Mu Ko Phi Phi Archipelago หมู่เกาะพีพี, Thailand,

Phi Phi Islands (4 November, 2005)

Mu Ko Phi Phi หมู่เกาะพีพี

is an archipelago in the Andaman Sea, in Thailand. It is located about 48 km east of Phuket and 42 km south of Krabi. The archipelago consisting of six islands is administered as part of Krabi Province.

The two biggest islands in the Phi Phi archipelago are Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Le. These supremely scenic islands juts out of the emerald sea with towering limestone cliffs clad in a verdant vegetation. Underneath the surf grows a bank of coral reefs visited by a rainbow of marine life.

The islands of Phi Phi are said to have derived their names from the mangrove tree, Avicennia, which in Malay is pokok api-api. In fact, as late as 1945, Phi Phi islands were still uninhabited, visited on occasion by Sea Gypsies, who are of Malay ancestry. They gave the name to most of the places in Phi Phi. Phi Phi Don, for example, is Thai for Pulao Api-Api Darat, Phi Phi Le is Pulao Api-Api Laut, Loh Bakao was Teluk Bakau, Loh Samah is Teluk Samah, and so on.