Ezine

Koh Phi Phi

The central and most densely-populated part of Koh Phi Phi, sandwiched between Tonsai and Lodalum bays, is these days recommended only for budget travellers in search of a party. Such mostly younger visitors notice the rubbish no more than they do that on their bedroom floors back home, but older travellers will not like it, or the night-time noise generated by the huge party scene here.

Phi Phi is on the standard budget traveller’s round-trip-south-of-Thailand-from-Bangkok trail, which starts in Bangkok, then continues via Phi Phi to Koh Phangan, before concluding in Bangkok. It seems a shame that the young peoples’ herd instinct has resulted in them never seeing a real island idyll, due to the degradation of the environments on central Phi Phi and on Phangan’s Had Rin beach that their huge numbers has caused. Food-poisoning on Phi Phi has in recent years not been uncommon, due to contamination of the water supply. Hopefully, however, the newly-installed sewage treatment facilities will resolve this problem.

Unfortunately for Phi Phi it has become Krabi Province’s main destination for lager-lout Englishmen, for whom a standard night out, if they have failed to attract a woman, is to find a fight instead.

A very different atmosphere prevails on Phi Phi’s more up-market Lobagao and Lana beaches, inaccessible except by sea from Phi Phi’s main party zone, and where Thailand’s typical style and elegance are in precedence. After the movie ‘The Beach’ sealed its fate, nearby Maya Bay is probably the most over-touristed destination in the country, with the divers and snorkellers outnumbering the fish.

Click here for vacation Thailand