Thailand: Southern Islands - January 2007
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
Français Koh Phi Phi is metamorphosed since my last visit in July 2005 (almost six months after the tsunami). The transformation is incredible.
Two years after the tsunami
After a first night Bangkoka plane ride with Air Asia to join Ao Nang (Krabi) in the South, then an hour and a half crossing by boat: here I am in Koh Phi Phi.
The island has changed a lot since I last visited, a year and a half ago, in July 2005, about six months after the tsunami of December 26, 2004. I was a little suspicious, but the transformation is truly incredible.
The reconstruction has continued at full speed, in a somewhat anarchic way, and it is still being done in every corner. Lots of hotels and shops are being built, and there is work going on everywhere.
I have a little trouble to find the big lonely banyan tree on the back beach, the only one left standing after the wave. Today, it shades the chairs and tables of a restaurant, installed in front of rows of umbrellas and skewers of tourists cooking in the sun, next to a large resort with an infinity pool ...
Return of tourists
The tourists are back, in great numbers. First difficulty, and not the least, when you arrive and you have not booked anything in advance: find a place to stay. Prices have soared and the simplest room is already going to cost 1000 baths, which is a lot of money for Thailand... But Koh Phi Phi is an ultra-touristy enclave which is different from the rest of the country.
After the arrival of the boat, I hurriedly left my cumbersome bags at the dive-shop with which I was going to dive the next day, to go around the guesthouses, almost running on the way, behind other travelers with backpacks to overtake them, in order to arrive first! Everywhere signs "Full", but I end up finding a roof anyway.
The island remains beautiful despite everything
For this first day, lazing on the beach amid the spectacular scenery of Phi Phi, with its large cliffs in the sea, and registration at the diving center ... I will be able to release my new equipment tomorrow, finally!
You can find other pictures of Koh Phi Phi, that I put online on my very first website Notebooks of Southeast Asia into July 2005 and January 2007.
