The Beaches, Koh Phi Phi

Well, we have officially found paradise in Thailand. Despite being a bit more expensive and a lot more touristy, Koh Phi Phi is definitely the ever elusive top 10 in the world beach paradise much argued over via online forums, top ten lists, and trip planning partners.

We successfully survived our trip from Pai to Koh Phi Phi. It only took 2.25 days, 2 overnight bus rides adding up to 1578km, plus a 2 hr ferry ride from Krabi to Phi Phi. When we got to Krabi, I new it would be awesome here once we saw the steep cliffs lining the ocean. It is very similar to Halong Bay, only much cleaner, and with much clearer water and prettier beaches. The island is dominated by a long skinny stretch of land with beaches on opposite sides that connects 2 mountains. Our hotel is in the backpacker area, at the base of the hill on the NE section of the main town. There are no roads and no cars or scooters on the island, only bicycles and boats. The more exclusive resorts are all located among the mountains on private beaches accessible only via a short longtail boat ride.

We spent our first evening walking around the island and eating a huge italian meal. We were so exhausted from our bus rides, that we could only manage to find a hotel, lay on the beach a little bit, and eat a gigantic italian lunch/dinner before falling asleep around 8:45! The highlight of the day, by far, was the sunset we saw over the mountains on the main northern bay of the island. It was absolutely spectacular. The sunset got better, worse, better again, faded away and then came back with a stunning finale. we were shocked by how pretty it was, and that was after spending 2 months staring at the Thai sun from islands and mountains!

Yesterday, we got up and visited the beach for some more swimming and relaxing in the morning... after another huge thai italian lunch! We ate a green beef curry pizza the first time, and a masaman chicken curry with potato pizza the second time, which were awesome! After 2 months of thai food, it has been great to eat some good western food here! The thai food here is a lot more expensive, but western food is a lot cheaper and better than most other places we've been, so we have embraced it, and turned on to the 100 baht pasta(3 dollars), and 120 baht pizza deals that are omnipresent here. After the beach, we climbed the eastern mountain to the view point of the island where all the classic pictures are taken. It reminded me of the view from the top of the main mountain of Machu Picchu, staring down at the narrow strip of buldings far below. Only on Phi Phi, it is beaches on either side of the town, whereas M.P. it is cliffs. Either way, the view is awesome and it was fun seeing the island from above. After hurrying down the mountain, we set off on our "sunset" tour for the afternoon.

The sunset tour was fun. We hopped in a longtail boat with 10 other tourists, and sped off from the bay towards the other phi phi sister, Leh. This island has no hotels, bars, or anything besides a small state park like campground and ranger station. This is the island famous from Leo's "the beach." It is really spectacular. It is a circle shaped island with large cliff laden mountains on all sides and little bays and lagoons scattered on all sides. We took a quick trip to swim in a few of the secluded lagoons and private beaches. The beaches have huge cliffs on all sides, so they are only accessible via swimming from your boat. Later in the day, after swimming in a few of the private bays, the boat dropped us off on the far side of the island, and we got to swim our way to a stairway leading out of the water. The stairway had waves crashing in to it and a spider web of thick ropes criss crossing above it. We managed to not get smashed in to the rocks, then climbed the wet stairway up over the rocks, then back down the other side, leading to a trail through a beautiful forrest pathway. The forrest was lined with palm trees, banana trees, pineapple plants and other really pretty foliage. We walked about 100m, by the campground, and suddenly ended up spilling out in to the famous ma ya bay. This bay, the example used by holiday as the ultimate "beach," is certainly that.... no let down at all. It has enormous cliffs on all sides, beatiful clear water(with a few pesky rocks), and a gorgeous green backdrop of palm trees and flowered covere bushes behind the white sands of the beach. It was awesome! me and jin swam around for an hour or so, and soaked it all in, then hopped back on the boat to go home. No one else on our tour wanted to see the sunset, so we just stopped at a small beach with tons of monkeys on our way home. A bit of a letdown to not see the sunset from the water, but it was great seeing the beach in perfect weather.

Today, we are relaxing at another italian restaurant, waiting for our ferry to leave in an hour and a half to Phuket. Jin's passport is being held there, and we have a flight leaving in 48 hours, so we must leave! Sorry for slacking on pictures here, there are few easy places to relax, the beaches dont have wifi, and internet is expensive(2 dollars an hour.) Ok, back to the beaches!

Ben