Koh Phi Phi, paradise pretty much lost

We picked our way through throngs of reddening europeans, packing Koh Lipe's main beach, then took a dip in clear waters, clear enough to reveal some rather unsavoury items bobbing gently across the sand. It was clear Phi Phi was not the island for us. Whilst we kind of knew this already we decided it was still worth a view, as the development won't rewind and a day trip to 'The Beach' is kind of a tourist trail must do.

Accomodation on the island was clearly much pricier than other places we'd stayed. However we managed to bag a clean and fairly modern room for 700tb which featured poolside bar and free wifi, about the cheapest available.

Signing up for half day tour by longtail boat of the main tourist spots the next day we packed on said boat and our whistlestop tour began. First monkey beach for 5 minutes, litter strewn, and featuring a small clutch of monkeys who would run off with tourists water bottles, drain the contents and leave them in the sand, the same tourists not worrying about retrieving the empty bottle.

Next up a fly past Viking Cave. Featuring cave paintings, landing is not allowed I think due to it's importance to nesting swiftlets, and therefore birds nest collectors. The cave appeared well decked out with the bamboo trellises and ladders of bird nesters.

Birds nests are big business. One of the only things more lucrative than tourism and therefore taking priority. With the saliva based nests commanding thousands per kilo armed guards patrol important nesting sites and you don't mess with these guys. Reputedly political and police connections mean things also come down very much on the nesters side if there is troble.

With the long tail loaded down with twenty punters we couldn't enter any of the shallow snorkeling spots, so headed to Maya beach, setting for the film adaptation of Alex Garlands late 90s best seller, The Beach.                                 Undoubtedly beautiful at least 20 boats of differing sizes filled the bay. The snorkelling was also pretty good. As we have found in Thailand generally damaged corals being some what made up for by quantity and variation in fish life.

So with our brief visit over we headed to Ranong and the practicalities of a visa run. Our 15 day Thai visa's nearing their end. It's a long days travel from Phi Phi, a 2 hour ferry to Phuket followed by a 5 hour bus but not expensive, self organised the journey costing around 400TB each.

p.s. man from surrey - still no tuk tuks, but more gin.