There’s a slight difference between a place being touristy and a place catering to tourists - Ko Phi Phi walked a very fine line without crossing completely into the touristy category. The narrow streets were reminiscent of an old walled European city but instead of an artisanal cheese shop there was pizza by the slice. Once I had sense of the islands orientation I navigated through the busy streets and eventually found my hotel tucked away down a quiet alley.
One of the positives of a place that caters towards tourists is that if you’re craving pasta, there’s no guilty feeling eating Italian instead of sticking with the regional cuisine. After the carb loaded pasta meal I headed to the beach to begin a short night of partying.
The partying on the beach and the walk to the hotel felt like travelling back in time without the aid of a Delorean. I was no longer on a trip around the world but instead had travelled back to my college years and a wild spring break atmosphere. Everywhere I looked were college aged students drinking, jumping through fire hoops, and getting tattoos - in that order.
One of the positives of a place that caters towards tourists is that if you’re craving pasta, there’s no guilty feeling eating Italian instead of sticking with the regional cuisine. After the carb loaded pasta meal I headed to the beach to begin a short night of partying.
The partying on the beach and the walk to the hotel felt like travelling back in time without the aid of a Delorean. I was no longer on a trip around the world but instead had travelled back to my college years and a wild spring break atmosphere. Everywhere I looked were college aged students drinking, jumping through fire hoops, and getting tattoos - in that order.
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At Ko Phi Phi I spent a half day at Ko Phi Le and Maya Beach - made famous by Leonardo Di Caprio in “The Beach”. It’s an incredibly nice beach but absolutely trampled with other tourists. Boats need to wait until another one leaves to find beach access. Our boat was a “longtail” so we went a little slower around the islands but it was a nice experience and different from the other group motorboats speeding around. After an hour at Maya Beach we headed to a cove for snorkeling. There were not a ton of fish but some interesting ones - I saw an angel fish and some sort of tube squid thing. We had another brief stop at Monkey Beach - which isn’t so much a beach but a couple of monkey-filled trees overhanging the water.
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As someone who has traveled all over, you show up at a place like Ko Phi Phi and you don't want to like it. You want to look at all the other travelers and smugly look down on them. But...you visit a place like this and it is spectacularly. There's waaaaaaay too many tourists, but hey, they are here for a reason.
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This was one of the few times during my travels that I sprung for a hotel room instead of staying at a hostel and I felt like it was totally worth it. You walk back from these college/frat style beach parties, see drunk people getting tattoos, see people eating all sorts of food, drinking until they pass out, and you think, "thank goodness I'm not sharing a six-bed dorm room with these people". Going from a $15/night dorm room to a $40/night nice hotel room for three nights was totally worth it.
For additional Ko Phi Phi photos see FLICKR ALBUM.