Phi Phi Island Hotels in Phi Phi Don Village

At the time of the tsunami, Phi Phi island was occupied by about 5,000 Thai residents and workers, and 5,000 tourists. According to the news media, an estimated 850 bodies had been recovered by the end of July 2005, and 1,200 people were still missing. The exact number of how many perished will forever remain unknown. Approximately 70 percent of the buildings on Phi Phi Don had been destroyed, mostly on the western side.

Luckily, the eastern side of the island did not experience the same devastation. Some parts of the beaches were flooded, but nothing more. Following the tsunami, the ravaged island was evacuated and the government declared it temporarily closed while a new zoning policy was developed. To protect the fragile island environment, the number of tourists was to be limited in the future.

One year after the Tsunami

About one year after the Tsunami I ventured back to Phi Phi Don. I was torn, scared to see what was left of what was such a dear place to me. On the one hand, I did not really want to see "my" island in ruins, but I wanted to see how my friends had survived, who was still there, how the diving was, and how life was after the devastation wreaked by the tsunami.

I boarded the Princess Cruiser ferry to Koh Phi Phi as the islands are called locally (koh meaning island) with much anticipation. I had heard different stories from different people, so I was not sure what to expect. As the vessel turned into Tonsai Bay after the 90-minute crossing, I was finally able to see the pier and beach. It was heart wrenching.

I used to work for one of the biggest companies on Phi Phi Don, Hippo Divers. Before the tsunami you could see our beachfront bamboo dive shop from the ferry dock. Now everything was gone. The tall palm trees, the beach houses and the cute little restaurants, everything had vanished, and nothing had been reconstructed.

For a few hours I wandered around in disbelief. Then I visited my old friend, Carl. His bar, Carlito s, is a chill-out place where you can find people playing volleyball or Yahtzee (a dice game), or just taking a nap in a hammock under a palm tree.

Carl used to be a strong, Viking-like Swedish guy with long, blond hair. He is hardly 40, but he looks at least 20 years older these days. Carl was on the island during the tsunami, and he organized recovery and rebuilding efforts after the catastrophe. His eyes tell of much sadness.

He is no longer as conversational; other things occupy his mind. Carl is one of the first foreigners who returned after the initial mandatory evacuation. It was as he was helping plan the reopening of the island for business that he realized that the biggest way of helping the Thai people is to keep tourists coming who can support the local economy.

Next, I tried to find my former landlord, the owner of the Palm Restaurant, my favorite eatery. She always allowed me to peek into the kitchen to learn how the delicious meals were made. I tried to track down the girl who did my laundry and dyed all my clothes pink, because she did not sort colors and washed everything together.

I hoped to meet the blind Siamese man who used to give me massages. Unfortunately, I could not find any of them. However, as I walked the streets, I came across other foreigner and local friends, and listened to their stories of survival and loss. I was impressed to see that companies that had once competed were now working together to bring life and people back to Phi Phi.

Dive Instructors

I ran into Andrea and Chay from England, who started working as dive instructors on Phi Phi several years ago. They fell in love with the island and with each other, and started a dive center for the Phi Phi Hotel in 2001, while I was managing Hippo Divers. Our company had helped them with the initial setup, and we became friends in the process. Their dive shop was located just 200 feet (60 m) from Hippo Divers, and it disappeared during the tsunami, just like ours.

Andrea and Chay's crew was working with Thai laborers to rebuild the walls for the hotel and their classroom. At the same time, their dive instructors were already conducting scuba training with the clients sitting under umbrellas at a nearby coffee shop. As a wise man once said: "Where is a will, there is a way."

While Phi Phi Don has certainly not fully recovered, many dive operations and resorts are open for business. The beaches are still gorgeous, the locals are still smiling and the diving is still great. As I visited, nearly 1,500 hotel rooms were once again available in a dozen hotels and guest houses, and more than 160 shops had been reopened. With the help of locals and volunteers, the government had cleared the debris and installed a tsunami early-warning alarm system.

To visit or not to visit? Most of Thailand is as safe and fun as it was before. If you are not sure about vacationing on Koh Phi Phi, a day trip by ferry is easy from Phuket or Krabi ( a town on the west coast of southern Thailand), both of which were far less affected by the tsunami.

As for myself, I could only stay for a single day. As much as I felt that I needed to return to see "my island" and my friends again, to ask them how they were doing and see how they were getting on with their lives, it was just too painful to see paradise shattered. I will probably never go back again, because, as Thai people say, it is "same same, but different." I have too many memories of a different Phi Phi Island in my head.

Update 2011 January

Although at the time the devastation was huge, time is a great healer. Though the memories will not fade, the economy of the island has returned. Many old hotels and resorts were rebuilt and some new ones were created and from this great fury, and like a phoenix from the ashes, Phi Phi Island is now once again one of Thailand's most prestigious travel destinations.