In Aug of 2005, while Kelly and I were living in Singapore we had the opportunity to travel to Phi Phi Island in Thailand for 5 magical days. A British friend of ours, Adam Turner, had planned to go to Phi Phi and invited us to join along with him and his two kids.

Click on the picture to the right for more pictures and less talk!

Singapore is a fantastic hub through which you can cheaply and quickly hop on budget airlines such as Tiger Airways, Jet Star Asia, or Silk Airways, and for about 200 SGD fly to any of the surrounding destinations in 1 to 3 hours. So, with only 1.5 weeks before our departure date we booked our flights, I got off from work at TLL, and before we knew it we were boarding our striped Tiger Airways plane on our way to Thailand !

We flew into Phuket where we had a driver in a minibus ready to drive us to the Kata area. It was about an hour drive down south but it went quickly with good conversations and the excitement of our trip in the air. Adam had found and booked the Kata Center Inn due to its location farther south of Phuket. In retrospect, I think the “Center” part of our Inn 's name means it is in the center of the Kata region and no where near the Kata Beach areas or anything else for that matter! This way our drive to the ferry the next morning would not be so long. After we ate some late dinner at the Inn we took a late night walk around the block and it became fairly clear at this point that we were not in the typical beach touristy area of Thailand . If anything it appeared that Adam had landed us in what I think was the red light district due to the number of skeezy bars with hookers outside! Well, the price was right for our lodging, quality and cleanliness were on par, so for one night it was just fine.

The next morning we had to set out early to catch our 8AM ferry ride on Aug 8th to our destination of Phi Phi Island . The ferry ride was about 2 hours if I remember correctly and our ferry had a top deck that was great for watching the scenery flow by. Phi Phi is a great small Island if you want a relaxing place to really distress and soak in the laid back beach life.

We were there just several months after the tsunami had rolled through and much of the infrastructure was in obvious disrepair. But despite the massive losses in life and property, (25% of the population died!) the locals are very upbeat and working to rebuild their piece of paradise.

We did one day of diving while there which was sub par due to being stuck on a boat with 20 something other divers, low visibility, and overly choppy waters. It was also unfortunately, rather expensive, but all the dive shops are in coohoots and so you can't find a cheap price.

Air con bungalows are available but they are quite pricey (800 Baht) due to the price of electricity on the island. Kelly and I found a fan room we liked for 350Baht per night.

There are some nice hikes to be done and I really regret not hiking out to some of the more remote beaches of the island. We had two great days of climbing at the Drinking Wall which is the obvious wall at the end of the beach. For those of you that are newer to climbing, quality moderate routes abound here.

All in all, Phi Phi is a small but wonderful place to spend some time, but maybe a bit small if planning to stay for more then a week.

For those who might be curious, our van ride from the airport to Inn, then to the ferry was 180Baht per person times 5. A nice air con room at the Kata Center Inn was 300Baht per night and the Ferry to Phi Phi was 600Baht per person for a round trip ticket. Don't forget that when leaving from an airport in Thialand, there is always a 500 Baht Airport Tax that has to be paid in cash before entering the terminal. If you are flying through Singapore airport before heading to Thailand it's advisable to change your money at Changi Airport where you will find a much better deal then after you are in Thailand .

© September 6, 2008