After much
deliberation in Ko Lipe, we decided to give two more Thai islands a visit
before heading to the mainland: Ko Lanta and Ko Phi Phi. There are so many
islands to choose from but in the short amount of time we had left, this was
the most logical progression. We had a flight booked from Krabi to Phnom Penh,
where we were to meet our friends for a month travelling around Cambodia, and
we knew that we wanted about four nights in Krabi itself. Tom suggested Ko
Lanta after a recommendation from a friend, and although we wanted to avoid
islands with a pure party reputation, Ko Phi Phi was described as one of the
most beautiful, and as it was between Ko Lanta and Krabi, it made sense to stop
there for a night.
Ko Lanta
Our ferry from Ko
Lipe to Ko Lanta cost £50 for the two of us, which meant painfully departing
with a whole day's budget. It was a long six hour boat ride, and not the most
pleasant experience, since the seating area was stiflingly hot and filled with
the overpowering smell of fumes, but such is the backpacker life...
When we arrived in
Ko Lanta we were unavoidably ripped off for a taxi to our guesthouse, but there
really was no way around it. We stayed at Luna Lanta, which was a very basic
(but very clean and reasonable) guesthouse, which was run by an English guy who
was super helpful and friendly throughout our stay.
Having spent all
day on a ferry with just some mango and pineapple between us, we headed
straight out to find some food. Luna Lanta Guesthouse is just one road away
from the beach, so we sat down at Sea Sun Bar to eat. I would definitely
recommend this great location on the beach for a drink, but you can get much
better food for your money, even on a backpacker’s budget.
Another great bar
on the beach was N and N Bar, and we sat in one of their wooden huts for the
rest of the evening.
We only had one
full day to spend in Ko Lanta and wanted to see as much of the island as we
could, so we made the slightly terrifying decision to hire a moped (and two
helmets of course) for the day. Let's just point out here that neither of us
had ever driven a vehicle of this kind before.
Our guesthouse
hired us the moped, which reassured me a little, as I knew the owner would be
able to help us straight away if we had any problems with it. Plus, it only
cost us £4 to use the moped for 24 hours; in light of the expense of travel the
day before, this felt like pennies.
Once we'd devoured
breakfast burritos on the beach, we got onto the moped and after a slightly
shaky start, we drove to Lanta Old Town and had a wander around.
We had a quick pit
stop at Sunee Place for a shake, and then drove down the entire length of the
west coast of the island up to the entrance of the national park, stopping at
Bamboo Bay for some (very) late lunch and to shelter from the passing
rain.
Once the rain had slowed down, we headed back to the guesthouse, and pulled over at some amazing viewpoints on the way.
That evening we
made full use of the fact we had the moped for 24 hours and drove to a
restaurant called Patty's Secret Garden. We were pretty lucky to arrive when we
did and secure a table, because by the time we left there was a huge queue and
people were being turned away. It was here that I had one of my favourite meals
of the trip, pineapple fried rice served in a pineapple.
Ko Phi Phi
Our ferry to Ko Phi
Phi the next morning cost us £10, and included a (questionable) free transfer
from our guesthouse to the port.
At the other end of
the hour-long ferry ride there was someone to meet us to walk us to our
guesthouse, Kitty House. This might sound a bit extravagant for backpacker
accommodation, but Ko Phi Phi is a complete maze of pedestrian streets, and I
think it would have taken us a couple of hours to navigate the 20 minute walk
ourselves.
The owner of Kitty
House was probably the most welcoming host we encountered on our trip, and he
sat us down with some water to chat about what we wanted to do whilst on the island,
before showing us to our room, which was modern and clean. The only thing I
would say, is that it was very noisy at night (from outside noise), but as Ko
Phi Phi is predominantly a party island, I would imagine it's the same wherever
you are.
We spent our
limited time on the island at Long Beach, which was a 30 minute walk (or at
moments I'd even push for hike) away from our accommodation.
The guidebooks
aren't wrong, the scenery around Ko Phi Phi is stunning, but sadly the island
itself had been ruined by tourism and the party culture that dominates the
island. I might make it look like a deserted paradise island in the photos, but the reality was that every metre of the beach was taken up with people and the water was murky with pollution from the boats bringing floods more tourists in.
I always feel a bit uncomfortable commenting on how tourism is spoiling
a place when I'm clearly there myself as a tourist and contributing to this
damage, but sadly in Ko Phi Phi it seems as if nothing had been put into place to protect the
island, from environmental, cultural and social perspectives.
In the evening we
had some amazing curry dishes at Pirates House Restaurant and wandered around
the island, amazed at how much it felt like we'd just landed in Magaluf or Ayia
Napa, with a girl being wheelbarrowed down the path by paramedics.
It was such a
contrasting atmosphere to what we'd experienced in Ko Lipe and Ko Lanta, but in
some ways I was still glad that we got to see what the other half of the Thai
islands are like, or perhaps have been manipulated into by the economic draw of
party tourism.
My vlog of Ko Lanta and Ko Phi Phi will be up this weekend; subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you don't miss it!
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