Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

We arrived at Koh Phi Phi without any prior knowledge of the island, other than it was a pretty place to do some snorkeling.

Much to our surprise, we showed up to a frat party paradise in the Andaman sea. But should we have been surprised? If we had done any research at all before we started traveling, surely we would have known that Thailand is the budget backpacker’s party destination, and that if you wanted to have a good time you’d obviously have a stop on Phi Phi. Or maybe that stop turns into a three year stint of volunteering at a bar four nights a week in exchange for a dorm bed and all the booze you can drink in a night while staying upright. Or perhaps you find yourself working at a roadside stand selling overpriced booze cruise tickets to unknowing Westerners who drink too many buckets and end up blacked out through their entire holiday. Maybe you had a fantastic few years as a SCUBA instructor.

Nonetheless, we set out to have more good beach days and we surely had them here. Koh Phi Phi Don has fabulous beaches. How fabulous they are depends on how far you’re willing to walk and how many other people are on them at the same time, but for the most part we’re talking white sand and turquoise blue waters.

Sure, maybe we had more suprises here than we were prepared for, like waking up at 2am to use the toilet and suddenly confronting a rat the size of a pitbull in the bathroom. Maybe we walked really quickly down the road so we would’t spend too much time close to the massive heaps of powerlines bundled together that buzzed like a swarm of hornets and threw off sparks as you passed by. Perhaps it was the rancid smell of the water treatment facility that your budget hotel sold as a “waterfront view”. You didn’t realize you could literally lose your shirt to a thief of a monkey. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s all no big deal.

So sit back and enjoy the ride.