For those not familiar with Pih Pih Islands, it’s two hours from Pucket by ferry on the Andaman sea. It’s composed of two small islands, one of which was made famous in the movie “The Beach”.
Both islands are surrounded with warm shallow water, white sandy beaches and the surrounding sea offers some of the best snorkeling and diving in the world. Luckily that didn’t change much as the reef suffered little damages. The land however was ravaged with unimaginable force…
February 2004…
February 2006…
It’s still very difficult for the locals, the spirit is low and the smiles fewer. The amount of tourists is about one fifth of what it was two years ago and many small businesses struggle to stay open. We’ve met many people in Pucket who said something like this: “I’d like to go but I don’t want to feel bad” And that’s the problem…They need the tourists, they need the business. A year later, the disaster continues its ravage, many people left the island because they couldn’t find work. The impact on the local economy is a disaster after a disaster.
The thing is, the place is still beautiful, the people are just as friendly and the prices even went down on many services because business is so slow. There is nothing to feel bad about so go! Have fun and don’t worry about what happened.
Pucket and the islands were very quiet compared to two years ago. It doesn’t compare actually. Things are different. In Pucket, the taxi drivers used to say “give me what you want” when you asked them how much for the ride but now if you ask, they’ll tell you how much they want depending on where you need to go. Some say the price of petrol is causing that and I think it’s the lack of business. Things are extremely slow. Things will eventually be back to what they used to be there but not for a couple years yet, at least.
We stayed in a cabin on a resort called “Andaman”. It was 200 Bath cheaper per night than it was 2 years ago. There is Koh Pih Pih Don and Koh Pih Pih Lei. Don is bigger and Lei is the smaller island where the famous beach is.
You can now camp on Lei, something they didn’t have a couple years ago but there are no other facilities there, no electricity, no running water and no food. You have to book a tent site on the bigger island,(some tents are already set up as rentals) and you have to hire a long tail boat to take you there and back.
The bigger island has accommodation that ranges from tenting for about 100 Bath per night to affordable cabins with no fridge and TV for about 1000-1500 per night all the way to expensive and luxurious rooms and cabins.
Excellent rock climbing right off the beach on both islands too, man I didn’t want to come back…
True, but the diving blows in all of the east coast islands compared to the Andaman sea…Some of the best dives in all of Southern Thailand are within striking distance of Phi Phi.
Bobpine, it still looks alot more built up than when I was there last (1993). The only thing on the island at that time was a small marine store that sold noodles and gas.
[quote=“MJB”]
Bobpine, it still looks alot more built up than when I was there last (1993). The only thing on the island at that time was a small marine store that sold noodles and gas.
[/quote]Just comes to show how it was booming until it got devastated. I was there early in 2004 and already there was quite a bit of development going on. Two big resorts were newly built and every other resorts were adding bungalows and various other services.
Now there’s probably two dozen restaurants, about 6 internet cafes, they even have a bank and a huge mosque that were built since I last visited. The island is geared for heavy tourism and it’s not happening yet.
[quote=“ratbrain”]thanks for the info. I can’t really decide where to go. first it was koh samui, maybe now koh chang, but “your island” sounds good too…[/quote]Well, Samui is a little cheaper, because the diving isn’t as good and because it isn’t near a “Hollywood made famous location”. If you like diving or snorkeling though, Pih Pih is better indeed. Out of the ten best paces to snorkel in the world, three of them have daily scheduled trips from Pih Pih.
I want to go to Samui. You can fly there from Bangkok directly. You can rent a bike to go around the island and it has magnificent beaches all around it. Affordable cabins on the beach and most likely a better experience of the “rural-Thailand” if you visit inland. Still…Turquoise warm water, white sand, coconut trees and excellent cuisine. Sigh…
[quote=“HG”]Sorry Bobepine. Settle back in gradually now.[/quote]At least someone understands me… :neutral:
bobepine
Edit:Pics taken from 40 meters up on an adjacent rock cliff. Do you see anyone on the beach? That’s how quiet it is.
:neutral:
