Days 26 - 33 - July 5 - July 12

Monday to Monday. Yes a full week.

Ko Phi Phi ('Ph' in Thai is pronounced with a hard 'P', so it's sounds like Ko Pee Pee)

I planned on staying in Ko Phi Phi for 3 days and ended up there for 8. With Angkor Wat, it's been the highlight of my trip. So what's so great about Ko Phi Phi?

A brief description -- Ko Phi Phi is a set of 2 islands off the western coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. One of the islands, Ko Phi Phi Do is inhabited, except no cars are allowed on it. Most of the places to stay and restaurants are located along a few walking streets, with a few resorts only accessible by boat. Everywhere is a 5 minute walk to the beach, max. And while there's development going on, it's still much less than other Thai island destinations such as Ko Samui or Phuket. The second island, Ko Phi Phi Ley, is uninhabited, but frequented by day-trips for snorkeling and scuba diving.

I arrived in PP (you can't expect me to write Ko Phi Phi Do all the time, can you?) late afternoon on July 5 after a few flights and a ferry ride from Chiang Mai, and did what comes natural -- get marginally acquainted with the town before speaking with several dive shops about what they had to offer. I decided to go diving early the next morning choosing Visa Divers for 2 dives - one off Bida Noi, the other Phi Phi Ley - with an experienced group. I was told that there was a very good chance of seeing either Leopard sharks or turtles, and potentially a whale shark (that's usually 20 feet long), which had me very excited. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of those. The Bida Noi (an island just south of PP Ley) site had tough conditions, with the worst current I've ever experienced. Remember that old Maxell tape commercial with the guy wearing sunglasses, sitting in his chair, facing sound being blasting from a stereo and his hair blowing backward... yeah, that was me in the current. I simply couldn't move forward at Bida Noi. PP Ley resembled many of the reefs that I've dove on before, so unfortunately, these weren't great dives. And unluckily, 2 of the people in my group struggled (they misrepresented their actual level of experience), so the 2 dives were very frustrating. But there was nothing I could do about it and I did enjoy being back underwater. Ironically, less than a week later, at the same spots, some of my friends diving saw the leopard sharks, turtles and most impressively, a 20 foot whale shark. That's an animal with the height of three Shaq's stacked head to toe. My lord.

And for the next few days, all I did was go to the beautiful beach (a 1 minute walk from my guesthouse), cruise around town, and get Thai massages ($5/hour). Just relaxed. And partied. This was really the first time on my trip I went out late on several consecutive nights. PP has three fun bars... so there's always a good chance that I would see familiar faces, which made going out by myself easy. And you gotta love a place that had seemingly more women backpackers than men.

PP has several restaurants that show movies (helps when it costs just $2 for a DVD) so over the week I watched Shrek 2, Starsky & Hutch, Love Actually and Farenheit 9/11. Amazing how you can get that here before it's debuted in parts of the States... and with that, I'll be taking orders from my readers out there for anything they want picked up in Bangkok.

So besides your run of the mill sitting in paradise sorts of pleasures, part of what made PP great was that I ran into many familiar faces. The first were 2 people from my trek in Chiang Mai, and it was nice to meet up for them for a drink. Also hung out with Tom, an American who teaches English in Korea, who I met in Nha Trang, Vietnam. And then there was the Wharton contingent, which ended up numbering 7 (for those who care about this stuff, they were Laura (from Angkor Wat trip), Chandra (Hanoi dinner), Julie, Madge & Ryan, Alvaro, PJ (boyfriend of Whartonite whom I had dinner with in Saigon))... I spent 3 evenings with them (3 Ds -- dinner, drinks and dancing). We also rented a speed boat for 3 hours to cruise around the islands - specifically to go see some of the amazing beaches on on PP Ley, including the location of the appropriately-named movie, The Beach, was filmed. And then we cruised into a quiet lagoon and had our lunch on a beach that must have been 20 feet long and 5 feet deep in total seclusion. Heaven.

After 8 glorious days of just relaxing good times, I packed up my bags, waved goodbye to paradise, and headed over to the east coast island of Ko Samui, where I'd be taking my advanced diving certification course.

Comments

[Jonathan Ganz]

$5 for a massage!!! Where can I sign up? Sounds like KPP is paradise. Is it crowded at all, or is it fairly empty?

[Simeon Wallis]

Yes, PP is a paradise. It's not too crowded, though it definitely has its share of visitors... but you never feel overwhelmed.

And $5 for a massage is common pricing for Thailand, so you don't even have to get to PP.

[Claire Durrant]

I worked on phi phi diving for a year and would like to say that the dive sites mentioned above,Bida Nok and Bida Nai when dived with informed guides who know the currents can be some of the most amazing dive sites ever. Leopard sharks, black tips, lionfish, too much to mention! One of the best in Thailand.

[pgxjfswbtu]

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