Finding the beach in Phi Phi Islands

Thailand is one of the most popular backpacker destinations in the world. People arrive in droves to eat the delicious food, enjoy the sun and take a swim at the beautiful beaches. Everyone I speak with claims to have visited a very special beach, and I guess some of this talk comes from “The Beach”.

The debut novel by Alex Garland in 1996 is well-known by most travelers, especially after the movie adaptation that was released four years later. While the book is a fan favorite for backpackers, the film is not quite living up to the expectations, even though the first half gives a good portrayal of the current mass tourism in Thailand.

The movie features Leonardo DiCaprio as the backpacker Richard trying to find the perfect beach. He stays in a dodgy hostel on the infamous tourist magnet Khao San Road, where he receives a map from an estranged Robert Carlyle. The map marks the location of the eponymous beach on an island west of Koh Samui.

As always in movies, the locations often differ between depiction and reality. The filming location of the beach is actually Maya Bay in Phi Phi Islands and the “Khao San Road hostel” is On On Hotel in Phuket City, about 200 meters west of the place where I was staying yesterday. The author Rolf Potts actually tried to sneak into the heavily guarded movie set in Phi Phi, hilariously retold in his short story “Storming the beach”.

Maya Bay, as seen from a boat.

The production team received complaints as they were altering the Phi Phi location for filming purposes. They also changed some of the hills digitally in post-production to make it even more beautiful. But it looks perfect enough to me, as I enter the bay on a boat.

Maya Bay, the so-called paradise immortalized by Leo and a generation of sunburnt nomads, is quite crowded these days. Everybody is chasing a dream we’ve already seen on screen. And like all good dreams, it came with a price.

Alex Garland’s book was actually inspired by the lagoon El Nido at island Palawan in the Philippines, and the book was also written there according to the legend. But facts like that won’t stop the horde from arriving to the shores of Phi Phi Islands, to find some grains of sand that perhaps were once touched by Leo’s bottom.

Still, for a few moments, if I squint past the crowds, ignore the thrum of engines and let the relentless sun burn away the cynicism, it really is achingly beautiful. The crystalline water is impossibly blue, like someone dialed up the saturation just to mess with my head. I have a last look at the limestone cliffs standing guard around me like ancient sentinels, and dive into the water. Among the corals I see red fishes which are initially cute, but soon feels a bit more devious as they bite small skin samples from me. Even so, the soundtrack I hear in my head is Moby’s “Porcelain” from the movie, rather than the theme from “Jaws”.

As I look around in wonder, both above and under the surface, I realize that while it may not be a perfect beach, it still is a perfect memory.