Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Well...what can I say it has been very nice to get a bit of a break from grinding floor boards and lifting bricks everyday, but even paradise comes with a cost and impact. I don't seem to understand how everyone somehow thinks that if they get the Eco-lodge, or travel light that they are somehow less degrading to the tourism scene. Or the best one yet is the one where everyone comes to an island on a boat and everyone is looking to stay at a non-touristy beach. What?

Pictures of Koh Phi Phi from the late 1990's show an island filled with lush palm ladden forest. Coral reefs lined the white pristine sands like armed guards at an entrance gate. Tourism had very little steam in these parts as most of the western crowds where still busy tearing apart Koh Samui and Ko Panang. But like all beautiful places everyone wants to spend a bit of time away from there cares, shedding their burden perhaps onto the very beaches they lay upon. The case with Koh Phi Phi is no different, a blockbuster called the beach was filmed on Koh Phi Phi Lei, the smaller of the two islands and overnight everyone was packing their bags to find this once in a life time place. In no time at all Koh Phi Phi population grew the western travellers and soon, the climbing mecca of Krabi became a launch point for the herds.

In 2004, a tsunami kicked off, in I believe, Sumatra Indonesia. Sending a 40m surge of water toward every piece of land and coastline that it could reach. In literally minutes the small village of local fisherman and tourist, where gone. Claiming the lives of nearly 3000, people. Video footage from a birds eye view shows the small isthmus consumed by the serge, carrying with it buildings boats and people.

The aftermath played itself out in typical fashion. Look toward the government for some help, but the coordination and resources required to post such an effort made the Thai governmental support minimal and uneffective. The result, a completly rebuilt mini pedestrian only city packed onto the isthmus over the remains of the old site. As I understand it a few venture capitalist types swooped in on land and development, aiming to build a name for Koh Phi Phi and another destination for the LP's(lonely planet people) to circle in their itinerary.

Am I glad to be here...of course I am . It is a wonderful place and aside from the jam packed little town on the isthmus, things are lightly developed and left to their own. The snorkelling is wonderful and there are more Swede's in bikini's than you can shake a stick at, but I still have to wonder...are we loving these places to death? And should there be a point at which we stop the rampage on our landscapes?