After hearing it both praised and scorned, I finally arrived on Phi Phi island yesterday. My verdict: it’s even touristier than Phuket. It’s all whites and no locals. It’s touts everywhere and flyers being thrust into your hands by the dozens. It’s partytown for two-week visitors and a whorehouse for older expats. It’s Disneyland. It’s Costa del Sol. It’s Surfers Paradise. In many ways, it’s precisely what I didn’t come here for.
Nevertheless, it is also mind-bogglingly, jaw-droppingly, knock-the-shit-right-out-of-your-arse beautiful. I mean truly stunning. The sand on the beaches is as fine as powdered sugar and the Andaman Sea sways gently in some colour between azure and sapphire you never even knew existed. The crescent shaped bays are lined with rainforest and limestone cliffs, and huge boulder-like islands rise out of the sea in the horizon. Without a doubt, this is one of the prettiest places I have ever been, and I would be willing to put up with any number of other foreigners just to be here right now. A lot of travellers in Thailand get something called “beach burnout”, where you’ve seen so many heavenly beaches that they all start to look the same, and are passed without so much as a shrug. Koh Phi Phi may bring your beach burnout to a new level altogether, but it will never ever look plain. This is as good as it gets.
Today, I went snorkelling and was again shocked by what the world looks like underwater. I’m guessing everyone enjoys different things about diving and snorkelling, but for me it’s always been the sheer scope of colours that you see. Every time I stick my head underwater, the first thought in my head is: “That’s been PhotoShopped!” The colours are so insanely in-your-face bright that they really do look more like special effects than anything natural. My favourite creature is by far the giant clam, which can be spotted easily because it looks like a pair of jagged lips on the seafloor sporting the most incredible glowing indigo you have ever seen. I could stare at that colour for hours on end, it’s so captivating.
Interestingly, I also got bitten by several fish today. There was a school of blue and yellow ones about the size of a credit cards swimming around me, and all of a sudden they started nipping at me en masse! They probably had a cunning plan to act all innocent until they had me surrounded and then attack. The bites didn’t hurt, but did leave a tiny mark. Later I found out the same thing happened to an English bloke on the same boat, and we surmised that they must have been the kind of fish that clean bigger fish by eating parasites off them. The silly bastards probably just thought I was a whale that needed a cleaning. Doesn’t exactly say much for my level of personal hygiene now does it?
I am moving to a more deserted part of the island tomorrow, so hopefully that will shake at least some of the worst fanny-pack tourists from my heels. By the way, I do realize that I’m a tourist too and I’m pretty sure that despite my feelings of superior entitlement I really don’t have any redeeming quality over everyone else who comes here. Still, sometimes a bit of solitude is nice and the feeling of being at least a little off the beaten track does add a sense of adventure.
Mr. T rockin' it to Thai Elton John
P. S. Thai food is so healthy (or just poor in calories) that despite eating five times a day I’ve lost tons of weight since I got here. In fact, the board shorts I got in Bangkok (Bring-a-bongTM) hardly stay on anymore, so whenever I wear them, I really “crack people up”, if you get my drift. Should probably get my hands on some of this crack spackle.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti