It was a short trip across the Andaman Sea to Koh Phi Phi. The crossing was a great deal smoother than the previous day’s journey, the sea was a lot less choppy off the Andaman coast. I had pre-booked accommodation and transport to our Hotel for our arrival. We were picked up by a long tail boat and taken to our Hotel, Koh Phi Phi Hill Resort. The resort was in a great location right on the top of a hill with commanding views of the harbour and Koh Phi Phi Leh. The view came with a price though, with a great deal of steps to climb from the beach until you reached the resort. Fortunately they had trolley with a pulley system for our bags, but even without our bags we were still out of breath when we reached reception.
The Hotel was a find, it was cheap, quiet and had a great location. The food from the restaurant was good, and the beer was the cheapest on the island. I was glad to find somewhere away from the noisy main town, and somewhere we could relax.
Koh Phi Phi is a beautiful island, it really has it all. With spectacular beaches, limestone cliffs, inviting turquoise blue sea, Technicolor corals and colourful jungle it’s no wonder Koh Phi Phi has become a hedonistic paradise. And beauty comes at a cost, the island is peppered with resorts and beach huts and jam-packed with tourists. Fortunately we weren’t subject to the masses of holiday makers as we were hidden away on top of our hill.
Koh Phi Phi was our relaxation time, and like Koh Tao, we didn’t do very much. I went diving on one occasion, and it was probably the best diving experience yet. We took a boat to Koh Phi Phi Leh, the smaller of the two islands which remains uninhabited. We found an amazing dive spot, a coral wall which was a hive of activity. The visibility was good and we saw loads of brilliantly coloured fish.
The only other excursion was when I persuaded Nev to take a half day tour around Kho Phi Phi Leh which combined sightseeing with a spot of cliff jumping. He wasn’t keen on the cliff jumping bit, mainly because of the people we thought cliff jumping would attract, the teenage party crowd. But we were wrong, and the cliff jumping ended up being the best part of the tour.
The boat was packed, the tour was pretty rubbish, and our guide was irksome. There was free booze though which was a bit of a bonus, and helped to make us less irritable when our guide cracked his, mildly amusing for the first time, but very annoying for the tenth time, practical jokes. They included the usual repertoire when booze and ice was at hand, ice down your t-shirt, spilling whisky all over the place when he was pouring you a glass etc. etc. Amazingly we were never the butt of his jokes and it was kind of funny watching the reactions from the other people on the boat. One guy thought he was hilarious, while his buddy who was sitting right next to our guide was incensed every time he was the brunt of a practical joke.
It was a whistle stop tour, with some swimming and snorkelling before we arrived at Ao Maya, a lagoon which was used for the controversial filming of the The Beach, based on the popular novel by Alex Garland. It was impressive with soaring cliffs on each side, but since the shooting of The Beach tourist numbers have soared, and there must have been at least two hundred other people when we were there.
Our final activity was the cliff jumping, and we were the only two people on the boat doing it. I love cliff jumping and have had a fair amount of practice in Scotland. But my first attempt was rather pathetic with both arms flailing as I jumped from the cliff into the sea below. I’ve never done that before, maybe it was the added adrenalin with an audience watching, whatever it was it didn’t affect Nev, he launched himself off with a text book jump, totally straight with arms by both sides. I wasn’t allowed to do the bigger jump that was planned due to my amateur first attempt, it was a pity though as my next jump was exemplary.
The next day we left Koh Phi Phi for Bangkok. When I arrived at the port I noticed that my bank card and one of my credit cards was missing. I later found out that somebody had taken them from my wallet which I left in my Hotel room, when going for a swim. They had both been used fraudulently for significant amounts of money. This left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the Koh Phi Phi Hill Resort which I had initially rated quite highly.
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