Ko Phi Phi

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I had intended to visit Ko Tao, the relaxed diving paradise of Thailand's backpacker islands (the others being Ko Samui, the extra -touristy island and Ko Phagnan, the infamed, full moon party hosting island.)

However the south-east coast monsoon modified my plans and instead I travelled further south to the equally stunning but somewhat more developed and expensive Ko Phi Phi.

Although Ko Phi Phi was devasted by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, there really is no sign of it now other than an occasional reference and the odd comically...tragically...useless 'Tsunami evacuation route' sign. The islands' beautiful beaches and warm, wildlife filled waters have brought back a booming tourist industry.

With this in mind I stayed on Long beach...close enough to visit the lively town of Tonsai at night, but quiet enough to walk out of your bamboo hut in the morning and straight down onto the beach.

The diving off Ko Phi Phi is fantastic. I did four dives in total, two on the same dive site of Bida Kok, and these were the best that I have ever done.
Besides the many shoals of tropical fish of all sizes and beautiful coral I saw leopard sharks, turtles, moray eels, black and white banded sea snakes, lobster, crab, cuttlefish, lionfish and stonefish.

The leopard sharks were my favourite since they were majestically beautiful with a white with dark spots colour and flowing physique. Turtles, as always, are a delight since they don't care that you are around, so you can hover right over them as they swim about and feed. Cuttlefish, are wonderful...I had no idea that they change colour when approached...a brown colour when resting on the sandy bottom, then clear with flashes of purple as they swim.

I met both new and old friends on Ko Phi Phi...at first I shared a room with a girl called Lizzie, who I met on the plane form Chang Mai. Then I met up with Aaron, a friend I met in Vietnam, and I also caught up with Olivier and Greet again.

The only downside of my week there were sleepless nights...one night when I threw up alongside my bamboo hut neighbour, since we were both unwell, and spent the next day unable to do anything but lie uncomfortably on the beach. The next day Lizzie came home outrageously drunk head to toe in sand and I spent quite a while getting her to the showers and cleaning her off before I could put her to bed. These two nights were followed by mornings where the builders, working right behind our hut, started hammering, drilling and even singing from 7am! So I moved to a more expensive, better located hut and shared with Aaron...however, the morning noise was replaced by night time frogs with such loud croaks they sounded like mating geese/cows/elephants...just plain weird and annoying! (Some clever person thought it might be a good idea to build ponds in between the huts!)...and then one night to morning out in the town with inappropriate drunken comments and antics (not towards me) from Aaron...a great guy who unfortunately thinks with something other than his brain when drunk! So I left him to it...amazingly he made it back to the hut by 8am, in time to get his 9am boat...though without a clue what had happened the previous night or why he had woken up in random undergrowth!

By the time I left Ko Phi Phi I was ready to go...spending a week on the same beach can get a little dull if it's not the right kind of beach (Long Beach, Pulua Kecil, Malaysia was much more fun) but the diving, snorkling and beach lazing were great...so yeah, sorry, I'll stop complaining!!

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Comments

[Annie]

glad you got to have a bit of a snorkel even if the comprimise was no sleep! shame about the noisy neighbours and crazy frogs. LOVE your blue top btw - it looks stunning on you :-)