Saturday, September 27, 2008

Phi Phi Island, Thailand







I don't know what made me think about Phi Phi island, located in southern Thailand today...nostalgia, I guess. It's been nearly 18 years since I was aboard a longboat like the one pictured here, diving in caves buried beneath the huge rock-islands...maybe these very ones.

Back in the day when I was there, in 1990, there were only huts on the island...no hotels, and not really any tourists. I would go out ever day and go diving on one of those longboats. We would go into underwater caves, and then surface inside the island where swallows would be flying everywhere as shafts of light penetrated into the cavern. There would also be these primitive man-looking dudes on these super-high bamboo ladders risking their lives to collect the birds nests and bird drippings for the Japanese who would pay princely sums to eat it. UGH!!!!



This is the area where they filmed the Bond flick The Man with the Golden Gun.


Ah, paradise. Are there any Eden spots left on the planet that don't have a Sheraton or Hilton property on them? God, I hope so. If so, would someone please tell me where it is... -- John Anderson

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