South of Thailand - Ko Phi Phi

Phuket to Ko Phi Phi Island by boat, Thailand Day 47 (March-17)

Thailand Map

Southern Thailand Map

It’s another early 7 AM mini-bus pickup, and we ride to Phuket town to take the ferry to Ko Phi Phi. The Thais make Island hopping a breeze. At your hotel or any travel agent on the street, you can buy a boat ticket, which includes pickup at your hotel. Upon arrival at the dock, the hotel you reserved picks you up and transports you to your room free of charge.

Everyone seems to charge the same for transport, and there isn’t any real savings for doing it yourself. It’s so brainless, you would almost have to try to screw it up; and we almost did. While on the boat, we realized we left our luggage on the mini-bus. We scurried up to find it waiting for us at the top of the boat ramp.

ferry station

Ko Phi Phi here we come

Ko Phi Phi is beautiful and popular place. Ko Phi Phi island contains Ko Phi Phi Lee & Ko Phi Phi Don (Ko = Island). Ko Phi Phi Don contains two limestone islands connected by a strip of land with tourist village and beaches on both sides. It’s a small place, and there is no motorized transport on the island. There are a few resorts on the peripheral beaches, which are reached by walking paths, or long tail boat. The southern beach contains the ferry pier, and row of long tail boats. The northern beach contains a typical strip with umbrellas and beach chairs. We stay at the Don Chukit Resort on the south side, facing the working beach, We find the working beach with the boats is prettier than the tourist beach.

Ko Phi Phi map (click the photo to enlarge)

Arriving Ko Phi Phi

our hotel faces the working beach

working beach, long tail boats spot the rain coming in

Ko Phi Phi is one of the most expensive places in Thailand, so we choose another no AC and no hot water room to save money. As space on the island is limited, the price is double for the same accommodation in Phuket. The room is clean and functional, but with the metal roof and dropped ceiling, it’s a sweat box until 3AM, and we don’t get much sleep. On the plus side, we meet a lot of cool people setting outside of our room while waiting for it to cool down (since everyone else is doing the same).

The bathroom is a bit rough. As with most bathrooms in budget hotels, the toilet, sink, and shower are together in a small room. Most sinks leak, which then runs into the shower drain. In these rooms, they didn’t pitch the floor properly, so the bathroom turns into a puddle after your shower. (Vana: bad design - this will drive German engineers crazy) Also, as described by an English fellow a few doors down; “There’s no flush for the Jack!” I assumed the Jack must be the thing you use in the John, so I told him to use the hose or the bucket. From his confused look, I offered him tech support, but he said; “You don’t want to go in there now”! He asked me how it works, and I told him it uses gravity; just make sure you don’t lay a floater, eh?

For dinner we eat at an open air restaurant overlooking the working beach. The nightly entertainment is a lightning display which illuminates the surrounding islands and approaching clouds. With the first sign of a cool breeze, the staff indicates it’s time to change tables. It’s a complete downpour ten minutes later, which floods the streets, and takes 30 minutes to clear out. This turns into a nightly event around 8PM.

dinner on the beach

nightly entertainment between 8-9 PM

Ko Phi Phi Island, Thailand Day 48 (March-18)

It’s an even earlier wake up for our 6:15AM snorkel trip. We sign up for a special shark watch trip with the Adventure Club. The tour begins with a shark briefing, and then we head to the beach to take a quick long tail boat ride to a rock reef only a few minutes from our hotel. The sharks like this area because the current gives them a place to rest, since they have to constantly swim to breath. The local black tip reef sharks are between three to six feet long, and are not aggressive. Our guide is an English fellow who is way into sharks. There is a German couple in our group.

We enter the water above a shallow live reef, and then swim to a channel between two rocks formations. At the first sighting, the guide gives the signal, and we lock arms at the elbows and sit tight. The sharks are afraid of humans, and can sense every muscle movement in our group (Vana: it knows your weight, your size, and how many fingers you have the minute you enter the water). The idea is to make us look less threatening, and hope that a school of sharks will circle us out of curiosity. The sharks circle because they cannot see forward, only sideways.

The technique kind of works and we see a few sharks come by to take a look in groups of one and two; about three to four feet long. They swim slow along the bottom, and keep a distance of at least ten yards. Over an hour or so, we move around and spot sharks about four times. We never tried this kind of trip before and enjoy it; although we think it’s a bit boring waiting around compared with visiting a reef.

After some time a group of barneys arrive and the party is over. They chase the sharks and are yelling ever time they see one. You don’t see much chasing a shark, since they are infinitely faster swimmers. In the afternoon, we water log ourselves in the pool, trying to keep cool.

snorkeling site

Vana: okay, before you react, here are some facts to chew on: on average, there are about 60-70 shark attacks per year, most in a few feet of murky river water by Bull Sharks. Only 7-8 people die from the attack. All ocean animals only attack out of defense, and shark never attack divers. On the other hand, human kills 1 million shark per year. We cut off shark fin and sell it to Chinese, then throw the bleeding shark back into the ocean. The shark can not swim and slowly bleed to death. So, to my fellow Chinese shark fin lovers, PLEASE think twice before you order the shark fin soup next time. Because every shark in the ocean is endangered!

black tip reef sharks

We saw 3-5 sharks today! Including a baby shark!

very satisfied

chilling out in our hotel pool, still working on that tan

Ko Phi Phi Island, Thailand Day 49 (March-19)

Today, it’s an early, but more manageable 8:15AM snorkel trip to the Phi Phi Leh island. Today our guide is a young woman from Chile. We take long tail boat to the Phi Phi Leh Island. On the way we pass Viking Cave, where the island’s only inhabitants collect birds nest from sea swallows. The sea swallow creates the nest from its saliva, which then hardens. After the chicks are born, and sea swallows leave, the inhabitants perform a special ceremony before collecting the empty nests.

The Chinese use the nest to make the world famous (and very expensive) bird’s nest soup or desert. The nests cook down into a noodle looking thing, and are often served at weddings to induce fertility. The soup is also popular in Chinese medicine for rejuvenating the elderly.

our guide and boat driver's son in the front of the boat

Viking Cave

The next stop is in a small bay for some snorkel action. The coral in the reef is not nearly as good as we expected, but the sea anemones are really cool. We found Nemo and took pictures! Also, it is really cool to swim outside the bay in the shade along the recess in water line of the limestone cliffs. Below the water line, the cliffs continue into a deep drop off, with soft and hard corals attached to the rock face.

There is a current here, and we can feel tingling stings on our forehead, top lip, and arms from tiny invisible sea lice floating in the current. At first I thought it was strange to wear short wet suits with the warm water temperature, but the sea lice (jellyfish) and sun protection works out well.

Next, we ditch our gear, grab our sandals, and swim to a cave in the bay. We walk through the cave which leads us to a small mangrove jungle area connected to a very large and impressive beach beneath towering limestone cliffs, on the other side of the island. Apparently, the movie “The Beach” was filmed here. The movie is famous, but we never heard of it (Vana: with Leonardo DiCaprio in it, of course it's famous). I guess many other people saw the movie, because the beach is lined with speed boat day trippers from Phuket. It's a zoo!

Our next snorkel is along another cliff wall on the other side of the island. We see lots of fish, and a few sharks. Again, it is pretty cool to swim besides the towering limestone cliffs. Debating if above or below the water line is prettier might be a tie.

sea anemones

Nemo!

False Clown Fish

blue fish with red fan coral

yellow fan coral along the wall

needle fish

we saw a lot of schooling schooling fish

Schooling fish

Did I mention that Ko Phi Phi likes to party?

Alcohol mixed with high levels of Nitrogen gets crazy!

CLICK HERE to see more snorking pictures


Ko Phi Phi Island to Ko Lanta Island by boat, Thailand Day 50 (March 20)

We take a beautiful late morning ferry boat to Ko Lanta. The water is glassy, and the horizon is filled with low clouds.

Ko Lanta is a long Island with 30 miles of beach coastline lined with small bungalow resorts. We stay at the Lanta Nice Beach resort. It’s a nice place; half empty, low season pricing, with very few people on the beach. For the same price we paid in Ko Phi Phi, our Ko Lanta accommodation includes full amenities. This works out great because Vana has several pronounced jellyfish stings which clear up almost immediately after rinsing with hot water. Neither the dive shop nor hotel in Ko Phi Phi included such luxury.

On the way to Ko Lanta

Picture of glassy water

reflection of perfection

our hotel room: return to comfort

empty at our resort beach