We woke up on Saturday and it was STILL RAINING! In fact, it had been raining for so long that when we opened the door and stepped out onto our porch, the beach had completely disappeared and the ocean was just a couple of inches shy of overcoming the walkway and flooding our hut!
On the right you can see the mountainous other half of the island we were on (Koh Phi Don). In the background you can see Koh Phi Ley, the smaller uninhabited island where Maya Bay (made famous in the movie The Beach) is.
And here's the view from the top! See how thin the strip of land that separates the ocean? (This is the reason the death toll on this island was so high when the tsunami hit - all of the high rise fancy resorts that used to be on Phi Phi where built on this tiny strip of land that's only like 200 yards wide. When the tsunami came through, it pretty much bowled right over these buildings without anything else getting in the way.)
After we'd finished hysterically laughing and we'd caught our breath, we decided to hike up to the highest point on the island to watch the sunset. Here's a view of one of the beach areas from about halfway up the really long steep path to the island's scenic overlook.
...and stepped out onto Phi Phi Island! Last time I was in Thailand, Phi Pi Island had recently been pretty much wiped out by the tsunami and I spent some time back then volunteering on Phi Phi and helping rebuild.
We arrived at Koh Phi Phi Don Port a little past 5pm and it was still pouring. Not wanting to have to try to make a mad dash through the crowds with our big backpacks, we hung out on the boat for a few minutes to see if the rain would let up.
