying to get to the liquid inside. Sadly there’s quite a lot of litter on the beach, I guess because people try to feed the monkeys and don’t really have any food, so they throw junk at them to give them something to play with while the take pictures.
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| Just after I was mugged | Baby looking for food in a Coke can |
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| …and then trying a cigarette box | Wrapper stripped off but still no closer to the liquid |
I eventually got my bottle back when she dropped it, but I can understand why people leave their trash there. The monkeys are aggressive because they expect food. In fact a little girl got bitten while we were on the beach and had to be rushed off to the hospital for shots.
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| Clam with colourful insides which it pulls back in when it senses something near | Scarier than a Great White sneaking up behind you! |
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| Savaged by an aggressive territorial fish | This boat didn’t quite make it |
Just before we finished snorkelling I had my hat-trick for the day. After the broken knees and monkey mugging I was set upon by an aggressive little fish protecting its “nest” or hole. It actually bit me when I initially didn’t move. Little bugger.
Before dinner I took a walk up one of the sides of the island to a lookout spot. Seriously steep and I walked the long way round the back of the island, but was a worthwhile view when I got there. As I’ve said you can see how the tsunami just took everything away. Up one beach and down the other. It was rebuilt quickly and you can’t see any sign of the tsunami damage anymore, save for the warning and evacuation systems in place. Dinner was spent wandering along the beach looking in at all the beach restaurants until we found one we liked.
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| View of the beaches of Phi Phi | Beach lights from all the bars/restaurants |
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| Same old boat still run aground | I think we’ll have a cocktail here! |
The next morning we were up early for a snorkelling trip through one of the many dive centres on the island. More accurately, we booked for a trip through one of the many trip agents, but all they really do is all work together and get different groups of people from different agents to the same boats. And clearly the morning we wanted to go there were 17 people and the boat folks weren’t prepared to use two boats but tried instead to cram everyone onto one. We would have spent the whole day in the sun sandwiched up against everyone else on a small longboat, so we refused to get on and got our money back. THEN we went to the dive shop and are delighted we did because we had a Swedish guide who took us out. There were only 6 or 8 people on his boat, he spoke English so he could explain everything we were seeing and it was a much greater trip.
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| All smiles with lots of room | Phi Phi Lay |
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| Decent depth now – about 6m here | Look like trumpeter fish |
We were taken to Phi Phi Lay – the sister island to Phi Phi Don (where everyone stays). It is such a rugged island that no-one lives on it and two bays and the near vertical rock between them pretty much make up the island. And Phi Phi Lay is where The Beach was filmed, so naturally EVERYONE goes to that cove.
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| Awesome colouration | Cath getting her dive on! No sharks here! |
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| Think this oddball is a type of puffer fish | Having a good scratch |
We passed a cave filled with ropes and scaffolding and were told that the locals harvest swallows nests because (wait for it) drinking swallow nest soup has mystical powers! Honestly. Apparently the nests are worth a fortune! And if the same bird comes back once his first nest is stolen and builds another one the second nest is worth even more!
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| “Viking Caves” with the swallow’s nests | The first big cove on Phi Phi Lay – very shallow water over sand |
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| Video clip from inside the cove | Turtles all over the floor, drifting past us for the surface to breath |
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| Denying all responsibility once again… | Making a break for air |
“The Beach” cove is now a National Park charging an entrance fee to tourists (unsurprisingly). Our guide took us to various spots on the beach and behind where the camp set was and where Leo ran through the bush and out onto the sand. Will have to watch the movie again. As I mentioned, its a major tourist hotspot, so they’re all brought here and the beach is pretty crowded.
We were told that the Thai government successfully sued the movie makers because they had agreed to return the beach to its original state, but apparently it was left in a state and when they did replant vegetation is wasn’t local vegetation. I’m very keen to see the movie again to see how they made it look.
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| Maya Bay – location of “The Beach” | Rehabilitated site of the camp in the movie |
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| More picturesque angle of the beach | …and then looking to the right |
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| Explaining the costs involved – covered in our trip price | A creative individual fantasizing about naked women |
And then finally, to top off the trip, we continued around the island, stopping off at the last spot to dive with Black-tipped Reef sharks. I’d be lying to say I wasn’t nervous. Cath was already hyperventilating. But again the guide explained the story to us and insisted we must be as still as possible and not swim after the sharks or they’d leave. And it was true. We all huddled together initially, nervously shooting glances below us, but they really are very shy animals, and getting a picture of them was quite tricky.
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| Very shy and keeping their distance | … but slowly circling all around us |
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| The hull of our longboat – seen a bit of coral I notice | Waiting for our ferry off the island we were homeless for a few hours |
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