Koh Phi Phi Don:
Overestimations & exceedingly high expectations. Maybe that's where we went wrong. Koh Phi Phi is the place to be for crowds of English faces & buckets of alcohol destined for the beach, but it lacks in daytime atmosphere & is beyond deceiving of the picture postcards it may have once portrayed.
We're unsure where our 20Bt island fee disappears to when we stumbled over the litter filled beach, dragging our bags through puddles of sewage along dirt paths whilst holding our breathe to avoid the rotting stench of the village. It seems as though the tourists have overshadowed any beauty that once existed in Phi Phi. Having heard so many great things about the island, maybe we set our hopes in the sky (or should that be clouds, since our entire time here was constantly overcast!) Having said that our accommodation was the best yet, we were far from sleepless nights with a hot shower, air con, fan, tv & a DOONA! The price & location were pretty reasonable too & I have little to complain about the food - nothing beats a decent portion of muesli for breakfast! But i can't help wonder there's something missing. It doesn't help to create an island scene when the majority of the island itself is inaccessible by foot & so all the tourists are crammed in one place, polluting the only ideally set seas & drowning any atmosphere with their unwelcoming attitudes & miserable hangovers. Oh how I love the English. We may as well be in Abersoch or Majorca with the amount of familiarity. It was hardly a shock after 24 hours to bump into high school friends on the island, Abi Palmer & Sally Lynn. But our nightlife encounters certainly lived up to their expectations (minus the lame chart music). Sitting on the beach watching the strip come alive was unreal, like amateurs we only made it through a few sex on the beach & one bucket between us before reaching the same level as all the other party-goers! Our first glimpse at the next stage of our lives. We're coming closer & closer to England every day.