Koh Phi Phi Island

The next stop south down the western coast of Thailand brings you to the town of Krabi and a jumping off point by ferry to another island 30 miles off the coast called Koh Phi Phi. This one too was devastated by the Tsunami, but you'd hardly know it by now with all the resorts and bungalows built up again already. This island too has dramatic mountainous peaks, and is famed for being fringed by coral reefs and clear water. About 10km long and several km wide, it has no roads and no motorized vehicles but there are probably thousands of tourists here spread out among several beaches around the island with a couple of beaches in the middle that serve as the hub with a sprawling area of tourist shops, restos, divings shops, etc. The only real way around is by boat or an arduous 1 hr walk up over the island to the far side. The photo below shows you the view from the top of the island looking down to the area with the 'tourist village'.


We happen to be on 'the far side' on a secluded 100m beach with about 15 rustic bungalows. Run by a friendly Thai woman with great food. Our 'shuttle' out to this spot by local 'longtail' boat ended up with us being thoroughly soaked. In fact we have been here now on the east side of the island for 4 days and the wind has blown relentlessly from the northeast day and night the entire time. Getting out of the 'long tail' boat and to shore in the surf is an interesting experience...one that is so interesting that one day we decided not to return from the central village by boat but instead to make the 1 hr hike over the peak of the island instead. So what the strong winds have meant is that the water clarity is down to perhaps 10-15 ft...a far far cry from what we experienced on the Similan islands. Such a shame because in the one time I went out snorkelling in front of our beach it really was a dramatic set of coral which looked like it ran the whole 10km down the shore of the island. But alas, the visibility just isn't good enough to make it seem exciting. That put a damper on my enthusiasm to sign up for a dive course, which is just going to have to wait again for another time, another place where the timing and weather seem right. Here is the view from the hammock on the verandah of our rustic little bungalow on a small beach by itself on the east side of the island.


We are also visited every morning here by a troop of 9 or so monkeys. Very interesting as you throw them morsels of banana to see the 'pecking order' where the big male makes sure to get first dibs on everything to the point of even chasing the others off the food if that's what he feels like.

Adjacent to this island is another one which we visited on a day trip...This is one where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed. Once again, a deep cove lined with dramatic cliffs and a beach at one end. This kind of topography is everywhere here and it is not like anything I've seen anywhere else. Combining it with the blue skies, warm water and coral seas make it really seem like paradise. It's just too bad about the water visibility right now. Below, one of the many scenes of some of the shoreline around the island.

Well we'll be here for another day or so and then we have to get out due to the impending expiry of our Thai visa. Probably we will head south for the Malaysian border and check out what the western Malay coast is like compared to the Thai. We are definitely moving along more slowly than originally planned and beginning to realize that our plans for Australia, NZ, India, Egpyt, Morocco...something is going to have to be forfeited...but what? Something to decide over the next week or so.