Jaunted

The food is awful, the drinks are weak and a friggin’ used book costs $7. Hostel rooms, at 800 baht (about $23) are at least twice the price of those in Koh Lanta or Krabi. Further, a fat, greasy rat scurried across the bathroom floor and down an open drain in our room’s private loo while we tried to do our business one morning. And our flat neighbors blasted Euro techno all night while they snorted drugs and complained about having to eat Thai food. The island attracts travelers of the gelled-hair, singlet-wearing variety.

The monkeys on the island are so used to people that they stroll the crowded beaches calmly, consuming endless handouts of fruit, potato chips and bottled Pepsi.

All that said, we’re glad we went. The experience is a lesson in learning to share. Phi Phi Lai may be the first time that we literally felt we’d been beamed into a postcard, post-Photoshop. The park is spectacular, as the men in Speedos surrounding you on the beach will agree. Cliffs encircle isolated turquoise pools fringed in that kind of white sand that practically glows. Ignore the chugging of boats, the surrounding crowds and the terrible tunes and, yeah, it’s pretty much paradise.

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