Ko Phi Phi

Ko Phi Phi is a beautiful set of islands, located as Phang Nga Bay opens into the wider Andaman Sea. It was our southernmost point to visit in Thailand, and the closest we'll get to the equator on land. The Ko Phi Phi islands are most famous for two things - the film location of part of the movie "The Beach", and one of the sites of extreme devastation during the 2004 tsunami.


Dec 12 - Dec 17; Dec 20 - Dec 22

Ko Phi Phi is a beautiful set of islands, located as Phang Nga Bay opens into the wider Andaman Sea. It was our southernmost point to visit in Thailand, and the closest we'll get to the equator on land. The Ko Phi Phi islands are most famous for two things - the film location of part of the movie "The Beach", and one of the sites of extreme devastation during the 2004 tsunami.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

This picture, taken from one of the viewpoints, shows the most densely populated and central tourist area of the island, a small sandy strip in between very steep limestone hills. This strip less than 6 feet above sea level. When the tsunami came, the waves came in from both sides, one as high as 18 feet. About 70% of the buildings on the entire island were destroyed, and somewhere between 2000 and 4000 people died, which is very large for such a small island. Since then, things have been rebuilt, and except for one section of the island which is still under construction, there are no obvious signs that something terrible happened.

The first bay that we saw as we arrived in the ferry was beautiful, but empty except for the many boats - ferries, diving boats, sailboats, fishing boats, and the various longtail taxis. This was the bay for business. Even though the water looked amazing, no one was in it. After we checked in, we walked through Ton Sai village to the other side of the island and saw the bay for play. A vast, shallow wonderland of crystal clear water with people wading and swimming, kayaking, playing frisbee, and a few longtails coming and going.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

On our first day trip, we rented a kayak and paddled out of this bay and around the corner to Monkey Beach, which is only accessible by boat. Here, tourists come to gawk at and feed the tribe of monkeys that live in the cliffs. These monkeys were as accustomed to humans as the ones at Lopburi, but they seemed more bad tempered. Still cute though.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

The island doesn't have a lot of roads, since much of it is too steep to be passable. Over the less steep parts, on the eastern side of the island, there are a lot of foot trails. We spent a couple days hiking around these and exploring a couple of different beaches. However, the most spectacular hike was to the viewpoints. Situated high above the water, they offered panoramic views of the western cliffs and the double bays. It was also a very popular spot to watch the sunset.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

Two things that Ko Phi Phi is well known for today is diving and partying. We tried both, but the diving will get its own post later. The parties on Phi Phi take place at these large beachside bars, the most lively of which are on the north bay (the shallow one for play). During the day, each bar hands out flyers listing a specific 15 to 20 minute interval during which you can get a free "bucket" if you turn the flyer in. These buckets are childrens' sand pails filled about halfway full of ice, Sang Som Thai whisky (a local rum), and either coke or sprite. Each bar has different free periods, so if you collect the flyers and move from bar to bar, you can easily get constant free drinks for about 2 to 3 hours, by which point you would probably be unconscious. There are different styles of bars, some are chill with cushions and small oil lamps on the beach, some are discos with loud music, some have wild games like fire jumprope or limbo and crazy balloon stomping (to win a free drink, of course), and one was just crazy, with a mix of all that plus bodypainting.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

This goes on well into the night (although not nearly as late as Buenos Aires), and the tattoo parlors stay open all throughout. Why? Because there are no laws in Thailand requiring you to be sober to get a tattoo. A Swede named Jono deserves a special shout out here: we met him in one of the beach bars early one night, and on the way back to the hotel several hours later, we noticed him semi-conscious in a tattoo parlor about 2/3rds of the way though a very large tattoo of Ganesh on a lotus on the side of his leg. It looked nice, but there was a lot of teeth gnashing because the alcohol was no longer dulling the pain. The tattoo artists use a piece of bamboo with a needle on the end to do their work, moving in a very rapid tap-tap-tap. This is a very old style, going back about 3000 years, and more gentle than machine tattoos, in that there is much less damage to the skin, so no blood and a much quicker healing time.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

All this took place on Ko Phi Phi Don, the largest of the islands. The other island I wanted to see was Ko Phi Phi Leh, which was reputed to have one of the prettiest bays (Ao Maya) in all of Thailand. This was where part of "The Beach" was filmed, it was the site of the hidden village (although in the movie the island was located on the opposite side of the southern Thailand/Malaysian peninsula). The island is very small, and uninhabited, except for a park ranger, so it's a day trip only. However, when we got to Ko Phi Phi Don, we saw signs advertising an overnight camping trip! I was very excited about this and signed us up immediately.

The morning of the camping trip, we did our dive. In the late afternoon, we took a large boat over and anchored in the bay far from the beach. Ao Maya is an almost completely enclosed bay. If you stand in the right spot, it looks like you're entirely surrounded by cliffs. At the back of the bay is a pretty beach of very fine sand, between two steep hills, and backed by trees and other vegetation. We swam and snorkeled at the anchor point for a bit, until the shuttle boats from Ko Phi Phi Don started to depart. Then we took our own longtail (my first ride in one) to the beach. In less than an hour, we had the entire beach to ourselves. There was a lean-to, in case it rained, and a bunch of mats underneath a rock overhang for a dinner spot. The guide took us on a short tour of the island, and we got to see the giant, tree-climbing land crabs that inhabited the area around the ranger's house. As night fell, we had dinner, watched some fire spinning, and played party games (with a free bucket, naturally).

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

After the constant swarm of tourists everywhere we'd been, it was wonderful to have such a beautiful place to just a handful of happy people. Swimming at night is a fun experience by itself, but this area of Thailand has a special kind of plankton called dinoflagellates. When their cell wall is deformed by currents in the water around them, these plankton emit a brief burst of pretty blue light. When you swim in the water, you trigger hundreds of these at a time. It's like swimming in a swarm of dust-sized blue fireflies. Since it wasn't raining, we were free to take our mats and sleeping bags anywhere we wanted to, so we found a spot on the beach well above the high tide, looked at the stars, and went to sleep. I suspect this will end up being my favorite day of the whole trip.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

In the morning, it was fun to wake up and have the whole beach to ourselves as the sky lightened. The longtails were quick to arrive with tourists, and after just one night there, it felt invasive. I wondered if the people in the first boat were disappointed or surprised, having gotten up very early and likely hoping to have the place to themselves.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

We both liked Ko Phi Phi a lot. So much so that we scrapped our plans to go to the island of Ko Lanta (the first time we changed travel arrangements that had already been made) and spent two more nights on Ko Phi Phi. We spent the extra day hiking around the island and taking a kayak to try and find a cave I'd heard of, and spent the nights at the beach clubs.

From Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

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