Koh Phi Phi

---

After 3 fun-filled days, we are hopping on the ferry back to Phuket today. We arrived in Koh Phi Phi on Wednesday afternoon, and while it would be nice to stay longer, I think it's good we are leaving today.

The weather here is unbelievably hot, humid and sunny. After being on Phi Phi for about 3 hours, I managed to acquire a sunburn, despite applying SPF 50 diligently. Phi Phi is great for being outdoors and enjoying nature or the beach, making it hard to stay out of the sun.

Our hotel is a traditional Thai bungalow, which means there is no A/C (not so bad as it cools down at night) and the shower only has cold water. However, that's not a problem as it is so hot outside that the cold shower is quite refreshing.

While we were here we hiked, shopped, hung out on the beach, and went scuba diving. Our hike was supposed to be about an hour to a public beach on the other side of the island, but somehow we managed to get lost. We did find a beach, and we were on the other side of the island, but we ended up at a private resort a few kilometers north of where we wanted to be. It was quite all right though, since this beach was gloriously uncrowded.

The shopping here is pretty similar to China; knick-knacks and knock-off items. Since I'm not seeing anything particularly new or unique, it's been easy to restrain myself from buying anything.

Scuba diving was definitely the highlight of our time on Phi Phi. I convinced my friend that I'm travelling with to take the intro to scuba course while I went on an open-water dive. The water was really clear and the reefs were really impressive. I would say this dive was better than the one I did last summer on Koh Tao. I saw a lion fish, sea snake (aaahhh), and a leopard shark. The shark was pretty big, maybe 8 feet long, but totally harmless. Apparently it doesn't have teeth. We also saw some sea turtles!

Our dive boat took us to Maya Bay for lunch. Maya Bay is where Leonardo DiCaprio's The Beach was filmed. The beach did indeed look just like The Beach in the movie. Unfortunately, it was really crowded.

Phi Phi has been great, but I'm ready to get out of the sun for a few days. Hopefully Phuket has some indoor activities to keep us occupied.

---

Photos

Our Bungalow
complete with hammock!

Phi Phi
View from "the viewpoint"

Private Beach
where we accidentally hiked to

THE beach
from the movie

Comments

[polux]

bonjour
Sorry that I did not know you were going to Hong Kong cause I have a friend living there so if you go back let me know. Michael here hubby is a Canadian diplomate and I am sure she would have loved to show you around. Keep the news coming in and ENJOY...Take as much has you can............ love you

[Marthe]

Beautiful!
This looks like paradise.