"The Beach"

Trip Start Sep 01, 2006

110

Trip End Aug 31, 2007

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Flag of Thailand Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
Saturday, October 7, 2006

The day started with clear skies and the temperature slowly climbed to the mid-30s. I made my way to the ferry port but around lunch time and just before we set off a massive storm hit. This made the crossing a bit rough. A few people had to go outside to be sick. Except the girl sat next to me who decided to stay where she was and be sick there.

The storm cleared just as we were pulling into Koh Phi Phi. I got off the ferry and was immediately jumped on by thirty hotel touts. I managed to fight my way through them and went looking for the guesthouse that had already been recommended to me (which turned out to be pink).

Koh Phi Phi is shaped like a reversed "h". The two vertical sections are hilly so 90% of the population and all of the dive shops, restaurants, etc..

Koh Phi Phi from the high view point

. are in the middle horizontal section. This is only about 50 metres wide and does not rise about 3 metres so when the Tsunami hit it just rolled straight over the island. This is evident by the amount of building going on.

After checking into my bungalow I decided to walk around the island and work out what to do. I ended up signing up for a boat trip the next day. The first stop was the smaller Phi Phi Le which was where The Beach was filmed. Although Hollywood had to make a few changes. They dug up all the wild grass, added a few more palm trees and flattened out the bumpy sand dunes. This caused a few problems as this is a national park, but the director paid US$100,000 to the right people so he got to do what he wanted.

We went around the other islands, did some snorkeling, swimming, canoeing and that sort of thing. I ended up staying on the island for for days. The rest of the time was spent on golden sandy beaches, with blue skies, sunny days and clear blue water. It was hell. ;-)

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