AHarris

Hello,

I'm looking into a hotel situated near Lo Dalam Bay on Phi Phi Island. If anyone is familiar with it, would this be a quiet, clean beach that's good for swimming? The travelfish website mentions uncomfirmed reports of sewage being dumped into the bay. I am hoping someone who was there recently could dispel this rumour.

Also, what is the mosquito situation like on Phi Phi. The hotel I'm looking at is somewhat up a hill above a beach so I'm wondering if there would be a lot of mosquitos around. The reason I ask is that I would prefer not to take malarials.

Thanks everyone,
AHarris

Kathie

I can't tell you about that beach, but I can tell you that PhiPhi is not a malarial risk area. In Thailand, only the border areas with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia are considered malarial risk. Of course, mosquitos can carry more than malaria (denue, especially) so it's always wise to prevent bites. Take a good repellant.

www.cdc.gov/travel

Batfish

Hi,

Phi Phi Don Island has all the hotels in Phi Phi. The main town is "Tonsai Village", which is the only really built up area on the island. This area has most of the hotels, restaurants, bars and all the other stuff. Tonsai Bay is on one side, Loh Dalam Bay on the other, at the narrowest point near the jetty you can walk from one side to the other in 1 minute. Loh Dalam is not much good for swimming - at low tide the water goes waaaaay out. Tonsai is OK, but you'd need to get away from the jetty and center of "town". If you want a quiet place, I have stayed in Phi Phi Bayview Resort many times, it's the last hotel in Tonsai before you get to a rocky headland that is between Tonsai and Long Beach. In many visits to Phi Phi I have not noticed or had any problem with "bad water"

And dont worry about mozzies!

Cheers

Jamie

See link below for some Phi Phi info on my blog:

http://jamie-monk.blogspot.com/2006/...ths-after.html

filmwill

We were at Lo Bah Kao on Phi Phi last month and the mosquitos are practically non-existant during the day...never wore our DEET or any sort of protection during the day. At night, it's a FAR different story. Brutal would be one way to describe it. They feast after dark. But as Kathie has said, there is absolutely NO malarial risk on Phi Phi (or the surrounding areas) at all.

AHarris

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad to hear there's no malaria risk for Phi Phi.

Batfish, you mentioned that low tide make swimming difficult at Lo Dalam. Forgive my ignorance re. tides but is low tide in the evening and high tide during the day? I'm just wondering if during the day Lo Dalam is ok for swimming. I will look into the Bayview Resort as well but if I do go with my initial hotel choice (on Lo Dalam), how far a walk is it to a better beach?

Thanks again,
AH

Batfish

AH,

Tides are mainly governed by the moon, so the time of high and low tides changes daily...

http://www.phuketgazette.com/tides/

Anyway, you will not be more than a few minutes walk from Tonsai if you stay on the Loh Dalam side. Not a big worry.

AHarris

Thank you for the info Jamie. I feel a little silly now - for some reason I thought tides happen at the same time every day.

BTW, the Phuket weather forecast looks rather wet for the next few weeks - is this to be expected or are the weather reports often incorrect? I think it's an El Nino year so perhaps that's affecting the weather?
Thanks again everyone,
AH

Batfish

Wet weather would be unusual for this time of year, but yes it's an El Nino year. Right now its warm and a bit hazy in the day, cool at night (down to 21 degrees).

http://phuket-weather.blogspot.com

LeighTravelClub

Loh Dalam Bay is at the Tonsai area of Phi Phi. The busiest part of the island. The beach is clean and good for swimming but certainly not quiet. The tide range is quite high here so at low tide its quite a walk to get to swimming depth.
No need to take anti-malarials here but use plenty of repellant in the evenings.
If you want quiet, then you should look elsewhere on the island.
You cant walk to a better beach! No roads or paths on Phi Phi. Only way to travel around the island is by boat. Longtail being the most popular and cheapest.
We have many years experience of visiting Phi Phi. Check our website
www.leightravelclub.com for more info and feel free to email if you want any specific advice.

AHarris

Thank you for the advice everyone. We've decided to go for it and have booked this hotel for 5 nights.
Cheers,
AH