The Island Escape of Koh Phi Phi

I’ve found in my travels that there are generally two types of people: people who love mountains, and those likewise with beaches.

And even though I’ve become more of a fan of mountains in the past few years, I can safely say that I consider myself a beach guy. Always have been, and probably always will be.

That being said, when I planned for this trip, there was no way I was about to go an entire three weeks in Southeast Asia without seeing a beach. And while Koh Phi Phi (Phi Phi, for short) has a lot to offer and is a haven for travelers of all nationalities and backgrounds, it has a small island feel to it that I always enjoy, mainly because – well – it is a small island.

The entire island itself doesn’t cover much more than seven square miles. Yet the area around the island offers a tremendous amount of bays and islands that are all fair game for the traveler seeking out a little more sunshine in their life.

When thinking of past places I’ve traveled to, Phi Phi reminded me a lot of Caye Caulker, though I would say the biggest difference between the two is that Phi Phi is much more touristy. Tons of tourist shops, a handful of fast food chain restaurants, paved roads, and a good number of resorts. 

In comparison, Caye Caulker has a fairly limited number of souvenir stalls along the island, the nearest McDonalds is about fifty miles from it, all the roads are all dirt, and there are less than three resorts on the entire island, which is less than a mile long.

So I guess given the choice, I’d pick Caye Caulker. But for the sake of this trip, Phi Phi was everything I could’ve ever asked for and more.

You can read about my Caye Caulker trip here.

Regardless, the striking limestone mountains of Phi Phi, jettisoning out of the ocean, each surrounded by turquoise waters prove intoxicating if you hang out around them long enough.

My time there passed too quickly.

Day 1 

I got to the island around noon, having taken a ferry from Phuket City to Phi Phi. I paid 500baht for the ferry ticket, or $15USD. The trip lasted about two hours, which wasn’t terrible. But sitting on a boat with about a hundred other tourists has about the same appeal as drinking warm beer. 

Not great.

But it was survivable I got off the boat and spent the majority of the next hour trying to find my hostel. Still not having a phone (I’m determined to make it the entire three weeks without one. I’m so close), I hadn’t had the chance to write down the address of the hostel I was staying at before getting to the island. Having no Wi-Fi, I wasn’t able to load the email with all the information. All I had was the name.

You should’ve seen me, going from stall to stall asking if people knew where Coma Travel Hostel was. Most looked at me as though I had a third eye. God bless the Australian woman sitting at scuba diving counter, though. “You lost, hun?” she asked. 

Yes. Yes I was.

She knew exactly where it was and made a hand drawn map to get me there.

So naturally, getting lost one more time, I managed to find it.

There are only a few times I’ve stayed in a hostel where I was left amazed at the number of people they’re able to squeeze into their dorm rooms. This was one of them. Their dormitory layout is what’s termed, “pod style,” where everyone sleeps side by side, but with a walls in between each person, the head of the bed pointed towards the wall.

But the part of this dorm that led me (if I’m being totally honest) scared for my life (too dramatic?) was that I was the third story up. I’m not talking actual stories. There were literally three levels of beds, and I was the very top one. Both mornings, I woke up and had to very carefully tread down ladder to the floor.

I don’t think someone falling from the top rung of a twelve-foot ladder would be the best way to wake your dorm-mates.

Anywho. I checked in and decided to hit the beach. I had made the bad choice of sitting at the front of the ferry on my way to the island and had already gotten a fair amount of sun during that time, already a little pink already on my cheeks and neck. But I’d be damned if I didn’t squeeze all the beach time I could out of the next two days.

I packed my daypack and set off down a trail to what my hostel owner had told me was a semi-secluded beach called Viking beach. And secluded it was. I shared it with ten or fifteen other people, most of whom were dozing off or reading, just as I was. So it was almost as though I had my own private beach. 

Pretty neat.

Hanging out there for a few hours, I decided to keep going down the trail to another beach my hostel owner had told me about. “It’s everyone’s favorite when they come here.” Yet, per usual, on my way to getting there I got turned around and somehow ended up on a trail that was taking me to a “viewpoint.” I could only assume it was a viewpoint of the island, the beach, or something spectacular, so I nixed my original plan of beaching it the rest of the day to see what this supposed viewpoint entailed.

Whoever planted that first “viewpoint” sign should’ve also included an annotation stating, “this is super far away.” But I guess if they had included that, I probably wouldn’t have done it.

So about an hour later, after hiking through the ninety-degree humidity I found myself at the top of a mountain overlooking the rest of the island. And what a sight it was.

So, so worth the time it took to get there.

Sitting down for dinner that night, what I had anticipated being a chill dinner and then back to the hostel for a few episodes of “Friends” turned into me being there for five hours, listening to a live band and then watching a group of fire dancers after them. It was incredible what these dancers were able to do, each with their own tools (idk what you call them) that they’d light and do a routine with.

I still ended the night with an episode of “Friends.” But the entire evening turned out a lot more exciting than what I had originally planned.

Day 2

You should’ve seen my nose and legs that morning. Burnt to the crisp. 

What’s even funnier is that it was really only my left side that was burnt – the side the sun had been on when riding the ferry to the island the day previous. Because of my current pink condition, I didn’t want to do anything too risqué that day, as I didn’t want to get even worse burnt. My inner nurse was chastising myself.

So instead of doing a boat tour as I had originally planned, I decided to go to Longbeach, the beach I had fruitlessly tried to find the day before. Only this time I found it no problem. And just as the day before at Viking beach, I had it mainly to myself, finding a group of trees to sit beneath and finishing a book that I had started the day before – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – a quick and easy read, but a good one. 

And while I wish I had a bit more excitement to report outside of just beaching it that entire day, that’s really all I did. And I’m not even a little bit upset about it. Writing this now from a rooftop bar, the sun setting in the distance, I can’t help but feel a little sad that not only are my beach adventures coming to a close, but so is this entire trip. I’ll fly to Singapore on Friday to spend a day and a half there, and then I’ll be back in the States by Sunday. 

It’s totally surreal thinking how quickly this trip has passed. Has it really already been close to three weeks?

But I suppose all good things must come to an end, even the island life. 

So I encourage you to find your way over to Phi Phi at some point for a little bit of your own rest and relaxation in the warm sun. It’ll give me the chance to live vicariously through you. 

What’re some of your favorite beach destinations? Any places I should add to the list? Leave a comment below!

Where I stayed: Coma Travel Hostel

Pros:

1.     You’re three doors down from a police station in a quiet part of the island.

2.     The beach is a five-minute walk down the trail.

3.     Super helpful hostel owners who will answer whatever questions you have.

Cons:

1.     Are triple-decker bunk beds really necessary?

2.     No breakfast included.

3.     Not much in terms of a community area for travelers to congregate and meet one another.