Tonsai - Railay to Koh Phi Phi Map
I remember speaking with Isla about the famous islands off the Andaman Sea – specifically, Koh Phi Phi. (Just to trigger everyone’s memory, Koh Phi Phi includes Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh – the latter, being the setting of DiCaprio’s The Beach). Some long-term travellers skip Koh Phi Phi altogether. Mainly, because a) it’s busy, touristy and also known as being a ‘party’ island and b) it’s disproportionately more expensive than mainland Thailand.
However, I’m a bit of a sucker for crystal blue waters. Whatever happens on the island is fine – I can see past it… as long as the water lures me in… and in Koh Phi Phi, it did.
Crystal blue waters off Koh Phi Phi Leh in Thailand
There’s not much to say about it, really. We splurged on two fun dives in a world-class diving spot where we saw a giant moray eel, scorpion-fish, a school of chevron barracuda, black-tip reef sharks, pipefish, coral-banded cleaner shrimp, cuttlefish, a golden damsel, yellowback fusiller…(Note: I wouldn’t have been able to recognise the names of most of these fish had it not been for the brilliant knowledge of our divemaster). (See Nicolina videos below).
We managed to experiment with the underwater GoPro camera I bought for Nico for his birthday/Christmas…We managed to refresh our memory on all that we had learned during our Open Water Dive course in Langkawi… I tackled my nervousness on completing the backwards roll off the long-tail boat before commencing my dive…
I managed to have a bit of an accident when putting on my BCD during diving, whereby I lost mobility in my neck and couldn’t undertake my planned climbs with Nico…Nico, on the other hand, managed to hire a guide to climb a 100m multi-pitch on Tonsai Wall, where he and his guide took fabulous photos of the view from above Koh Phi Phi…
Nico atop Tonsai Wall in Koh Phi Phi after 100m multi-pitch climb
Rock and crystal blue waters from Tonsai Wall in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
We ate tasty, freshly BBQ’ed Tiger Prawns in a seafood restaurant right on the beach… we snorkelled… I finally finished reading Liz Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love whilst sunbathing on white sands opposite transparent waters… I started reading a classic epic on India called The Moghul, which has re-inspired me to end my travels in India before my return to Europe (my main worry is whether my finances will allow me to achieve this final objective)…
I sun-bathed to the point that I finally reached my objective of becoming ‘brown like a cookie’… ate banana and chocolate pancakes nearly every day… sometimes I had my own, and sometimes I shared with Nico – to my own disappointment – as I never get to eat my fair share :P.
Sun-bathing and reading on a private beach Nico found in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
I had Back-Neck-and-Shoulder-Thai-Massages almost daily (my excuse was my dodgy neck from diving)… and – well – led the hedonistic lifestyle I winged about in my previous blog entry in Koh Lanta. (I beg you all to believe me that this was purely the result of the quite mesmerising crystal blue waters). Yes, though my back and neck prevented me from taking full advantage of all of the climbing routes in Koh Phi Phi that are perfectly suitable to my level (there are more graded 5’s and 6a’s in Koh Phi Phi than in Tonsai-Railay), I had a very relaxing time. (For my lovely Sora and Panos: you guys will love Koh Phi Phi – just remember to choose the right beach!).
Below, I’ll include some photos and details of our dives from our logbook. 🙂 Enjoy!
PS: Ahh! Did I mention?! We dived with black-tip reef sharks! Yayyyyyy! Sometimes scary, but yayyyy! 🙂
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
| Dive: 05 | Date: 25.01.2012 |
| Dive site: Bida Nok, Koh Phi Phi, Thailand | |
| Air in: 200 bar | Air out: 50 bar |
| Time in: 10:07 am | Time out: 10:58 am |
| Type of dive: boat dive | Weather: sunny – 30 degrees Celsius |
| Sea condition: calm | Current: slow |
| Visibility: 5 – 25m | Wetsuit: 3mm |
| RNT: 0 | ABT: 51 min |
| TBT: 51 min | Depth: 17.3m |
Small beach where we ate lunch between dives on Koh Phi Phi Leh in Thailand
| Dive: 06 | Date: 25.01.2012 |
| Dive site: Palong Garden, Koh Phi Phi Leh, Thailand | |
| Air in: 200 bar | Air out: 50 bar |
| Time in: 12:08 pm | Time out: 13:00 am |
| Type of dive: boat dive | Weather: sunny – 29 degrees Celsius |
| Sea condition: calm | Current: none |
| Visibility: 5 – 15m | Wetsuit: 3mm |
| RNT: 16 min | ABT: 52 min |
| TBT: 1 h 08 min | Depth: 17.9m |
Third Kulture Kid in Paris 
amazing! I can’t wait to go!
so which exatly is the right beach that we should choose?
love me xxx
Yat Hao – something like that. You can hire a boat directly from the port without getting hassled by touts. Just skip the port upon arrival because it’s overwhelming. Find a taxi boat, say ‘yat hao’. It should be 100 baht per person per journey. If you can haggle it down – you will have achieved more than Nico and I. But we had our big bags… we just wanted to get to the nice beach.
There’s an even quieter beach… but I’ve forgotten the name. Will get back to you!
Koh Phi Phi looks mesmerizing. Buying that underwater video camera for Nico was a great idea. Something now we all can enjoy. I was going to be critical of Lina’s photo of the boats along the beach above because they are slightly out of focus. But after thinking about it realized that Nico probably took that shot while hanging from Tonsai Wall. A little hard to use a tripod or lean against a tree or rock from that perspective. Your pictures and videos have been great, so really no complaints anymore about not getting/seeing pictures.
After watching your kayak video earlier (previous post, I believe), I selected another one of those related videos that YouTube offers at the end. It was very well done but with a considerable amount of post-production work (something you guys might do after you get back home – wherever that is). If you two have some time and a decent Internet connection, you might enjoy this too…
Titled: A Month in Thailand –