If you’ve seen The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, these pictures will look familiar to you. That’s because Phi Phi (Ko Phi Pho Don to be exact) is one of the islands where the movie was shot. When we first booked our tickets to Thailand from Bali, we were going to spend time in Phuket and go on to Bangkok for New Years. One evening, as we were talking about the trip, my husband showed me a picture of Ko Phi Phi Don and said “we’re actually going here from Phuket, before Bangkok.” I couldn’t believe it because the picture looked too good to be true. Well ladies and gentleman, it’s good and true. All of it.

We took a morning fast boat from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi Don and arrived at the magical island within an hour. When we pulled up and I saw the water go from deep blue to aqua, I knew that we were in paradise. The island is very tiny, with no cars, a lot of young tourists and delicious food. We stayed at the P.P. Palm Tree Resort, located in the middle of the island. The walk from the ferry was less than 5 minutes, and the walk to the beach was less than 5 minutes. Everything is a walk of less than 5 minutes because it’s a tiny island. Our hotel wasn’t anything fancy (we aren’t fancy people :), but they really cared about their towels. They reminded us over and over that if we ruin or damage their towels-there will be a fine. So towels! lol.

We loved our time here, even though it’s still doesn’t feel real. From our hotel, we followed little homemade signs that pointed to the beach- right through people’s yards. They weren’t at all phased that random strangers were walking though their property to get to the beach, and that really added to the charm.

This is the beach on the “main island”- Loh Dalam Bay

The food was fantastic, no matter where we ate. One of the more popular restaurants we visited was Anna’s, but our favorite was a little hole-in-the-wall with two little tables that served the BEST Pad Thai I’ve ever seen. You’ll know you’re at the right place because the walls are covered with comments from tourists like us who fell in love with the delicious food of this gem. I can’t remember the name and have tried to search for it online, but like I said, it’s a hole-in-the-wall.

We spent our days on the beach, doing nothing but relaxing, expect for the one day we took a “taxi boat” and had a dreamy day.

We paid around $50 for six hours of pure bliss. Our “driver” took us to all of the islands around Ko Phi Phi Don-Ko Phi Phi Ley, Bamboo Island, Mosquito Bay, Monkey Beach. The experience was one I cannot put into words- the sun was shining, the water crystal, the waters calm. We would stop here and there and enjoy the water, or snorkel, and get back in the boat and keep going. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves…

This was all at Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Ley. You have to get here pretty early, as it gets very packed with tourists who want to see the charm of this wild, uninhabited bay. This was made very popular by Leo DeCaprios The Beach. It’s serene, with crystal clear water.

On our way from island to island, we came across a spooky looking cave with clothes hanging on a line to dry. Turns out people actually live inside the cave and they capture bird’s nest for the very expensive “bird’s nest soup” delicacy. Eww. But wow.

     

This was at Bamboo Island. It’s a very tiny little island that is pretty much wild-except for the random little stall that sells the BEST fried rice for about $1.50…we had two plates because it was out of this world delicious. The island itself it white sand and obviously crystal clear water, with unreal views of “mountains/rocks” in the distance. Have I mentioned this all felt like a dream?

On our way from Bamboo Island, we stopped by Mosquito Island and did some snorkeling…our driver had some bread and threw it into the water to bring all of the fish to us. It was amazing! We snorkeled at two different locations-once at Mosquito Island, but before that,  our driver pulled into a random cove, gave us snorkeling gear, and said “go!” Because I am a scar-die cat- I originally wasn’t planning on going, but I’m glad he practically pushed us off the boat!

As we were heading back to Ko Phi Phi Don, we stopped by Monkey Beach-it’s exactly what it’s called. Filled with wild monkeys who’ve become accustomed to a life with tourists.

The water was unbelievable, and these boats added so much character to the experience. I loved the different colorful flowers that each boat had tied to it.

It rained every single days we were there-but after 5pm and not for too long…but when it rained, it RAINED. We were already near our final destination while on our taxi boat when it started to pour. You couldn’t see much un front of you, and even though we tried to hide under the cover, we still got SOAKED. But it was so much fun! The rain wasn’t cold and we couldn’t stop laughing.

Heading back to Phuket for a flight to Bangkok.