If you want to keep secretes, kill everybody who knows. The same could be said if you want to ruin a good thing tell somebody about it. If you want the whole world to know feature it in a movie. The islands of the Koh Phi Phi island group in southern Thailand were featured in the movie The Beach. If you are not familiar with the story line, some young travelers discover this fantastic spot in Thailand and decide to make their version of utopia and keep it secrete at all costs, had they been successful this would still be a small island group that few but the most hardy backpackers would visit.
When the movie The Beach was made here there were not many that knew about this beautiful island group of Stonehenge like monoliths that stick out of the pond like waters of the Andaman Sea. Clad in deep jungle greenery they have a forbidding yet enticing aura about them. The white sand beaches look like everyone's picture of tropical paradise with palm thick trees waiting at the top with green pepper, coconut milk to give up their sweet for thirsty travelers.
Today, the thirsty traveler in the form of herds young backpackers who get a traffic jam in the center of the main island of bones of the dog in the night milling catapulted into ubiquitous urban flows from the blow molded. The day of the hordes on the beaches and lay groups on the same subject and children cooking. Bars, shops, cafes, travel agencies, discos power also very popular 7-11needs of these adventure seekers many of whom sport bandages and crutches from spills and thrills of rock climbing, cliff jumping and jungle expeditions to find water falls.
The waters around Koh Phi Phi are not safe not because of the animals in the water but because of the poor water treatment Streptococcus a particular nasty skin eating bug is around and other ailments as well so it pays to take care of even the smallest scratches here so that you don't end up in the emergency room having pieces of skin cut out.
The other thing to watch out for is your wallet as they are firm believers in price fixing from internet to scuba diving they have some of the highest prices in Thailand and they do not negotiate at all if you are a bargain seeker give this place a wide berth. Cheap hotels in every sense of the term are priced like 3 star hotels else where we did not see any places that delivered value to price with the exceptions of The Phi Phi Hotel which was quoting off season rates seemed to be the only hotel that had a clue.
In the period before the islands here became famous this was a great place to come and hang out for weeks at a time, today however it is another paradise lost.
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