Advertisement
Published: June 19th 2006
Being with the fishes
Chris cooling off in the waters of Phi Phi Island.The arrival into Phi Phi Island is spectualar. We were worried that we were going to be disappointed in this area, as anyone who has seen 'The Beach' has pretty high expectations of it!
I have to say that the Phi Phi Islands are one of the most beautiful places on earth. The cliffs are amazing, the sand is pure white and the sea is like a bath tub. Crystal clear waters and fatastic coral reefs with marine life.
I don't know how much longer this paradise will remain though. The development is non-stop and by travelling there we have really fuelled this development frenzy. The development on Phi Phi has not been done with the environment in mind. The main port is gross but there still seems to be plenty of fish about. The certainaly didn't let the tsunami stop anything over here. People we met said that in time the development will be even more of an eye-sore than before.
We took one look at the main beach and took off to some of the more remote beaches. The one we loved (our budget liked it too) was Long Beach which is a good option if
you want to enjoy the Island without all the Boom Boom bars.
We stayed one night at one of the beaches further around. We felt like we had stumbled into a commune for washed up hippies. We shared our hut with some of the scariest insects we've ever seen but the cat-sized lizard hiding behind the headboard made me lose the plot completely. It emitted a high pitched shriek and spent the night staring down at us with beady little eyes. The giant spider that spent the night on the misquito net only inches from my head didn't help either. We were pretty happy to get a better place at Long Beach.
The snorking around the Islands was fantastic. Amazing fish life - every colour of the rainbow. Maya Bay (where 'The Beach' was filmed) is still beautiful but the rest of the world has discovered this paradise too so there are HEAPS of boats there. Thank goodness there is no building allowed there as it would be history by now!
Bamboo Island is also a beautiful Island that cannot be developed. Totally amazing - the tropical island paradise you always dreamed of. We felt so lucky
to be in such an fantastic place.
On our snorkling trip we met a lovely couple from USA and NZ called Heidi and Dan, and later another great couple from the USA called Kiki and Matt (Buskins Baby Shoes - who would have thought!) Great company and some great times were had over a few bevvies.
Overall, five days of swimming, eating, snorkling, kittens, butterflies, dolphins, monkeys, mango shakes and complete bliss - let's never return to reality..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0267s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
