Koh Phi Phi, Thailand: Island hopping, snorkelling and picturesque beaches

After an incredible couple of days of sightseeing in Cambodia, I was really excited to start exploring Thailand, where we're planning to stay for at least the next couple of weeks.

Our journey to the beautiful Koh Phi Phi was a long and interesting one, though. We started by taking the overnight bus from Cambodia to Bangkok, where we only stayed for one night. I'll definitely have to go back to Bangkok to see it properly some time in the next couple of weeks because thanks to either food poisoning or a tummy bug (my first time being ill in Asia and fingers crossed the last) I spent my first day in Thailand just lying in bed feeling terrible!

Next, we travelled to Phuket for a couple of days so we could see what it was like before catching the boat to Phi Phi. I'd expected to really love our quick stop in Phuket but unfortunately the area we stayed in (near Patong beach) was seriously suffering from overtourism. I actually didn't like it at all! To be fair, the beach itself was beautiful, but it was also super overcrowded, with the area around it filled with sex workers, tacky bars and litter all over the streets.

Anyway, our long and interesting journey down south ended pretty happily as we took a boat over to the Phi Phi islands and checked into a really nice little tropical beach hut in Ton Sai Bay.

We arrived just in time to see an incredible bright pink sunset over Loh Dalum beach, and when it got dark we headed to a pretty impressive fire-throwing show at one of the island's beach bars.

An amazing sunset on Loh Dalum beach

The next morning, we went back to Loh Dalum to spend a day relaxing in the sun. It was a beautiful beach and we had a great time chilling there, but again we couldn't stop noticing Thailand's big overtourism problem.

Koh Phi Phi didn't feel anywhere near as crowded as Phuket had, but it was still packed with hotels, bars and restaurants exclusively for tourists. After visiting some relatively untouched, uncluttered and beautiful places (like Nusa Penida island in Indonesia) earlier in our trip, it was kind of sad to see such a beautiful natural area become so built up and tourist-centric. Koh Phi Phi's beaches may be paradise, but they're paradise shared with a lot of other people!

The next day, we got up early to go and see the views of Koh Phi Phi from its highest point. We did accidentally go the wrong way, which made the route a lot longer and steeper, but the views at the top definitely made up for the climb!

Koh Phi Phi from its highest point

Island hopping in Koh Phi Phi

After spending some time enjoying the scenery at the viewpoint, we headed back down to the shore to start the boat tour we'd booked the night before. This boat trip turned out to be incredible and was definitely the highlight of our entire stay in Phi Phi!

Our first stop was Monkey Beach, where families of monkeys climbed along the rocks around us - and didn't pay too much attention to all the tourists trying to take photos of them and getting excited when the babies came out to play.

At Monkey Beach

Next, we sailed over to Maya Bay; the beach where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach was filmed. Usually, Maya Bay is open to tourists - and we've had friends tell us that it's absolutely incredible there - but on the day we went it was temporarily closed due to overtourism in the area. Apparently, Maya Bay had become such a tourist hotspot that up to 6000 travellers were visiting it every day (!) and were sadly causing major damage to its coral reef.

We did still get to snorkel around the bay - and this was actually the first time I'd ever snorkelled in my life! I'd be lying if I said I was the most adventurous snorkeller in the group, though. I opted out of swimming with the baby sharks that Ben and lots of the others were getting up close with, and when some of our group started saying that the fish were nibbling at them, I just got back on the boat to sunbathe and chat instead!

Maya Bay

Our next stop was on the beautiful Bamboo Island, where our whole group spent a couple of hours swimming, relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Ben in the ocean on Bamboo Island

When we eventually all got back on the boat, our guides took us to watch the sunset over the ocean while some of our group snorkelled and swam around the area.

We've seen some pretty incredible sunsets while we've been in Asia but this one was definitely one of the best!

As soon as it got really dark, a lot of our group got in the water again to watch the plankton glow in the sea at night.

Sadly, when the boat trip ended, so did our stay on Koh Phi Phi. I'm looking forward to moving a little further north for our next stop in Thailand, but I'm really glad we made the islands here our first proper stay in the country.

Despite what I've said about Thailand's overtourism, we really couldn't have asked for a more fun few days in Phi Phi.