Having read that Koh Phi Phi was overly expensive to stay on, but still wanting to visit both the islands we decided that a day trip was the best and, in the long run, the cheapest way to see everything that Phi Phi had to offer. Koh Phi Phi is actually two islands; Phi Phi Don, the larger party island, and Phi Phi Lei, the smaller one, protected as a nature reserve so no hotels, but no lack of tourists.

The ferry ride from Koh Lanta to Phi Phi was nauseating and all four of us arrived feeling very ill. Straight onto a long tail boat to tour the PP Lei's beaches, in the open ocean on a rickety wooden boat. Thinking we were safe, I leant across to talk to Laura sat only inches from me, and was shouted at by the driver to move back as the boat was tipping. Clearly not as balanced as we thought.

We docked at a small cove called Viking cove and got out for a very quick swim. The waters were so clear and the sand so white. It was like something off a postcard. Paradisiacal. Next we went to a little cove on the other side of Ago Maya (the famous beach where The Beach was filmed). We did some snorkeling here and, not surprisingly given its proximity to somewhere where Leo DiCaprio had once been, we were by n means alone. The snorkeling was amazing. Some amazing fish. The boat drivers were throwing fruit into the water to feed the fish and I swear one bit my toe. I am surprised we didn't come to more harm considering the amount of unguarded propellers in the water but somehow we made it out unscathed and set off to climb up the stairs and across the island to The Beach. Trying to get out of the water was more trouble than it was worth, slipping over the rocks cutting my knee. And ankles, hand, feet and elbows. He wasn't happy, and made sure everyone knew it. The trail to the beach was not hard to find as we just followed the hordes of other tourists. The beach itself was nice enough, not that we saw much of it as every inch of sand as occupied by people and the shoreline blocked by speedboats. We think if you'd been here before the film it would have actually been paradise but is now a circus. Anyone who has read The Beach will realise how ironic that is.

The beach we ate lunch on was more paradisiacal than the real 'Beach'. Our group was the only ones there, it was so secluded and of course we were eating a gorgeous green Thai curry and had fresh pineapple and watermelon as well. Tori and Laura also found a delicious bit of eye candy, which they made no secret of admiring. Think Jamie Redknapp in ten years' time. Silver Fox! Filled our boots on the buffet and we were off again. We went to another tourist trap but what an experience. Monkey beach, so called for its' inhabitants not, as Sean tried to convince us, from the sounds the sea makes against the rocks. We fed the monkeys with our leftover watermelon, they were so tame, ruined by all the tourists I'm sure, but it was amazing to have the babies eating from our hands.

We spend the last couple of hours on PP Don and boy were we glad it was only two hours. If you didn't know where you were, you would never think you were in Thailand. Think Magaluf or Ibiza or Zante. Horrific. We wandered around the shops for a bit but two hours were over not too quickly. The beach was covered in sun beds and frisky westerners. A Finnish couple we sat next to on the ferry home said that they visited ten years ago and it had changed so much. More like beach huts and empty sands, a bit more like Koh Lanta is now. So we counted ourselves lucky that we decided against staying and just gazed from a distance for a short time!

An experience and a great day but not somewhere I think we will return to any time soon...