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We arrived onto Kho Phi Phi island around midday and we were considering leaving the next day, because the island was very busy and places to stay were too overpriced in comparison to other places in Thailand. Colin had been here 6 years ago and found that the beach which was hit by the Tsunami was ruined and full of rubble and rubbish, and it was quite sad to see what had become of a place once referred to as paradise. We eventually checked into a hotel for only one night (after walking around for 3 hours trying to find suitable accomodation). We were told the room we were staying in was booked the next day. We decided to leave it upto fate to decide, if our room was available the next day it was a sign that we should stay. Luckily it was the only room in the whole hotel free the next day. The weather was also lovely so we decided to stay one night and perhaps book onto a tour of the islands to make the most of the good weather along this side of the coast. We booked onto a all day tour to visit Bamboo Island, Monkey Island, Viking Caves, Maya Bay (this is where the film The Beach was filmed), Pileh Lagoon & snorkelling at Maya Bay & Shark Point - by a rickety long tail boat (which was quite an experience). This was overall a fantastic day. Whilst snorkelling we saw some amazing tropical fish, ones which we had seen in the London Aquarium last year & all the colourful coral - an amazing insight to sea life. The Lagoon water was an emerald green & the colour of the sea (which were captured in the photos which we have uploaded for Kho Phi Phi) in all the places we visited was truelly like a paradise. We got drenched on the long tail boats ! as the waves were very high. Later that evening we visited Ciao Bella restaurant as recommended in the Lonelyplanet (saviour book) we found out that the owner of the restaurant had lost everything in the tsunami. The tsunami hit his restaurant and wiped it out on the beach. The restaurant owner had published a book based on his and others traumatising experience of the boxing day 2004 tsunami and how it changed their lives forever. We purchased the book, which the restaurant owner signed for us (he did survive). The next day we walked upto viewpoint (picture as above) which was the highest point of the island (where many people fled to during the tsunami). Viewpoint was 186 meters above sea level (very tiring climb in the heat!), from this point we could see the devastation that the tsunami had caused (by going over the middle of the island) but on a positive note the island has recovered and is continuing to develop and move on. We had an amazing time and it was well worth seeing and still looks amazing?
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