Throughout 2017, I had occasionally kept in touch with my friend Nock, who I had met last year while I was in Vientiane. Once I knew I was definitely going back to Southeast Asia for this trip, I told her and we made plans to go on holiday at the end of the year. She works long hours – too long, if you ask me – and was feeling a bit burnt out, so I suggested we find a relaxing island to go to. She had already been to all of the places I suggested, so I offered up Koh Phi-Phi. I warned her that there would be a lot of farang, but I also reiterated that it’s the most beautiful island I’ve ever been to. She loved the idea, so we put some dates on the calendar and booked flights and hotels.
(Unlike my trips to the island in 2014 and 2015, I made a point of taking a lot of photos and videos this time around, so get ready for a lot of media content in this post.)
On Christmas day, after one last banh mi and iced coffee at the Saigon airport, I flew to Bangkok, where I met Nock for our flight. The next 24 hours were pretty standard for a trip to Koh Phi-Phi: a short flight to Krabi, a guesthouse for the night (since all the boats to the island leave early in the day), dinner at the night market, massages before bed, a lazy breakfast the next morning, a van ride to the semi-chaotic and tourist-packed pier, a relatively sedate two-hour ferry ride to the island, and a 10-minute walk from the pier to our hotel. There are no motorized vehicles on the island – which is always heaven on earth whenever you can find that in Southeast Asia – so the porters and other workers transport everything via hand-pushed carts.
We stayed at a hotel that I’ve stayed in before, so the walk from the pier was very familiar. There had – unsurprisingly – been a fair amount of development in the two years since I was last on the island. A nice paved walkway connects the two main beaches now, but the main corner by the pier has a fucking McDonald’s, which is infuriating. You can’t stop “progress”, I guess.
Before dinner, while Nock had to work a bit on her laptop, I took my camera down to the beach to get some photos of Koh Phi-Phi’s famous long-tail boats. Some of the tour guides will hang around Ao Lo Dalam in the late afternoon in the hopes of enticing tourists to book a sunset trip. A few guys were hawking on the beach, a few were lounging in their boats, and a few Thai children splashed around in the water nearby.
Our first full day on the island was a deep dive into the beach vacation we both were craving: lazy time on the beach to lounge and read and people-watch, swimming, some light reading, and Thai food for lunch and Italian food for dinner. I hit “peak vacation” in the mid-afternoon when I passed out in my chair – clearly exhausted from all the lounging and eating – and broke my cheap sunglasses.
The next day, we woke up early to catch the sunrise, then took a long-tail boat to Haad Yao, a beautiful beach on the southeast part of the island. It was honestly the best beach day I’ve had in a long time: powdery sand, perfectly hot weather, cool spots in the shade, fresh coconuts, an incredible lunch of massaman curry and stir-fried fish, and clear, warm water that was so salty you could effortlessly float away if you wanted to.
On our final full day, we had a fantastic brunch at an all-mangoes-all-the-time restaurant in town, followed by another lazy afternoon on the beach closest to our guesthouse.
In the evening, we asked around about boat trips and decided to hire one for a few hours to go sightseeing on Koh Phi-Phi Leh, the beautiful sister island to the south that is open for tours but has no inhabitants. Even though this was my third time on Koh Phi-Phi Don, I had never actually gone to the other island on my previous trips and I decided it was time to correct that.
We puttered around the island, mostly visiting the two large bays: Pileh Lagoon and the world-famous Maya Bay. We stopped frequently to take photos or go swimming next to the cliffs or kick around small, deserted beaches. We cruised by Maya Beach – best known as the shooting location of The Beach – but didn’t stop since it was already packed with tourists (and actually costs money for foreigners). Instead we found another deserted beach with palm trees and towering limestone cliffs and beautiful turquoise water.
As I floated in the water and looked at the tops of the karsts against the deep blue sky, I strained to fully absorb the stunning scenery. The nearby party boat blasting 90’s hip-hop brought me back down to earth occasionally, but mostly I felt like I was gently floating away in a dream.
Just as the sun was setting and the moon was starting to come out, we left the southern island and made our way back. The scenery for the entire evening was incredible and that boat trip was the perfect way to finish our trip to the islands.
That evening, we stopped by the massive nightly beach party for a bit to watch all the dancing backpackers and ridiculous fire poi antics. Our flight back to Bangkok wasn’t until 5:00 the next day, so we happily slept in and had a lazy lunch before our boat ride and transfer to the airport.
Even though the island has seen more and more development in recent years and one has to wonder if there’s a breaking point, Koh Phi-Phi is still the most beautiful island I’ve ever been on. I will always happily go back, especially if I can take along friends to see it for the first time.
