Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
Koh Phi Phi is one of the nicest places I came across traveling, I arrived a few weeks after the tsunami and to be honest the people of Koh Phi Phi had done a fantastic job of clearing up the debris. It was quite heart breaking as people were still diving around the shores looking for bodies and cleaning up the debris which was scattered out to sea.
Even though the island was now clean and safe there was very few tourists here, I would have said that there was about 50 of us. Which for an island which has around 2000 rooms was of great concerns for the locals. It was heartbreaking to be watching CNN and BBC news on the island which was reasonably immaculate considering what had recently happened, yet rather than the news channels broadcast how well the locals and tourists had cleaned up and got pretty much all of the coastal towns, villages and islands up and running again. The news channels were still telling people to stay away and were showing video clips from weeks previous. No wonder people didn’t want to go! I suppose do you show bad footage to get people to donate and help get relief work undertaken quicker or do you say that Koh Phi Phi etc is back up and running fine and people then don’t donate? Well personally I would have done the second and at least allow the locals to get their pride back and line their pockets themselves.
Around this time my girlfriend and family were extremely worried around me as the island had no connections with the outside world, well ones I could use. No telephones and of course no internet, this was still an issue even after I left the island and arrived in Krabi about 42km away by boat and of course for around the 3 weeks I had no contact with anyone. In hindsight I now realise for the sake of £30-40 I should have gone on a day trip to the mainland and contacted home and explained the situation rather than going AWOL.
Anyway Koh Phi Phi is just under 50km south east of Phuket and about a 2 hour boat journey to Krabi, with boats leaving on a daily basis. The islands are extremely rugged and have steep barely vegetated cliffs, which is great as it are these which make the secret little hidden bays which are hiding the amazing pristine beaches. Scuba diving in Koh Phi Phi was amazing with visibility of around 30 meters whilst I was here, unfortunately the marine life here was pretty scarce from the majority of the coral being destroyed.
The Phi Phi islands are situated in the province of Krabi which is one of the furthest south which sits next to the Andaman Sea, Eastern Indian Ocean. The biggest island is Phi Phi Don which is about 8 x 2.5 km and is in the shape of an H. The smaller island is Phi Phi Ley which is about 3.5 x 1 km and in uninhabited of course except for the Viking Cave bird nests which are guarded by 2-3 people to protect the caves. This island is made entirely of limestone cliffs and has two of the world’s most famous beaches Loh Samah and of course Maya Bay. This was where “The Beach†was filmed, there was a lot of bad publicity over the film being shot here. But if you speak to any of the locals the actually film company left the beach in better condition than when they arrived. Typically lots of tourists had left rubbish all over the island which was all cleaned up by the film company. They even went as far as to plant a few extra trees and bushes which were native to the island. The other islands are Bamboo island and Mosquito Island which are both tiny.
Comment by Simon on 30 April 2007:
Great photo!
Reminds me so much of being there, I loved that Island, civilisation miles out to see on a gorgeous island.
Comment by Simon on 30 April 2007:
Great photo!
Reminds me so much of being there, I loved that Island, civilisation miles out to see on a gorgeous island.
Comment by mr.ular on 21 May 2007:
Koh Phi Phi is definitely a place to visit in Thailand.
Hope you can find more interesting places here to visit especially in Thailand and Malaysia at http://southeastasia-travel.blogspot.com/
Currently, the article is on Hua Hin, Thailand. Definitely a place you ought to visit someday.
Comment by mr.ular on 21 May 2007:
Koh Phi Phi is definitely a place to visit in Thailand.
Hope you can find more interesting places here to visit especially in Thailand and Malaysia at http://southeastasia-travel.blogspot.com/
Currently, the article is on Hua Hin, Thailand. Definitely a place you ought to visit someday.
Comment by nomad4ever on 12 June 2007:
I was a bit disappointed during my last visit on Phi Phi, which was October last year. The waters surrounding the islands were dirty with plastic bags and other trash and plenty of the ‘new’ hotels really asked double the money than pre-Tsunami. And that even though the occupancy was clearly only between 30-50%.
On top of that we got cheated when booking the boat trip to Phi Phi. The hotel in Phuket shipped us to a pre-checkin-harbour, where we paid more than the usual fare. It surely pays, to not book the trip at your hotel, but just move yourself by Taxi to the ferry harbour. Watch out, as the TAxi drivers try to pull those stunts off as well to make extra money. If you don’t see any official ferry terminal, don’t get out of the car in Phuket!
Seriously!
Chris
Comment by nomad4ever on 12 June 2007:
I was a bit disappointed during my last visit on Phi Phi, which was October last year. The waters surrounding the islands were dirty with plastic bags and other trash and plenty of the ‘new’ hotels really asked double the money than pre-Tsunami. And that even though the occupancy was clearly only between 30-50%.
On top of that we got cheated when booking the boat trip to Phi Phi. The hotel in Phuket shipped us to a pre-checkin-harbour, where we paid more than the usual fare. It surely pays, to not book the trip at your hotel, but just move yourself by Taxi to the ferry harbour. Watch out, as the TAxi drivers try to pull those stunts off as well to make extra money. If you don’t see any official ferry terminal, don’t get out of the car in Phuket!
Seriously!
Chris
Comment by 365 Travel on 18 June 2007:
I have always wanted to visit Thailand it looks amazing. I love the food too. Nice blog by the way, i have bookmarked a few of your posts. 🙂
Comment by 365 Travel on 18 June 2007:
I have always wanted to visit Thailand it looks amazing. I love the food too. Nice blog by the way, i have bookmarked a few of your posts. 🙂
Comment by Villa on 23 June 2007:
I’ve been reading quite a few of your older posts and I must say that I thoroughly enjoy your writing and the way you make your readers actually see what you are seeing at that point in time. Thanks for your blog posts and I’ll be looking forward to reading many more from you in the future.
Comment by Villa on 23 June 2007:
I’ve been reading quite a few of your older posts and I must say that I thoroughly enjoy your writing and the way you make your readers actually see what you are seeing at that point in time. Thanks for your blog posts and I’ll be looking forward to reading many more from you in the future.
Comment by nanjabarwa on 1 July 2007:
I am Chinese. I enjoy reading your traveling articles. Thank you so much,
Comment by nanjabarwa on 1 July 2007:
I am Chinese. I enjoy reading your traveling articles. Thank you so much,
Comment by Tim on 1 July 2007:
The photo is beautiful and it creates a picture of what Thailand is like, much different thank I pictured. Keep up the great work on the blog and the articles as well.
Seeing the photo alone makes me want to visit Thailand.
Comment by Tim on 1 July 2007:
The photo is beautiful and it creates a picture of what Thailand is like, much different thank I pictured. Keep up the great work on the blog and the articles as well.
Seeing the photo alone makes me want to visit Thailand.
Comment by Diane on 1 July 2007:
Amazing to think what humans can go through and survive. The beaches must be strange places to be stood knowing how much devastion they had washed over them. Thailand will always be a top destination for many people.
Comment by Diane on 1 July 2007:
Amazing to think what humans can go through and survive. The beaches must be strange places to be stood knowing how much devastion they had washed over them. Thailand will always be a top destination for many people.
Comment by guadalupe on 2 July 2007:
wow, great photo!
i sooo want to visit thailand! i did a report about the tourism there for my blog (you can see it here: http://traveltheworldonline.blogspot.com/) and i became almost obsessed with the landscapes.
and i didn’t know “the beach” was filmed there, now i’m even more eager to go there!
Comment by guadalupe on 2 July 2007:
wow, great photo!
i sooo want to visit thailand! i did a report about the tourism there for my blog (you can see it here: http://traveltheworldonline.blogspot.com/) and i became almost obsessed with the landscapes.
and i didn’t know “the beach” was filmed there, now i’m even more eager to go there!
Comment by Christine on 9 July 2007:
I’ve only been to Bangkok and Ayuthaya, but would love visit the islands someday. I can only imagine though the terror that gripped the locals and tourists alike that survived and/or lost loved ones during the tsunami. Maybe they’ll never recover emotionally, but I do hope they can get back their livelihood from tourism.
Comment by Christine on 9 July 2007:
I’ve only been to Bangkok and Ayuthaya, but would love visit the islands someday. I can only imagine though the terror that gripped the locals and tourists alike that survived and/or lost loved ones during the tsunami. Maybe they’ll never recover emotionally, but I do hope they can get back their livelihood from tourism.
Comment by Pedro Caldeira on 15 August 2007:
Did you visit Kuh Samui?
http://www.allaboutpedrocaldeira.blogspot.com
Xxx
Comment by Pedro Caldeira on 15 August 2007:
Did you visit Kuh Samui?
http://www.allaboutpedrocaldeira.blogspot.com
Xxx
Comment by Karsten on 28 August 2007:
I have been to Koh Phi Phi in December 2000.
At this time you could not get a single room there because of the film crew of “the beach” Everything was booked out.
Did mi scuba diving licence in Koh Lanta though and enjoyed every single minute being in Thailand.
Bangkok simply was amazing!
Comment by Karsten on 28 August 2007:
I have been to Koh Phi Phi in December 2000.
At this time you could not get a single room there because of the film crew of “the beach” Everything was booked out.
Did mi scuba diving licence in Koh Lanta though and enjoyed every single minute being in Thailand.
Bangkok simply was amazing!
Comment by Ken on 17 June 2008:
That poto looks great! I am thinking of going there this year. Thanks for the great story
Comment by Ken on 17 June 2008:
That poto looks great! I am thinking of going there this year. Thanks for the great story
Comment by cara on 5 July 2010:
I loved Koh Phi Phi. I went a year and a half after you, during the busiest time – Xmas – and there was a lot of construction going on, so they’re definitely building up. The island was really nice and relaxing, and I have to say, had the fittest tourists I’ve ever seen!
Comment by cara on 5 July 2010:
I loved Koh Phi Phi. I went a year and a half after you, during the busiest time – Xmas – and there was a lot of construction going on, so they’re definitely building up. The island was really nice and relaxing, and I have to say, had the fittest tourists I’ve ever seen!
Comment by Jenya Luzan on 19 April 2011:
PhiPhi is one of my favorite places in Thailand, and we’ve stayed here for quite a while. The islands seem to be meant only for young crowd, as I hardly see anybody older than 40. I’m doing photography in Thailand, and Phi Phi is always the best scene to take nice shots,
It has both- great sea and nature and great night life. Maybe it is about the special spirit of the island that I love so much! Phi Ph is a great place to visit! You can’t see even a trace of tsunami now.