Days 102 – 103: Ko Phi Phi

Photos: http://princeton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057800&l=eb73c&id=1101094

My ferry from Krabi to Ko Phi Phi was packed with so many Westerners that, for a second, I forgot I was in Thailand. Then I heard stories of parting on Khao San Road in Bangkok and I remembered.

I got off the ferry and headed straight for Hat Yao, or Long Beach, which was supposedly the least touristy section of the island. Well, by less touristy, what I really mean is cheaper. There isn’t anywhere on Ko Phi Phi that isn’t touristy—the island is one big resort. So why did I come here? Well, after all, the place is popular for a reason—it’s totally gorgeous.

I managed to find a bungalow for 500B, which isn’t cheap, but which got a lot cheaper when the lady at reception told me that I would receive two 100B meal vouchers each day that I could use at the restaurant. Two hundred baht of free food per day? Why would they do that?

I spent the afternoon on the beach, along with the rest of the Western world. I did manage to find a little solitude by venturing off the beach to do some snorkeling—most people were swimming and snorkeling in small, roped off areas near the beach. I’m sorry, but there’s no way that you’re going to find good snorkeling in an area that’s roped off for swimming. Fish aren’t that stupid.

Once I got away from the crowds, I began to really like the place. The water was crystal clear—perhaps the clearest I’d ever seen—and the snorkeling was quite good, even close to the beach. And once I reached some rocks that were a couple hundred meters off the coast, it got even better—I saw far more fish than at Ko Adang, and the coral was in much better shape, too.

The following morning I hired a boat to take me to Ko Phi Phi Leh, and island off the coast of Ko Phi Phi that was the filming location for the movie The Beach. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and cool, so by the time I got to the island I wasn’t much in the mood for lying on the beach, but I did do some decent snorkeling in the lagoon as well as around the sides of the island.

“The Beach” itself was a little disappointing, not least because it was packed with speedboats and tourists. It wasn’t quite as picturesque or as wide as in the movie, and the lagoon wasn’t quite as wide or as protected. Still, there’s no denying that the place is beautiful, and it certainly helps that the island remains uninhabited. At first I thought it was just a government-established national park, but it turns out that swiftlets are harvested on the island for medicinal purposes, and that business is far more profitable than tourism. So in the end, it is about the money.

I spent the afternoon back on the beach on Ko Phi Phi talking to a couple of Norwegian girls who were on a two week vacation from school. No one I met on Ko Phi Phi turned out to be particularly interesting, although the Norwegians probably came the closest. But, really, what am I complaining about? People come to Ko Phi Phi to lie on the beach, not to talk politics. I was the odd-ball here, not the other way around.

That night I finished up The God of Small Things and started The Kite Runner. I guess the one benefit to having no one to talk to is that you can get plenty of reading done.

By the end of my second day on Ko Phi Phi, I had established two facts: the place was totally beautiful, and I had to leave as soon as possible. I bought a ticket for the ferry to Phuket that left the following day.