Paradise found! OK, so everyone else has found it too. Kho Phi Phi is excellent, I have this little cabana on the beach about 20 feet from the ocean at PP Charlie Resort. For $15 a night, nobody is complaining. Kho Phi Phi consists of two islands, Phi Phi Don is the big island with all the tourists and all the places to stay and Phi Phi Ley is where they filmed that movie. The islands are an amazing combination of mountains, cliffs, and white sandy beaches. Over the last few eons waves have crashed into the mountains until gravity takes over and the mountains come crashing down into the sea creating magnificent cliffs and providing crushed rock as fuel for the sandy beaches that fill the gaps between. Like everywhere else in the world Phi Phi is over touristed even in this, the "off-season", but it is truly a beautiful place. Truly.
Today I went out snorkeling. After already acquiring a nice sunburn the day before I headed out with one of the local operators on a day trip around the islands with stops at "The Beach" and other places of inconsequence. The snorkeling was not bad. The last stop on the south side of Phi Phi Don provided the opportunity to snork though caves and out of the sun's direct rays. These shady areas were completely filled with schools of fish. Thousands of fish. The interesting thing was swimming through these immense schools and watching as the fish darted away leaving you encapsulated in a cooperative fish bubble about one-foot from your flipper-clad self. The fish parted and unparted around me like some sort of biblical red sea with me as Moses. Me as Moses.
As I said, I'm back at Charlie's sipping my third Singha. Sunburn reminds me of the the last two days and time ticks away as I look toward my weekend flight back to the states. All is good in Southern Thailand.
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