Destinations / The Best Places to Visit in Thailand / Phi Phi Island - the Pearl of Thailand

Until the late twentieth century, Phi Phi has remained a tiny archipelago of six islands, barely seen by tourists throughout its history, but when the movie "The Beach", which featured, among other things, a lot of sex naked scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio were screened, and a fantastically beautiful beach, which seemed to many a paradise on the earth, it got much popularity. This beautiful beach is located on the island of Phi Phi Ley and was called the Maya Beach, the beauty of which far exceeded its more famous neighbors. Since its launch in 2000, the film "The Beach" was sharply criticized, DiCaprio was nominated for a "Razzie" , the worst actor for the job, but it started with a booming tourism on the islands of Phi Phi. Tourists from all over the globe flocked here, trying, like DiCaprio, to find their own happiness at the beach.

The islands became a mecca for lovers of beaches, climbing, hiking fans with stunning scenery beautiful cliffs, beautiful beaches and clean sea. As a result, Phi Phi Island in Thailand is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, though many complain that the large influx of visitors spoil the impression of a truly beautiful island. Despite this, it is still of great interest to those who are trying to spend their vacation on a tropical island. Simply said, this is one of the best places in Thailand. Phi Phi Island is Thailand's superstar. It has been featured in the movie. It is a popular topic of conversation for travelers all over Thailand. For some, it's the only reason for visiting the city of Phuket, where is the main stream of tourists. Even though the saturation of tourists, it does not disappoint. The famous "pearl" of the Andaman Sea consists of six islands, but the largest and the most visited are the only two of them: Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley. Phi Phi Ley has no permanent inhabitants and there are no roads on Phi Phi Don. No hustle and bustle, there is no reason to rush off somewhere. Tree-covered cliffs towering above the sea turquoise and two white sand bend symmetrically surrounding each other. Such a picture is displayed in numerous pamphlets and Web sites that promote Thailand as a holiday destination. You will fall in love with the island at first sight.

Phi Phi Island Sightseeing

The island of Phi Phi Don

The Ton Sai Village (Tonsai Village) is the bustling center of the island of Phi Phi Don, where are concentrated the vast majority of hotels, shops and restaurants. There are no roads or cars, bikes and boats are the only means of transportation, and trails and the sea are the only means of communication. You can walk to most places of the village of Ton Sai for 10 minutes. It is located on the isthmus, which is famous in Phi Phi Don. The south side of the Gulf of Ton Sai was stretched from the north - Lo Dalum. The huge fig tree is the mark that separates the two Gulf-twin, in the midst where the village of Ton Sai is located. The island of Phi Phi Don has great beaches and a popular place for diving and snorkeling. At 150 meters from the village is a very shallow bay Lo Dalum. The sun heats the water in it almost to the temperature of a warm bath! Here the soft white sand, the turquoise water and the choir of birds are singing birds all the year round. The waves are completely absent. You can walk hundreds of meters and still be waist-deep in water. The Beach was created in order to bask in the sun. Activities include day trips to neighboring islands and kayaking. Clubs organize diving tours for diving. Most dive sites in the province of Krabi are located in or near the islands of Phi Phi. Tourists are offered a range of water sports including parasailing, skiing, banana boat and water bikes. The territory's main island of Phi Phi Don is replete with numerous trails for hiking. Visitors can climb the highest peak of its (186 m above sea level), which offers a beautiful view of the twin bays of Ton Sai (Ton Sai Bay) and Lo Dalum (Loh Dalum). Other popular places include hiking remote beaches away from the village of Ton Sai.

The island of Phi Phi Ley

Phi Phi Ley is an uninhabited island, located 1.5 km from the southern tip of its largest neighbor. It is the most beautiful of the six islands and has a shape reminiscent of a picture in form of a puzzle. The cliffs hide the lagoon, sometimes they give way to the beaches, followed by the jungle and the stunning bay of Maya Bay. The beach received approval from the Hollywood for the filming of the blockbuster "The Beach". When you swim to the island by boat, there is a view of the cliffs rising from the sea like a fortress on the water.

Stunningly beautiful the Maya Bay is surrounded on three sides by 100m cliffs. Inside the bay there are several beaches, most of them small and some exist only at low tide. The largest of these, about 200 meters long, with soft white sand, colorful corals and exotic fish, the bay is part of one big reef. This is the Phi Ley Island which attracts the majority of worshipers of beach holidays in this region. This does not mean that the other island of Phi Phi Don hasn't good beaches. In fact, it also has excellent beaches, but Phi Phi Ley, of course, attracts more attention, as was the main set of the film "The Beach", which made it a major tourist attraction since the film in 2000. It previously was a famous place in Thailand, but thanks to the film people all over the world who had never heard of Phi Phi are well aware of Maya Bay. The place is ideal for snorkeling classes: large inlaid with coral reefs, which float around a lot of colorful coral fish. The visibility is good in the water. Many travel companies bring visitors here from the cities of Phuket, Krabi and the islands of Ko Phi Phi Don. Kayaking is also popular. Tourists sail into the bay on kayak. Thrill-seekers are offered jumping round from the rocks, which includes a tour of the island and an experienced guide will tell a safe place to jump from the top of the cliff into the sea. The best time to visit the beach, Maya Bay, is from November to April. This is the peak tourist season, when the calm sea provides easy access to the bay. Disturbing the sea from May to October makes it difficult to access, but is almost always available to visit the Gulf. Because Maya Bay is so beautiful and has received worldwide fame, numerous tourists began to arrive here. On any given day at any time there are 30 or more boats on the beach, large boats brought hundreds of tourists to practice snorkeling in deeper waters of the Gulf. The beach is very beautiful, no doubt, but not lonely, thousands of people visit it every day. Therefore, it is best to visit it early in the morning or after 17:00 to avoid the crowds.

The film "The Beach"

The film tells of a young, adventure seeker American youth. He went to Thailand and gets to the island on where the fate of the hero was prepared some tests. The novel "The Beach" was the first work of the British writer Alex Garland. First published in 1996, the novel has been translated into many languages ​​and brought international fame to its author. In 1997, Alex Garland was awarded the Betty Trask Award (Betty Trask Award) for the best debut novel of the British Society of Authors. American TV 20 Century Fox bought the rights to the author of the book, signed a contract with Leonardo DiCaprio, offering him a major role in the film and then started looking for a place to shoot. Maya Bay fit almost perfectly. But television executives decided that the beach needs more settling for a more complete compliance with the stereotypes of Hollywood. The grassy ground, some sand dunes have been leveled, coconut trees cut down to expand the total area, while environmentalists have warned that the removal of vegetation may increase the risk of erosion of sand where the fragile ecosystem cannot be recovered. After the shooting, 20 Century Fox has allocated the necessary funds to bring the vegetation of the island Phi Phi Lay in a natural state. The dunes were restored and further strengthened fences made of bamboo. The following year, during a high tide and a severe storm, the fences did not stand, the dune collapsed, the beach sand was swept into the sea and killed the nearby coral.

The Fox Broadcasting Company made every effort to return the beach of Maya Bay to its former condition as before the shooting, but the debate over whether, whether the damage to vegetation with transplanted or not, did not abate. The company was sued, accused of what had caused serious damage to the ecosystem of the island of Phi Phi Ley , but the attempt to restore it was not successful. Litigation was dragged on for years. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Thailand has confirmed the appellate court that the shooting of the film is really harmed the environment. Whatever it was, "The Beach" was one of the most anticipated films of 2000. Many tourists stress that this film has become the main driving point of visiting the islands of Phi Phi.

The soup of nests of swifts

The island of Phi Phi Ley is famous for its brave collectors of birds' nests, which are climbers, climbing on bamboo ladders to the top of the rocks, risking injury or even get killed. The Chinese name of the soup with the birds' nests "yàn wō",translates literally as "swallow's nest." Despite its name, in fact, the soup is made from nests of swifts, which looks quite similar to swallow. The fact is that during the construction its nest swifts use only their own saliva. Saliva release their sets quickly, and the bird at all times lubricates the frozen part of the new portion, creating, thus, his little nest, without using any other material. Dissolved in water, such nests form a gel-like liquid that is used in soups in many nations of Southeast Asia. The soup of swifts nest is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. But not all kinds of swifts secrete saliva to build their nests, used to prepare this soup. The most popular black and white swifts nest. The nests of these birds are rich in nutrients, health benefits, help to improve digestion, raise the general tone of the body, stimulates the immune system, high in calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium. The nests of swifts is used in Chinese cooking for over 400 years, mainly in soups. They are among the most expensive animal products that are used by man. A kilogram of nests can cost up to $ 10,000 U.S. dollars.

Phi Ley Bay

Phi Ley Bay is located on the west coast of the island of Phi Phi Ley, on the opposite side of the Maya Bay. As in Maya Bay, the vertical height of 100 m cliff is like a spring from the sea. The bay is very beautiful,this is another popular place to visit on the island of Phi Phi Ley. Most of the time the rock casts a shadow over the bay, except for half a day. Viking Cave To the north of the Gulf Bay Phi Lei is the Viking Cave where swifts build their nests. The walls of the cave contains images of boats, vaguely reminiscent of Viking ships. Hence the cave takes its name. Locals gather here swifts nests in the period from February to April. Armed with rickety bamboo ladders and poles, the nest collectors are sent to a really very dangerous fish to sell, they get a few thousand dollars per kilogram, which would then become an important ingredient for making soup, especially popular in China and Hong Kong.

The devastating tsunami on Phi Phi Islands

The pearl of the tourism industry in Thailand, the island of Phi Phi Don was badly damaged by the tsunami in 2004, killing 700 people and nearly 5400 along the Andaman coast of Thailand (about half of them foreign tourists), destroying shops, restaurants and hotels. Until 2004, many hotels and other buildings were built on a thin isthmus of the island. This area is the most developed infrastructure which took a hit from both directions of the waves like a sandwich. The result was the complete destruction of all buildings, which were virtually wiped out the devastating tsunami and the percentage of deaths was particularly high. Serious damage to property and a high percentage of deaths was the result of the shops, bars, restaurants, clubs and so on were built close to each other in close proximity to the beaches. In contrast to other tsunami, the affected regions of the island managed to recover from serious injuries. With the help of many international volunteers the land was cleared of debris and put in order. After the tsunami the government intended to turn the island of Phi Phi Don in the luxury resort, but in an attempt to earn more money the plan failed. With the restoration of the old infrastructure, tourists returned once again to enjoy the beautiful curves of the bay, the sandy beaches and the lush tropical jungle, which made the island of Phi Phi Andaman coast favorite. The tourists once again resumed the chaos of unplanned construction. The beaches were once again filled with hotels, cheap guest yards for rent, tourist camps. In terms of environmental degradation are all temporary, back to square one. Whatever it was, this is one of the most picturesque parts of Thailand.

Although Phi Phi Island will seem expensive compared to the rest of Thailand, compared with other beautiful islands of the planet, with the same island of Bora Bora , this paradise is really worth fucking cheap.

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