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Published: March 15th 2006
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Ko Phing Kan and Ko Tapu
James Bond Island. Notice the death ray on the top of the rock??? Hi. Its me again. We last talked on Ko Tao (by the way, pictures are now up http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Fraz/ ) before I left for Ko Pha Ngan and the full moon party. Becky, Helen and I got to Ko Pha Ngan, and were immediately disappointed. It was ugly, smelly, dirty and we decided to get the hell outta there. Frazer's total time wasted on Ko Pha Ngan = 23 hours. Becky and Helen went back to Ko Tao, and I said goodbye and left for the Andaman Coast.
But the good thing about travelling like I am is that you can leave any time you want, and go wherever you want without having to worry about travel plans, bookings etc... Backpacking is the way to go.
So I caught the boat to Surat Thani, and hopped over to the west coast of Thailand. The first few days I spent in a small city called Phang-Nga. Definitly different than anywhere else Ive been to so far in Thailand. The south of Thailand has alot of muslims, so I heard the call to prayer from the local mosque 5 times a day, which was something I havent heard since I went to the Middle
Ko Phi Phi Don
The beach Im staying on. East oh so long ago....
Next morning i caught a boat into Phang-Nga Bay, the Thai equivalent of Vietnam's Halong Bay. Except this time the weather was amazing. We scooted around in our little boat, stopping off at various beaches around the bay, including Ko Phing Kan, otherwise known as James Bond Island. This is where The Man With The Golden Gun was filmed. It was a little too touristy for my liking, but an experience nonetheless.
I left Phang-Nga for Krabi, where I missed my ferry to Ko Phi Phi by a few minutes. I had to spend 5 hours in a lovely ferry terminal (sound familiar?) until the next boat came. I got bored so I decided to try and make a collect call home. However, I couldnt get the damn pay phone to work in my favour, and I accidentally hit the speed dial for the local firefighters emergency line. That gave me a good excuse to quickly get out of the terminal and hide for a while....
So here I am on Ko Phi Phi, southeast of Phuket on the west coast of Thailand. Ko Phi Phi is a small island group of 2 islands, Ko
Ao Maya
Does anyone recognize this beach from anywhere in particular??? Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Ley. Im living on Phi Phi Don, on a beautiful beach far from town. The middle section of this island is an isthmus connecting two main island halves. The middle section contains the pier and most of the population of the island. It was almost completely destroyed by the Tsunami a year and a bit ago. There was 11000 people on the island on that day, and 2000 of them died. The destruction is still very visible, and the rebuilding is still underway. It is very hard to walk around the main town, because most of the Thais you see lost loved ones on that day, along with most of what they owned. There are alot of problems with the reconstruction of the island. The government wants to create a park where the dense commercial, residential, and tourist area once was in hopes of preventing the same level of damage if another tsunami ever hit. And so they have put a hold on any rebuilding, but developers have begun to build new resorts anyways, and the government seems powerless to stop them. At the same time however, aid money isnt getting to Ko
Phi Phi the same way as it is to the other destroyed parts of southwest Thailand (or so Ive heard).
I think that the best way to help Ko Phi Phi is to visit, spend your money, and tells others to visit as well. Ko Phi Phi took a 90%!d(MISSING)rop in its toruism industry after the tsunami, and it is still hurting. I also made a donation to a Swedish group who were here on the day the tsunami hit, and who have been actively helping ever since.
Today I went to Ko Phi Phi Ley, which is to the south of Ko Phi Phi Don, where I am. Nobody lives on Ko Phi Phi Ley as it is a national park. I hired a local boat driver to take me there see the island. I snorkelled around beautiful bays, and I swam and relaxed on Ao Maya- Maya Bay in Thai, also known as
The Beach. Beautiful.
So thats where I leave you. I think Im leaving here tomorrow. Where next, I have no idea whatsoever.
Heard it was snowin on Bowen.
3 weeks left, see you all soon. Fraz
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