After our time on Ko Lipe it was on to Ko Phi Phi for another week or so. As I mentioned last time the weather was good for the trip, indeed our day in transit was the best weather of the two weeks….such is life. Accommodation on Ko Phi Phi comes in three flavours, expensive beach resorts, cheap and noisy in town, or not so cheap but quieter on the edge of town. I’m not rich enough to afford several thousand baht a night at the resorts, too old to try and sleep through the ‘doof,doof’ all night parties in town, so I always stay around the bottom of the viewpoint hill area.

View from our bungalow hammock !

Previously I’ve always stayed at Coco’s Guesthouse but it has gone downhill over the last 12 months (leaking roof, smelly room) so this time I booked into Tropical Garden Bungalows which is near Coco’s, and where I had eaten a few times. The fan bungalow that we booked was right next to the pool and bar, and came with a very comfortable hammock to laze in !

(more photos and review of Tropical Garden Bungalow here )

It was about 10 minutes walk to the pier/downtown area, or 15 from it, which was a bit far for my GF (Thai women do not like walking !) so she was not happy that there was no luggage cart for her backpack and she had to carry it herself ….I’ll never make a backpacker out of her.

Ao Lomah Dee …the “secret” snorkelling beach

It was a bit of a hike from the bungalow to the best snorkelling areas at Long Beach and Ao Lomah Dee, and even more coming back after several hours in the water !

Everybody seems to know about Long Beach for snorkelling but I’ve never seen anybody head over the hill to Lomah Dee. Long Beach (aka Shark Point) has the most big fish, including the occasional Blacktip Reef Shark but Lomah Dee     has much better coral to be seen, especially on the edge of the dropoff. If you look carefully you might find whip corals and some soft coral.

The downside is that often there is a strong current to swim against and at low tide you may find yourself bobbing very close to the coral and spiny sea urchins.

A large school of Parrotfish feeding, Shark Point.

Wrasse, Cushionstar,Striped Surgeonfish

Parrotfish

Collared Butterflyfish

View from the, err, viewpoint

no, I’m not Nemo either

??

Skunk Anenomefish

Moray Eel

After swimming right around Shark Point I came across this fellow just outside the buoyed-off swimming area at Long Beach, just 30 metres or so offshore and hiding in some coral about 3 m deep. Luckily I had been conservative with the camera that day and still had some power left in the battery for a couple of shots.

Even though the seafood is actually cheaper in BKk, you have to eat some fresh seafood on the islands, so here is some food porn:

There is a steamed fish under there.

Now THESE are prawns !

That was a big plate the prawns were on, they were huge !

All too soon it was time to go back to the real world 😦

(At least the ferry to Krabi was a real ferry, large and stable, which made the GF happy)

The beauty of living here in Thailand is that the islands are just a short flight away so as Arnie says …”I’ll be back”