Koh Phi Phi

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After another delicious breakfast of banana pancakes, we loaded up our packs and walked across Railay to get to Railay West beach to catch the 9am ferry to Koh Phi Phi. The ferry actually originates in Ao Nang, and being there's no pier at Railay, you get in a longtail boat, then hop onto the main ferry in the middle of the bay. I don't know if there is a capacity on the boat, but it was packed, and the only spot we could find to sit was on the top deck right by the pile of luggage.
The ride over to Koh Phi Phi was fairly quick once you actually get going, just over an hour. After we finally found the guy representing our resort, we hopped in the hotel's longtail boat and headed to the Phi Phi Bayview Resort. It was definitely the most expensive hotel we had at about $160 a night for the best cabin, but had the best view and was a great location. It was far enough way from the main village area that we couldn't hear the partying all night, but close enough for us to walk there in about 20 minutes.
We had lunch at the hotel, and after a couple weeks of Cambodian/Thai food, went for the cheeseburger platters. We spent a couple hours on the beach, then walked into town and walked up to the viewpoint. Not as difficult terrain as Railay as there are stairs the whole way, but still pretty exhausting and hot. From the viewpoint you can really get a sense of how easily the tsunami of 2004 would have wiped out the place, as there is really only a very small stretch of land between the two bays. Koh Phi Phi is still well known because it was one of the worst hit islands in terms of infrastructure destroyed, and lives lost.
We had dinner in town, checked out the shops a little bit, but decided to hold off on any more purchases as it was quite expensive, and we knew Chiang Mai would be better. Walking around town for a bit, we concluded that Koh Phi Phi was likely the most "backpacker" style place we went to.

Feb 17 - First thing in the morning we rented a longtail boat and driver from the hotel (1200 baht) to take us out to Koh Phi Phi Leh for some snorkeling and sightseeing. It is the island most famous for the filming of the movie "The Beach". We cruised around a few different little bays, before settling on one to stop and snorkel at. Now Melissa and I have done a little snorkeling before, the last time being when we were in Cuba, and can safely say we suck at it. Usually I spend the time spitting saltwater out of the tube, while Melissa tries to get the water out of her goggles, but this time we surprised ourselves and did pretty good. It actually turned out to be enjoyable, and of course the reef and fish were pretty amazing, our camera doesn't really do it justice.
After snorkling we continued on to Maya bay, the actual location where the movie was filmed. As you can see from the pictures, although beautiful, it's not quite the serene spot you imagine from the movie. We arrived around 11am, which must be the most popular time, as it was ridiculously crowded. Our driver told us we could stay an hour, we were out of there in about 20 minutes. By this time the water had gotten a little choppy, so it was a fun little ride back to the hotel.
We had lunch at the hotel, then went up to the room to relax and have a few drinks. I won't go into the details, you'll have to ask Melissa, but at this point I very sneakily and romantically proposed...
After that was out of the way, I now felt 100 times better; we had a few more drinks, went into town to visit a little bakery, and bought some more snacks and booze. We had room service for supper, while Melissa tried over and over to phone her parents, with no success.

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Photos

Phi Phi Bay View resort
View from our balcony

Koh Phi Phi
Coming into Tonsai bay, our hotel is up in the trees

Longtail boat
They take car/truck engines and modify them

Koh Phi Phi
There was a big shelf right by the beach where you could walk out probably 300 meters

Comments

[Heather]

Great photos!
Congrats on your engagement! I enjoyed reading your post, as it reminded me of my own time there. You had some great photos, and I'm always looking for great stuff post on my community blog. Check it out if you have the time! Continued safe travels! dirty-hippies.blogspot.com