Koh Phi Phi Don Island: Thailand’s coral and limestone paradise

I am in a crowd of tourists boarding off from the ferry. The water seems turquoise in a distance, but near the dock, too many motorboats clutter the view. I am in Ton Sai village of Koh Phi Phi Don, an island in the Andaman Sea off the coast of mainland Krabi in Thailand. One by one, passengers collect their luggage from the deck and get off. On the pier, there is a queue of hotel and tour agents. They ambitiously come forward, speaking rote phrases to lure tourists. Some of them are here to pick up guests with pre-booked packages.

Koh Phi Phi Don is an inhabited island of limestone karsts and corals. The island itself is popular for its party culture and offshore adventure activities like snorkeling and scuba diving. Boat tours leave from Koh Phi Phi Don to several tiny uninhabited islands nearby, with packed food and water. Tourists mostly opt for these daytrips.

Since the island is extremely small, walking can get you everywhere. I take my backpack and start my first walk in the island to my guesthouse, which is very near from the pier. It is a sunny day. The narrow lanes of the island are choc-a-block with shops, lodges, restaurants and bars. Even though there is a bright sun in the sky, I easily walk among the cool shadows of the structures. The lanes already bustle with tourists.

What constitutes Koh Phi Phi Don

Touristy, crowded Koh Phi Phi Don buzzes around Ton Sai Village. To the east and west of the village are limestone hills with thick tropical forests. To the north of the village is Loh Dalum Bay and beach and to the south is Ton Sai Bay and beach. Ton Sai Bay is where mass-ferries from Phuket and Krabi ply, so the water is disturbed by boats. Loh Dalum is where most of the public beach activities – swimming, waddling and sun lounging take place.

Unpleasant accommodation

My guesthouse is indeed that—a local residential house admitting tourists. I am allotted a room on the ground floor. The rooms of the ground floor surround a big airy and well-lit hall. A central staircase takes one upstairs, but those are either rented on monthly basis or occupied by permanent residents.

I am utterly disgusted with my room. It is shabby and dingy. There are a couple of tiny dirty windows that open to the streets (and so need to be perennially closed), one average bed, a small wardrobe and a mini fridge. The paint on the walls is peeling off and the ceiling looks like it would fall down any minute. To top this, there is only one bulb light in the room, making it dark, depressing and pathetic. No match for the bright sunny destination.

I have booked this place two days back from Booking.com while sitting in Hanoi. Koh Phi Phi is anyways an expensive place to be, and since I am booking online at the last minute, I did pay a hefty price for even this kind of bad place! Anyways, I decide to be outdoors all the time.

Loh Dalum of Koh Phi Phi Don

Loh Dalum beach bustles with tourists. Most of the shaded parts on the white sand are already occupied. This is partly because many day-trippers arrive to Koh Phi Phi Don from Krabi and Phuket and hang around till lunch. There is not even one empty sun-lounger throughout the stretch. Some outdoor cafes and restaurants do have seats available though. The sea is turquoise and inviting, there is only one problem—it is far-off thanks to the low tide.

I walk for a long distance on the sand in the ankle-deep water. There is a big problem with the walk—there are many corals, some living and some dead in this naked strip of seabed. So I walk very carefully. One misstep could be detrimental for the corals. To make the matter worse, I see motorized longtail boats ply on this water.

Longtail boats, the main transport in the island, are used to go from one coast to another and to visit the nearby islands. Though apparently it may seem Koh Phi Phi Don only has two beaches, Loh Dalum and Ton Sai, it is not so. The hilly parts of the island drop into the ocean with fine sandy beaches. The easiest way to reach these beaches are through these longtail boats.

My ‘walk’ in the lagoon seems endless. It feels like I would reach the end of the bay and the reef and plop into the ocean if I don’t stop. So I find a sandy patch where the water is somewhere between my knee and ankle, and lay here with my elbows resting on the sand, just observing the world around.

Tourists go about their usual business of ‘selfie taking’, some people kayak their way out. Longtail boats drop and pick up tourists. The eastern part of the beach housing most of the cafes and restaurants occasionally thuds with a noise — some party is going on with loud bass music. I am not an American resident (so no personal experience) but this does look and sound like what Hollywood shows as ‘spring break parties’.

Small fish swim past me, occasionally nibbling on my feet, probably mistaking me to be coral! I see crabs playing hide and seek in the sand. Meanwhile the water keeps on receding, so I get out and head to my dingy hotel to take a couple of hours of rest in the afternoon.

A brush with racism

During sunset while on the prowl for a breezy jumpsuit, I face a bout of racism from a female shop owner. When she tries to sell me an overpriced jumpsuit, I try to bargain and she instantly snaps back in a rude voice, “Europeans would never do this.” Of course, I could have been a resident of Europe (or anywhere else); she has no way to know what country I belong to except she has just assumed my nationality by my brown skin and obvious Indian physical features. By ‘European’ she basically meant ‘white’.

This experience leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I leave this rude woman’s shop who is only interested in white customers.

Near Ton Sai beach

The pier of Ton Sai bay is now quieter during sunset. The lane by the beach is dotted with restaurants and cafes. In the glass aquariums of the eateries, prawns, crabs and lobsters move about. I see a mosque, a reminder that the majority of the locals here are Muslims. I reach the end of the Ton Sai beach, beyond this is forests and rocks.

There are cats everywhere in Phi Phi and they are extremely friendly, quite like the Indian street dogs. Here too I meet many of these furry creatures. Sometimes they come up to me and purr around my legs, rubbing their body and asking for a pat. Sometimes I approach them of my own and they are extremely receptive.

A few longtails boats are docked here. People have fun on questionable tree swings. As the sun dips behind the hills in the west, I walk to Loh Dalum beach.

Night parties in Koh Phi Phi Don

With darkness, Ton Sai village of Koh Phi Phi Don reveals its partying mood. Roadside stalls sell buckets of alcoholic concoction. Everyone roaming around is grabbing one. High tide has set in and Loh Dalum beach is reduced to a small strip of sand. On a stage, a few local athletic men perform fire dances in the background of a throbbing music.

Some sit in the plastic chairs by the bar while others settle on the sand, parked kayaks, decorative swings and fallen branches of trees. Again, I engage on a cat-petting spree. Anyways, I too buy a bucket of long island iced tea and shake a leg when a Hindi dance number plays. The rest of the night passes in a blur.

Food and self-guided marine life spotting on the beach

Extremely tired and dizzy the next morning, I wake up very late. In a seaside restaurant at Loh Dalum beach I have rice and pineapple chicken. The pineapple chicken curry is cooked in coconut milk—it is spicy and tastes fantastic.

I just laze on the beach and then walk around clicking photos of corals. I have been to Lakshadweep once and I am able to identify some of these corals. A huge red starfish lies on the sand. In the evening when most of the sea has receded, leaving puddles on the sand, I head to the extreme west of the beach, stepping cautiously and identifying corals and marine organisms.

In the evening when extreme partying starts again in Ton Sai village, I head to the quieter part of the village near Ton Sai bay and walk through quaint, silent neighbourhoods. Unlike last night, this night I avoid the parties and go to bed early. Like good children, I have an early dinner and sink into bed, for I have plans to ‘go high’ tomorrow—literally!

Have you been to Koh Phi Phi? Have you been to any partying beach? Share your experiences here!

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