Ko Phi Phi

Ok time to catch up. Since Chiang Mai, Melissa and I have been to several different places including Ko Phi Phi, the Surin and Similan Islands, Khao Sok National Park, Ranong/Burma, and currently we are sitting on a sleepy beach on Ko Chang (let's not get jealous now ;) . We scheduled transportation from Chiang Mai to Ko Phi Ph which required two night busses, (yuck!) a truck and a boat to get there. Melissa had spoken to her friend Lisa, who lives on Phi Phi, and was able to arange a place to stay for us before we arrived. Melissa and Lisa met on Ko Pha-ngan in late April. Lisa also happens to own a dive shop called Blue View Divers on the island, which was something on both mine and Melissa's and to do lists.
Ko Phi Phi is a small island in the Andaman Sea, which has no cars or trucks (or even roads for that matter), the only motor bike on the island belongs to the local Police. There is, however, a constant threat of being hit by a bicycle which plague the island sidewalks. The island is described as two islands connected by a sand bar which contains the village. After the 2004 tsunamis, which completly devastated the island, almost everything has been rebuilt to accomidate tourists, ranging from several five star resorts on the north side of the island to countless party-bars in the village for young international travellers.


The day of arrival was spent, arranging accomidations for the rest of the week, swimming in the crystal clear bath water that occupied the ocean, taking long walks on the beach, watching a beautiful sunset, you get the idea. Over the next couple days we kayaked to some of the closer bays and beaches -watch the video if you haven't already- and began to explore the island's trail system, which led us to fancy resorts with nice pools and quiet beaches visited almost exclusively by locals. The next several days were devoted to hiking through the jungle, from beach to beach looking for the perfect place to nap and read. Lisa and some of her friends who also work at the dive shop told us about some places to snorkel where we could see black-tip sharks (we saw 3) which swam in just a little after sunrise. Blue View Divers was also able to sign us up for the last live aboard trip to the Similan and Surin Islands for the season, which close during the rainy/slow season because of large waves and unsuitable boating conditions. Because it had been about 4 years since Melissa or I had dove, we were required to take a refresher course before our live aboard. The diving on Ko Phi Phi was some of the best diving on our entire trip- live aboard included. The two dives that we did were incredibly dense with with wildlife including; turtles, rays, various shrimp, lion fish, scorpion fish, nudibranches, eels, and sharks. A couple days later we did a snorkel trip, which was nice because we got to visit other, nearby islands including Ko Phi Phi Lei, -where the movie The Beach was filmed- and bamboo Island whose coral reef was less than a meter under the turquoise blue water. On the last day on Ko Phi Phi, Melissa and Lisa hiked up to the viewpoint and crashed Pi Pi Island Resort's huge pool before attending an evening yoga class put on by our friend Kira who also lives on the island. We decided to get up early and take a hike to a quiet beach before our two o'clock ferry off the island only to sacrifice our backpack and all of its contents to the ocean, camera and cell phone included :( .
However, on the whole Ko Phi Phi was a great time and we had lots of fun meeting new people and having adventures all over the island. So next time you are in Thailand don't miss Phi Phi.