Expectations

Thailand is all about managing expectations.

I've talked to a lot of people about my travels. Where should I go? see? do? not do? not see? not go? etc etc etc. The unanimous experience of the wide variety of people I've talked with is they have all fallen in love with Koh Phi Phi (pronounced P.P.). Seriously, with no exceptions. Whenever the little island is mentioned whomever I happened to be talking to gets this faraway, misty and slightly romantic look in their eyes and sigh in private reflection of what I can only assume was a tremendously amazing time on the island. So my expectations were a tad high.

We arrived from a terrific couple days on Rai Leh pennisula. There we had sunned on a beach encircled by large karst outcropings. We climbed an incredible climb to an isolated lagoon deep in the bowels of a karst mountain. It's worth noting that Lonely Planet doesn't once mention the lagoon and nobody I've talked to has ever mentioned Rai Leh.

The lagoon at Rai Leh.

Phi Phi was nice. But just nice. It's a tiny island with no roads -but lethal bicyclists. We found a decent deal at a guesthouse on high ground en route to the tsunami evacuation zone. The beaches that bracketed the town were okay. But to be honest they kinda left us feeling a little underwhelmed. We decided the stuff everybody is raving about must be further afield. We booked tickets on one of the affordable boat trips in hopes of discovering Phi Phi's hidden beauty.

The boat was awesome. We snorkeled and kayaked and swam in incredible palces. The boat traveled around Koh Phi Phi Leh the southern, uninhabited sister of Koh Phi Phi Don where you stay. The climax of the trip was swiming and treking into Maya Cove where they filmed "The Beach." Afterwards we long tailed back to our big boat for a sunset supper. Not too shabby.

"The Beach"

The fact remains that to get to any of these glorious places involves daily haggling with long tail boat drivers to take you to one of the remote beaches. And that's something that's definitely not in the budget of this traveler!

So there is a consistent trend in my experience of Thai islands. If I've been told I'll love it, I'll invariably not, and vice versa. For another example, I was told repeatedly to skip Phuket but I have quite enjoyed my two days in Phuket city. I've decided to commit to a strict policy of expectation management.