Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life. I still think the beach on Boracay Island, Philippines, is the winning beach, but Phi Phi (pronounced fee fee) takes the cake for island beauty. Its karst topography resembles Halong Bay in Vietnam, but when sticking out of the middle of crystal clear, aqua blue waters instead of green…it wins again. The water, the palm trees, the hills, the bay, the beach – KPP has it all. I actually hadn’t been planning to visit any of the islands in Thailand on this trip, but when the girls, who were flying out of Phuket a few days after Bangkok, decided they wanted to return to Phi Phi, I made a split decision to tag along with them, even though I only had two days to do it before catching my train to Malaysia. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

So, we took our final overnight bus journey from Bangkok to Phuket, during which I watched 'The Beach', with Leonardo DiCaprio, on my computer. I hadn’t seen it before, but I knew it had been filmed on the island Koh Phi Phi Ley, which is only a km or so from Koh Phi Phi Don, where we were headed. Ley is actually a national park, so no one is allowed to stay there other than campers, but it’s popular to take boat trips over to Maya Bay, where The Beach was filmed. The girls said it was a pretty overrun touristy boat trip, however, so when someone pointed out the TINY little white strip that you could see as we passed KPP Ley on the ferry and said that was Maya Bay, I decided that was good enough for me. But I’m getting ahead - the movie definitely got me excited for the island, and I had no idea how beautiful it would actually be in person.

In the morning we crossed the tiny little land bridge connecting the island of Phuket to Thailand, and then it was just a short journey south to the ferry terminal. We bought our tickets and boarded the two hour ferry to the island. We took advantage of the ride to sunbathe and meet other travelers. It was a perfect, sunny day out and the water was a deep, intense blue, which only heightened as we got closer to the island. We turned the corner around the rocks and…there it was.

The little town was adorable – dive shops, souvenier stalls, guesthouses, and restaurants. We stayed in a dorm room hostel for about ten dollars, a place the girls already knew about. Did you notice the almost triple jump in price from the place Sara and I stayed in Koh Chang? The price of tourism to pay. After dumping our stuff we – what else? - hit the beach.

I won’t torture you back in MN and WI right now with more description – just know we had a fantastic beach day, which led into a fun night out, both bar hopping and on the beach, where fire dancers and all night DJs lit up the night all the way into the early morning.

The next day I had to go. That sucks, I know, but I still had most of the day to enjoy the beach and hanging out with the girls. I had debated staying one more night but it would sacrifice one day of Malaysia, which had already been shortened as it was, and I knew it was time to move on. I said goodbye to the girls, who turned into wonderful travel buddies and friends since the day we met in Vietnam. We’re now discussing the possibility of doing South America together – I already have my ticket, so it’s just a matter of them deciding to come along.

With that, I left them in probably the best place you could ever say goodbye, picked up my stuff, and set off for the ferry pier. I was on my own again, and now I had a little over five weeks left of my trip. I spent the ferry, which I took to Krabie, not Phuket, just sitting, listening to music, and watching the sunset over the water, thinking about all I had done and seen. It was still just a little too far away to start thinking about home, but still too sad to think about Korea because I missed it so much. I had plenty of recent memories to start thinking about instead. However, I was now over halfway through my dream trip – I only hoped I was appreciating it enough as it passed by like lightning speed.

Goodbye Thailand!