Getting There:
From the Saladan Pier on Koh Lanta, we took the Rungruang Lady Ferry over to the Ko PhiPhi. We’d booked a month in advance on PhuketFerry. But as it turned out, we could have booked at the port for the same price. I think it’s only necessary to book in advance in peak season.
The ferry was dingy, dirty and kind of “ew.” Luckily there don’t see to be any rules about where you need to sit, or if you even need to sit, so I said on the ferry deck with my feet hanging off the side. Soon, tons of people followed suit and by the time the ferry took off the entire topside exterior was lined with people sitting on the roof deck with their feet overhanging the side. The hour ride was much better spent that way than if we had been forced to sit in the dark smelly underside of the boat.
Arriving at Phi Phi islands was exciting. The views were spectacular as jagged mountains and rocks jutted out of the ocean surrounded by perfectly blue water.
Where We Stayed:
We stayed at Don Chukit resort. It wasn’t awesome but it wasn’t bad. But much like everything else in Asia, you couldn’t beat the $28/night price tag! The resort included breakfast, a no frills room, and a resort infinity pool.
What to Do:
Most of our time on the island was spent wandering the endless streets of shops and restaurants, relaxing on the beach, or hiking the nearby peaks to catch some views.
The streets are the most unique I’ve seen. The island is small, and the “streets” are actually more like sidewalks as there really aren’t any vehicles on the island. Everything is nearby in walking distance, and there are endless choices of cuisine.
Beaches:
The beaches are gorgeous at every location. We experienced the crazy phenomenon of seeing the tide come and go at a drastic rate every day. In the evening, most of the beaches we swam at where we’d be neck deep in water, would dry up and you could walk out into the bay for hundreds of yards. Shells, sand dollars and starfish would be left behind.
Swimming with Sharks:
I had done a bit of research in advance and knew that there was shark swimming tour offered on Ko Phi Phi. I had also read several places that if you were a comfortable swimmer, you could skip the tour and do it yourself. We opted to try this. We walked to Long Beach and rented a snorkel and mask at the dive shop on the beach for $8 (pricey for Asia but some didn’t have snorkel equipment with them.) You could see Shark Point about 200 meters from shore across a channel where there was quite a bit of boat traffic. Once we saw a window where we could swim across without boats heading out way, we quickly swam out to the point. The tide was down enough that we could take a break on the shore of the point once we got there.
There were a few longtail boats out near the point with those who had paid for the shark tour, so we joined the swimmers looking for the Black Tip Reef Sharks that were supposed to frequent the area. The coral was pretty to see, but it wasn’t out of this world. And in some areas of the point it got very shallow which I wasn’t a fan of. BUT, my husband and I did see a shark! We were the only ones to see it. It caught us by surprise as we were just about to give up when a 4-5 ft long shark swam by us. Very eerie, but very cool.
