Underwater bliss in Koh Pi Pi
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
59
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Koh Phi Phi,
Thailand
Saturday, February 7, 2009
We were off to Koh Phi Phi, a little island further south along the east coast of Thailand. This place had been made famous by that most ubiquitous of films in the Bangkok bars, The Beach. We took a 2 hour ferry and arrived into the main townat Ton Sai bay to be greated by the usual hoards looking for a piese of your wallet in exchange for a room etc. We had heard of a beach called Long Beach on the southern coast of the island so we hopped into a long boat and were whisked to our destination.
On first impression Long Beach looked lovely. A nice stretch of sand, clear waters and divil a bit of Phuket's ludicrous Italians con speedos. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, Long beach was not so idillic. The only accomadation in our not-so-scrimpy price range was for skanky and smelly huts replete with resident mosquitoes. After our early and hungover rise we settled and Lydia was cheered somewhat by the important news that the TV in the bar area would be free for our use tonight meaning we could watch Obama being sworn in on CNN. So after a couple of hours avoiding our rooms by trying to sleep under umbrellas on the beach ( a very hard task because of the noise from the long boats tut-tutting to and fro ) we headed back to the main town to book something for the next couple of nights over there.
We had a few scoops and a good aul feed and headed back in time for the speech.
long boat driver
We were joined in the bar by a Canadian couple who were great craic and after a few bottles of Tiger and a spot of Irish dancing we were suitable for our skank huts. No bother.Up and at em in the morning the 3 amigos headed off bright and early and checked in to our altogether nicer rooms in Ton Sai. We had a good dander about the town visiting the various dive shops and eventually booked a couple of fun dives through Phi Phi dive shop.
Next day myself and Murph got up early and went for what was without doubt the best dives we have done on the trip so far. The first dive was on the east side of Phi Phi Le ( the smaller of the 2 main islands ). Almost immeadiately after submerging we came across a huge leopard shark lying at the bottom. These are very tame sharks without teeth so we could go right up to it and have a close encounter. We managed to stay down for over 50 mins which was our longest dive yet ( showing that our breathing is getting better ) and in this time we also got to see lots of wildlife including stingrays, nemos and huge jelly fish ( which gave me the creeps ).
For dive number two we had to travel around to the far side of the island thus passing the cove and beach used in the film. What a horrible sight, it seemed as if there was a thousand different tour boats chock a block in the little bay and hundreds of poor eijits packed like sardines standing on the small strip of sand. Thankfully we kept moving and settled in a spot were reef sharks are known to frequent in the shade of a massive cliff.
view on route to phi phi
In we lept again, our Turkish dive master told us to stick close to him and this we did. The water here was quite dark but about 10 minutes into the dive and we encountered our first black tip, no more than 10 feet away. Straight away another 3 flew past at very close proximity. Exciting stuff. We saw another 10 or so sharks before we decided to head into a different area were we would have a chance of meeting a giant turtle. On we went untill I spotted a huge turtle underneath me, we stayed and watched him for a while and then headed of. This was an even longer dive at nearly an hour and was amazing. We were on a massive high when we got back to shore, so after a short rest and after hooking up with Liam it was time to party.We went to the Reggae bar where Liam hed been the night before while we had tried to sleep amidst the bloody noise and arsegones at our hotel ( I had to accost a couple of goombahs in the corridor outside our room ).
This bar did not have any actual reggae that we noticed but did have a boxing ring where Ferangs ( westerners ) were encouraged to duke it out against each other and sometimes agaings the local fighters at Mauy Thai boxing. I must admit that after a couple of gin and tonics too many I had to be dissuaded from joining their sorry ranks by my guardian Murphy.
Liam headed off on a visa run the next day and I buried myself deep in the bed with the tv remote control and a sympathethic girlfriend for company. We had pizzas from the next door restaurant in bed and booked our journey for the next day.
we would be hooking up with Liam on the island of Koh Phangan.
Apart from the amazing diving this island was a bit of a let down. We heard from people who had been here before that the island has become overcrowded and over developed over the last couple of years. What a shame as I imagine it once was paradise before the arrival of millions of tourists. Maybe in low season you will find much more peace, serenity and bargains but my advise would be to stay away from peak season here unless you are coming for the diving which is second to none.
Travellers Tips
We dived with Baracuda divers, although we heard good things about visa divers as well. We paid 2500 bht for two fun dives, seems standard and don't think prices vary with seasons (or so they told us anyway) an open water course is 12000 bht. They were great anyway and the diving was amazing highly recommend it.
We stayed in Kinere house - very expensive 1650 bht for a double room, no breakfast included, although there was free internet - had private bathroom and satellite tv - our friend got a single for 700 bht - cheapest we could find but it was peak season.
We paid 950 bht to travel from Phi Phi to Kophangan - think ferry prices have gone up since a good bit since last Lonely Planet published.
Enjoy the farang fights in the Regae bar!
