2/1/07 – 7/1/07

Ko Phi-Phi is a stunning island in the middle of the Andaman Sea. It’s made up of two islands joined together by a narrow sandy peninsula, which was where our ferry from Phuket docked. The land on the peninsula is really flat, and stood right in the path of the tsunami two years ago. Everything was flattened and many lost their lives. We were shocked to see that the area was still a virtual wasteland. Granted, a couple of hotels had been built, but over most of the peninsula only sparse grass grew on the sand.

We took a long-tail boat taxi round to Hat Yao or Long Beach, which wasn’t really that long (about 100m) but it was beautiful. The white sands curved in a gentle arc, and the light blue sea looked so inviting to us as we trudged along in the midday heat with our backpacks bearing down heavily on us.

We tried a few places for a room and then came to the end of a beach and Phi-Phi Hill Resort. Hill was a bit of an under-exaggeration – I’ve never seen such steep steps! It was a long way up, but fortunately they had a little pulley lift for luggage so we didn’t have the extra burden of our luggage. We checked into a lovely wooden bungalow with a big balcony and views over the sea, all for less than a tenner a night (expensive for us though!) and then went for a drink in the restaurant. This had possibly the best location and views on the whole island (which is saying something!). The views were panoramic, taking in the beach, huge limestone cliffs rising out of the water in the distance, and directly across from us, separated by about 6km of water was the sister island of Ko Phi-Phi Leh. To see the amazing views you can check out their website – www.phiphihill.com .

After we picked our jaws back up off the floor, we went back down the stairs for a look around. (We quickly learned to plan ahead so that we would only have to go up and down the stairs once a day!) We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach, and swimming in the sea; what a place to recover from a stressful mornings’ traveling.

The following day we rented snorkels and masks from the resort and set out for a beach called Ao Lo Mu Di. It was only about 20 minutes away over a big hill, but it was practically deserted. The beach was about 500m long, and with only a few groups of people around, we had great swathes of sand and sea to ourselves. The bay was magnificent, the water was the lightest shade of blue extending about 40m out, where it quickly turned far darker. Magical.

I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like snorkeling or not, but as soon as I tried it I realized I was going to love it. It’s a bit claustrophobic at first, but I soon got used to it. The water was so clear, if it wasn’t for the fish I wouldn’t even have been sure I was underwater. (Granted, that would’ve meant I was flying 3 feet above the ground, but you get my drift, no pun intended!) The further we swam out the more fish we saw, such brightly coloured things, vibrant oranges, purples, yellows and greens. Where the sea went a bit deeper we came across coral and sponges, and yet more fish. It’s another world, brilliant. After relaxing on the beach for a while, we looked up and were shocked to see how far the tide had gone out; about 30 metres! Most of the bay had been uncovered. This detracted from the charm somewhat, so we walked back to our beach to snorkel some more. (You can see how bad the tide going out is on the above site too in the tides section.)

Of course the tide had gone out on our beach too, meaning that instead of walking over smooth sand to get into the sea we had sharp rocks and coral. Not conducive to a healthy foot, I can tell you. Several expletives later, we managed to swim, and another incredible environment awaited us, this one covered in coral reef, boulders with urchins and anemones attached, and shoals of beautiful fish who didn’t give two hoots (or blubs?!) about our presence. Another problem the receding tide created was that nowhere was the water very deep – cue lots of sucking in of tummys!

The following morning we were up at the foolish hour of 7am. The reason for this out of character action was that we’d decided to hire a long-tail boat for the morning to visit Ko Phi-Phi Leh, more specifically Maya Bay. This was the location used for the beach in the film ‘The Beach’. All the guesthouses and travel agencies offered whistle stop tours there, but we wanted to spend more time there.

It took us 30 minutes to get there, and our first impressions were of how beautiful it was. Our second impressions were ‘You want us to swim how far?!’. Apparently if you swim the last 100m or so to the beach (looks further than it sounds!) you can avoid paying the National Park fee, but we wanted our camera with us, so asked to be taken to the beach (nice excuse anyway!). We settled down on the beach to just gaze at our surroundings… For those who haven’t seen the film or can’t remember it, we were on a pure white crescent of sand, backed by palms and other vegetation, and all around the bay rose a massive wall of limestone, leaving a small (100ft wide) entrance to the bay. The water was incredibly blue and clear. You could run out of superlatives trying to describe the place.

We went snorkelling again, and saw the greatest abundance of fish yet. You could see for so far, it was brilliant. The only thing that made it less enjoyable is the sensation of stinging on our skin. We’ve had it almost every time we’ve been in the sea in Thailand, and I’d put it down to salt irritating me, but I’ve never had that before, plus Katie has it at the same times. I can only presume it’s very small jellyfish or something similar. We stayed in the water for about 45 minutes, and when we got out we couldn’t believe it. When we arrived there were maybe 10 other people there, when we go out there were a few hundred! We only had a couple of hours there, and we left soon afterwards. I’m just glad that we arrived early so we had the experience of ‘the beach’ as it should be – deserted! So it turns out that getting up early is worth it occasionally!!

We didn’t have long left on Phi-Phi, we spent our final day sweltering in the 100% humidity air that was the precursor to the crappy weather that would annoy us for the next week or two, and then we caught the ferry to Ko Lanta.