Paradise Found - Koh Phi Phi!

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It was soon time to leave our luxurous surroundings and head off to Phi Phi Island which took us around 1 1/2 hour by boat from Krabi.  We left Krabi 15 mins early which was impressive but after 20mins of hugging the coast we stopped to collect somemore passengers who were waiting in longtail boats in the bay for us.  I couldn't believe how many people they managed to cram on the boat.  There must have been over 150 and most had back packs too.  There was a huge mound of backpacks in the middle of the deck and people sitting, lying and standing in the gaps.  Luckily it was a fast, smooth crossing and we both had seats.  The sun was blazing down and by the time we were mooring in Phi Phi we both looked a bit on the red side.

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We arrived in Phi Phi bang on time and our boat was met by lots of accomodation 'runners' holding up their hotel names and leaflets.  Our 'runner' took us to 3 full hotels so I guess he wasn't that good so we said our goodbyes and decided to find our own accomodation.  We had passed a rather nice looking place called Phi Phi Andaman Resort which was lots of individual bungalows and a swimming pool in the middle right across a small footpath from the beach.  It was slightly more that we wanted to pay (1300 baht per night) but beggers can't be choosers and the accomodation was pretty scarce so we took the last room.  It was really nice and we had the most perfect view of Phi Phi Ley from our veranda - what a view to wake up to each morning.

The snorkling was fab, you could see 100's of fish swimming right up to the mask

Some of the devistation caused by the tsunami
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We were originally going to stay in Phi Phi for 2 nights but ended up staying 6!

We were quite nervous about coming to Phi Phi as we knew that the Island had been severly affected by the 2004 Tsunami and we heard that a lot of the island had been devistated.  The bay at Ton Sai where we were staying seemed to take the brunt of the Tsumani and most of the shops, homes and hotels in the narrow slither of land between the bays had been completely dimolished.  A lot of building work has already been done just to get tourists back to the island and there was lots of building work still going on.  The evidence of the tsumani was also at our hotel.  The safe box in our room was one example of the damage done.  The safe no longer worked as the battery was completely water damaged and the safe was full of sand.  Its little things such as these that really make you remember that day.

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A couple of days into our stay we decided to hire a longtail boat for the morning and take a tour around the islands coastline.  We had the most amazing 3 hour trip where Lee managed to do some snorkling.  The snorkling was fab, you could see 100's of fish swimming right up to the mask and looking puzzled.  The water was so clear that you could see the sea bed which was 3m deep and you got the feeling of vertigo - it was like flying!  We visited some desserted beaches on the island and it was just lovely to go into the sea and have the fish swimming around your ankles.