"OVERVIEWThere are two Phi Phi islands, Don and Ley, about 90 minutes by fast ferry from both Phuket and Krabi.PHI PHI DON, the Phi Phi with the accommodation, is about 4 km east-west and 8 km north-south. It is shaped a bit like a distorted anvil, basically made up of 3 soaring lumps of limestone joined by low isthmuses. MAP - click to enlarge when open The WESTERN LUMP is least eroded, has no real beaches or lowlands and is uninhabited. In many places the limestone rises 100m straight out of the ocean, so it looks pretty spectacular. It is joined to the eastern limestone higland by a SHORT NARROW SPIT OF SAND on which the TOWN/PIER AREA OF TON SAI is located. Beaches line each side of the spit - Ton Sai on the southern side is pretty drack because of the pier and boating activity, until you approach the western end against the cliffs where it is very agreeable. Loh Dalam, the northern beach, is nice in the top half of the tide, but lower than this it gets real shallow a long way out and looks a bit ordinary. Not so the surrounding cliffs of the limestone highlands which are pretty awesome.The eastern half of the isthmus is a maze of shops, restaurants, travel agencies, internet cafes, money sources, dive outfits, bars, tattoo parlours etc. There is also accommodation here - some midrangers such as Phi Phi Hotel, Phi Phi Inn, Natacha, PP Casita - a fair few noisy, expensive backpacker rooms up-stairs from shops - and in the eastern most section where you begin to climb onto the lower slopes of the limestone lump towards the town viewpoint and the dam, quite a lot of small bungalow-type outfits in the backpacker/flash packer range. Some of these are Snow White House, Scenery GH, Garden Inn and Uphill Bungalows. The general consensus is that party animals and people who don’t mind noise/crowds are best suited for staying in town, although some of the upslope areas are quieter.Note that some of the midrangers which used to line the western half of Loh Dalum pre tsunami like PP Princess have not been rebuilt. There is a pretty tatty thatched-hut backpacker place called Palm Bungalows thrown up roughly where Chang Khao was located. However on the lower slopes of the eastern highland overlooking Loh Dalum is the nicely positioned mid-range View Point Resort. Pitharom is similar, a bit further from the sea.The western section of the isthmus was wiped clean by the tsunami and in my latest August 08 still had a lot of vacant land. The upmarket Phi Phi Cabana hotel takes up a major proportion of this near the centre and seems to have completed reconstruction. The rebuilt hospital is further west, a new power generator seems to be running but most of the rest of the new construction is neat housing for locals. An exception is a section of new traditional style bamboo huts (Cliff Climbing Bungalows and it looked like some new competition in my latest trip) right up the western end of Ton Sai beach against the cliffs of the western highland. These are backpacker/flash packer in style (the upmarket Ton Sai Village used to be here) and the beach is unexpectedly lovely. Unexpectedly because most of the rest of Ton Sai beach suffers from the proximity of the boating that clogs this bay.The EASTERN LIMESTONE LUMP is more eroded and has quite a few beaches and bays along its southern and eastern coasts. The best of the southern ones is Long Beach (Hat Yao) over near the south-eastern corner of the island. This is my favourite PP area, a real nice beach for sunning and swimming (it doesn’t get too shallow most low tides), has some good coral offshore and a nice range of accommodation from backpacker to midrange+. These include Paradise Resort, Paradise Pearl, Long Beach Bungalows and the expanding Phi Phi The Beach Resort. Overlooking the beach and bay from the eastern headland is Phi Phi Hill.There are regular longtail shuttles into town day and night which is good for people wanting to shop or party. It is not too difficult to walk into town. During the day the beach is a magnet for people staying elsewhere on the island. There are also several good restaurants - PP Hill's has awesome views and Paradise Pearl's has beachfront tables. Going westwards back towards Ton Sai, there a several beaches - the first is a tiny and rather nice bay with flashpacker Viking. Then we have a series of others which suffer a bit at low tide and have several nice mostly midrange places. Halfway along is Laem Hin beach with Ayaburi and Bay View - both have impressive hillside bungalows with great views of the...ummm...Bay (and bayside cliffs of the western limestone lump). Closer to town are well known outfits like PP Andaman, PP Villa and Don Chukit. This is a pretty nice area these days with orderly resorts mostly with small pools. It is only a short walk into Ton Sai along a seaside path of continuous resorts, restaurants, shops etc and can be thought of as Ton Sai East. I notice travelfish calls this area Ton Sai Beach although the real Ton Sai beach is over a small headland further west and goes down past the pier to the Rock Climbing Bungalows described before.THE EAST COAST is really nice and contains some beaches and bungalow places which are as laid back as any on less visited islands like Ko Phayam, Ko Jum and Ko Kradan. So much for the knockers who say Phi Phi is dire and past it. I figure they must never venture away from Ton Sai/Loh Dalam.The downside is that this area is an expenisve haul from town - I’m a good bargainer but I couldn’t get the long tail taxi mafia to go under 400 to Ao Toh Koh. Bungalow owners will pick you up for considerably less if you ring ahead.Starting at the south-east corner is a tiny beach with one attractive backpacker-style place, Ao Poh Bungalows. Just north is a fairly big unsettled (except for a small restaurant/bar) beach called Loh Modee, a great place for a quiet swim and sun even in high season. Better hurry though because a big hotel has plans for this lovely place. You can walk over the saddle from Long Beach in about 10 minutes. About a km further north is one of the better backpacker places in Thailand, Ao Toh Koh Resort on its own little beach. Over the next 2 km are two other beaches, Ao Rantee with 3 backpacker/ flash packer places and Had Pak Nam with the flashpacker Relax Beach Resort. Note that a fringing coral reef is fairly close to shore right along the east coast offering pretty good snorkelling.The eastern highland area also has a few walking tracks - it is possible to walk from town to several viewpoints and from there to the east coast beaches. It is also possible to walk from Long Beach to the viewpoints. The walks have some pretty decent slopes, some are a bit indistinct (eg the track into Loh Bakeo) and I would not do town to the east coast resorts with a pack or at night.The third limestone lump makes up the longish NORTHERN LAEM THONG PENINSULA. It is joined to the south-east lump by another much wider deposit of sand, the sizable eastern beach of which is called Loh Bakeo. This has the very nice upmarket Phi Phi Island Village.About three quarters along the northern peninsula’s eastern coast is another nice beach, called unsurprisingly Hat Laem Thong (or Palm Beach). This is the preserve of mid-range+ to high-end places like PP Natural, Phi Phi Erawan Palms, Holiday Inn and The Zeavola. However there is also a sea-gypsy settlement here, so the richer guys get a taste of the real Thailand. Much more so than those people who hang around Ton Sai/Long Beach.The second main Phi Phi island is PHI PHI LEY which is about 3 km south of Phi Phi Don. It is considerably smaller, but because its limestone cliffs rise a similar precipitous 100m from the water it looks pretty impressive. This is 100% national park with no settlement, but is a magnet for daytrippers because of Maya Bay of the movie “The Beach” fame and the Viking Caves, famous for birds-nesting.A few km north-east of Don are two other popular daytrip destinations, the uninhabited islets of Mosquito Island (Ko Yung) and Bamboo Island (Ko Phai). These have nice beaches (particularly Bamboo) and pretty good snorkelling . One of the dive operations in Ton Sai was offering camping trips on these islands before the tsunami, but I have not heard anything about this recently."
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