Arriving in South Thailand was a bit overwhelming, as it seems that there are so many islands to choose from, all of them supposedly idyllic and with some of the best beaches and diving in the world.

Speaking to other travellers though we'd heard the best ones were Ko Phi Phi on the West Coast, and Ko Phangnan and Ko Tao on the East Coast.

Ko Phi Phi was our first stop, a couple of hours by boat from Krabi (after being crammed onto the back of a bus with people hanging out the back), and immediately we realised that this idyllic island was going to be built up, over-priced and Thailand's version of Tenerife, as there were hundreds of tourists just off the plane from home mixed in with a healthy number of travellers.

Arriving, we booked into a small dump of a hotel for 800 baht (about 12 pounds, which is a lot for Thailand), as most accommodation seemed to be sold out, but then moved to the Ko Phi Phi Villa Resort the next day (also for 800 baht, and although it had a nice pool the toilet smelt of sewage).

Ko Phi Phi is made up of two main islands and a marine park, Ko Phi Phi Don, which is the main tourist island and the uninhabited Ko Phi Phi Ley, which was made famous by the film "The Beach" with Leonardo Di Caprio.

The island was also hit hard by the Boxing Day Tsunami killing around two thousand people, and many westerners who had fallen in love with the island returned to help re-build it.

Whilst there we booked an island and snorkel trip, which was to also take us to the famous beach.  Packed onto a large boat there were about 50 people aboard, and when we reached "The Beach" we had to park up around the back of the island (as our boat was too large) and jump out and swim, which we were told was just a short swim around the corner and then a short walk to the beach.

Turning the corner we found we had to clamber over jagged rocks and pull ourselves up by a rope to get onto the island, all while the tide was throwing you about.  After nearly slicing our feet open we made it over the rocks, only to find we had to walk about another 50 metres over sharp stones to get to the sand.  We didn't sign up for this!

We finally made it to 'paradise' along with about five hundred other tourists, and as you walk out onto the beach you are greeted with mass crowds and about thirty boats in the bay.  Not really what we had hoped for.

After climbing back over the rocks and out to sea (not too easy against the tide), we swam back to the boat against the current.  Next stop was shark point, where the visibility was so poor we barely even saw a fish, followed by another snorkel stop where the guides (if you can call them that) told us to jump in without warning us about the strong current, so after a few minutes of snorkelling we tried to swim back to the boat and realised we were going nowhere.

Luckily another boat had pulled in behind ours, so we managed to swim to their boat after about fifteen minutes of going nowhere, catch our breath and then try to swim the last thirty metres to our boat. 

About five minutes later and we were still swimming aganist the current and giong about two or three metres a minute, and we could see all the guides sitting inside laughing and joking around.  One of them even looked out at us swimming away and not going anywhere and just carried on with his mates. 

We finally made it after about twenty minutes or so, caught our breath, before Allison threw her flippers in the guide's direction and gave them some abuse.  Believe me, they deserved it. 

When we mentioned this to the hotel where we booked the trip, the German owner just shrugged and told us, "It's Thailand, it's not safe", or something to that effect.  Re-assuring!

Added to which insult they dyed one of my socks peach, and then when I told them they just laughed and pointed at it.  At this point we were just laughing too! 

We gladly left Ko Phi Phi the next day.  Paradise turned out to be a package holiday location much like Tenerife.  We had heard the island was beautiful by people who went before the Tsunami, but unfortunately it looks like it has lost a lot of that beauty. 

If you are looking for somewhere peaceful, beautiful, with nice beaches, snorkelling and locals, I would avoid this place.  Go to the Perhentians instead!