We spent last night on the tiny island of Phi Phi Don ("Pee Pee Don"). It's twin island in the near distance, Phi Phi Leh, is home to Maya Bay where The Beach was filmed (it is a "protected" island so there are no guesthouses there, but as you boat by you see hoards of diving and snorkelling boats cluttering up the water making it look less-than-protected). Consequently, the twin islands have now become a tourist mecca (oh! to touch the sand Leonardo Dicaprio touched!) and I am therefore left with very strong mixed reactions to the place. On one hand, it is a majestic paradise. Huge limestone cliffs jut out of the crystal blue water and are dotted with bright green trees. Coconut trees line the beaches whose soft, white sand sticks to your wet feet like flour. We breathlessly exclaimed to one another as our ferry to Phi Phi was going by Phi Phi Leh that it is one of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen. On the other hand, Phi Phi is a sad reminder of the destruction of tourism. It must have been an incredibly special place to the people who inhabited the place before tourists conquered it. Now, the small island is littered with upscale resorts and large clusters of bungalows, stores hawking useless junky souvenirs, restaurants serving bad and expensive food, and of course, a 7-11 greets you as you exit the dock upon arrival. Piles of garbage rot in background and unhealthily tanned European men find it appropriate to walk through town in their speedos (too much information fellas!) and the ladies aren't wearing much more. The saddest part, for me, was seeing the Gibbon monkeys that were on display for tourists. One was only twenty-one days old the proud owner told everyone who walked by. She was feeding the baby with a bottle (probably filled so inappropriately with cow's milk) and the little creature without it's full body of hair yet clinged to her shirt the way I'm sure it clinged to her mother's chest and back before they killed her and stole her baby.
Phi Phi really made me question tourism and made me see some forms of tourism as some kind of new colonialism. Tourists and the guidebooks find an unspoilt place, move in and start building until it is super overdeveloped... and then what? I wonder what Phi Phi will look like in five, ten, twenty years... will it just be an island full of run-down bungalows and hotels that no one travels to anymore? How will the environment there be changed? How will this affect the future generations of people and animals that live there?
Needless to say, we were really happy to leave Phi Phi today though we have all come out of it changed a little. Thankfully, it was only a stopover point for us on our way here, to the province of Krabi ("Crabby", just like it looks) where we are going to live out the next week of our trip. This is where we will part with Aaron and where he will spend the next month or so, so we're going to make sure he is in a good place before we leave. We've checked in to a cute guesthouse in Krabi Town but will probably move out to one of the beaches before the week's end since that is where the rocks are to be climbed.
I wanted to write and tell you about the Thai massage I had as a birthday gift the other day, but it seems kind of weird to go into that after writing such a depressing post about Phi Phi. So I'll leave that for another time (maybe the next time I get a massage because I am planning on at least one more before we leave Thailand).
tothesea,
k&m