Koh Phi Phi: seahorses, zebra sharks and turtles!

My first dives on Koh Phi Phi far exceeded my expectations. Despite the tourist pressure, the funds are very rich.

Koh Phi Phi underwater

I'm spoiled for choice for my first two dives, on so-called "local" sites near Phi Phi Leh, just a stone's throw from Phi Phi Don (the main island, where the tourist accommodation is located).

On the menu: no less than two leopard sharks (called zebra sharks in French, as the juveniles are zebra-shaped before becoming spotted like leopards in adulthood), a few seahorses not easy to find and even a turtle (which I didn't manage to photograph). Not to mention the usual local fauna: scorpionfish, clownfish, nudibranchs (sea slugs), angelfish and butterflyfish...

I'm only slipping in a few photos, but it's a festival!

Between our dives, our dive-master, a young guy named Ryan, reads One hundred years of loneliness by Gabriel García Márquez, in English, on the boat. Clearly more interested in reading than diving. 

Underwater, he certainly does his job well, but he fins a little too quickly for my liking. He sets out to cover the site according to a route that I guess is well established. Barely enough time to take photos! Clearly, the boy's a bit bored of walking tourist divers...

That said, I was busy with my new stabilizer vest and my brand new Legend regulator during the first dive (see page Equipment), I don't make many images. But I'm making up for it on the second one!

Koh Phi Phi View Point

Then, barely tired by this double immersion, I tackle the climb to the aptly named View Point. Since the deadly wave of December 2004, which claimed around 700 lives on the island itself (the death toll is estimated at around 250,000 in the Indian Ocean countries affected by the tsunami, including almost 5,400 in Thailand), there are now "Tsunami Evacuation Route" signs everywhere along the paths leading to the heights.

From up here, you have a breathtaking view of the two beaches back to back. Probably Phi Phi's best-known panorama. Two years after the tsunamieverything was rebuilt on the island.

As usual, when it comes to making even a modest effort in these latitudes, I'm in a swim. Fortunately, the ice cream man is waiting with bated breath for the tourists on arrival...

😎