Phi Phi Island was the first stop - made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio's 1999 movie "The Beach". There are 2 beaches on the island. The most famous one is shown in this pic. From the open sea, you pass through a narrow gorge into a large bay surrounded by limestone cliffs. This is what you see after passing through that gorge.
Me with the gorge entrance to Phi Phi Island in background. Note perfect white sand and turquoise water. It was a cloudy day so much of its beauty is missing.
Me on Phi Phi beach. Note steep, undercut limestone cliffs which make up most of the Andaman Sea islands. Most of these islands don't have beaches and therefore are uninhabited.
As I said before, there are 2 beaches on Phi Phi. They are linked by a sandy, fairly level pathway that cuts through a major limestone gorge - as was depicted in the movie "The Beach".. The pathway is covered with vegetation making it too dark to take pics. This is me at the entry to the gorge pathway leading to the other beach.
We have all probably seen a Nat'l Geographic or Discovery Channel TV show about the Thai's "harvesting Swiftet birds nest in island caves". The nests are constructed with the birds' saliva - and they are tiny birds. This is one of those caves. Note the bamboo scaffolding and, as is the case with most Andaman islands, no beach. Families evidently have long-term leases for these caves with the Thai government. To protect their investment, they live in these caves 24/7. It's difficult to judge how large this cave is. That bluish/green structure in the center of pic is their house. Given that "Grade A" nests sell for $3000 an once, I guess I would camp out too!
This is another Andaman Sea island "gorge harbor". Note undercut steep limestone cliffs. Of course this, like most such islands was uninhabited. They are really breathtaking!
We stopped at Monkey Beach Island. It appeared to be a rather large island but, like most its shoreline was primarily very steep/high limestone cliffs. This island had a very small, shallow beach - maybe 20 yards long and 5 yards deep with a few trees surrounded by steep cliffs at least 100' plus tall. This small beach is inhabited by monkeys. Boats stop daily to feed them bananas. There didn't appear to be any other sources of food for them!
This is another pic of me chillin with m primate buddies. This pic shows almost the entire beach!
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