Phi Phi Island or Phi Phi Island is a place where many people dream, have dreamed, and some will dream of going, and for good reason, because this is one of the best and most beautiful islands in the Kingdom.
Phi Phi Island in Thailand - view from the observation deck
Personally, I first learned about this place by watching the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was quite a long time ago, but images from the film still live in my memory. At that moment, I remember that I very much dreamed of visiting those amazingly beautiful places at least once and voila, I succeeded. As it turned out, you don’t need to be a millionaire to do this, it’s enough to have a great desire and go towards your goal.
Phi Phi Islands
Islands two, Phi Phi Don And Phi Phi Ley. Let's take a brief look at both of them so that you can imagine what and where awaits you.
Briefly about Phi Phi Don
This is an island inhabited by people, on which the life of Thais and... Its size is no more than 6-8 km. (out of approximately 13 km.) of populated territory. Despite its size, there are quite a lot of hotels, as well as restaurants, SPA salons, bars and beach discos.
You can't drive a motorbike on the island, so you won't be able to rent one. I think this is one of the reasons why it remains so beautiful, the Thais at least somehow care about it.
Briefly about Phi Phi Ley
This is a small island located approximately 30 minutes by ferry from Phi Phi Don. By the way, the film Beach was filmed on it in May Bay. There are no hotels, bars or discos on this island; you cannot stay here for a long time, only with an excursion for 2 days and one night with an overnight stay in tents.
The island consists of three main bays such as: Maya Bay, Loh Samah And Pi Ley. The first bay is the most popular as it is the only one with a beach, the other two bays are suitable for snorkeling or diving.
You can usually get here by purchasing a tour or renting a boat with a boatman (pay by the hour). I will write more about this excursion and prices for a boatman in another article.
More about Phi Phi Don Island
Upon arrival on the island, you will need to pay 20 baht as a cleaning fee and maintenance fee on the island.
Helpers will be waiting for you on the island, who will find you a hotel, take your bags to the right place, on their carts, or sell you some kind of excursion. You need to find out in advance which beach you will be staying at, since you can only get from the pier to the desired beach by boat, unless you are staying at: Ton Sai Bay or Loh Dalam Bay, in these areas, the hotel can only be reached on foot.
Some hotels provide free transport from the pier to the desired beach, so when booking, check in advance whether this is available or not. If there is, then Thais will be waiting for you on the pier with a sign with the name of the hotel.
Phi Phi Island port - boatmen waiting for their clients
Advice: when traveling to Phi Phi, book a hotel in advance; in high season there is a critical shortage of places here; in a separate article I will write about some of them, as well as their features. Not all places on Phi Phi are quiet; in some hotels it is simply impossible to sleep because of the night discos.
There is a good pedestrian road on the island, so getting around here is quite easy; along the paths you can find restaurants and cafes with a pleasant interior and not-so-expensive cuisine and more affordable ones; there are no problems with food here.
Also on your way there will be many hotels and guesthouses, tour desks and diving centers; here they are most common.
Phi Phi Island Map
I am posting for you a map of Phi Phi Island, namely its central part, where life is in full swing.
But here is a general, tourist map, it is clickable.
Beaches on Phi Phi Don Island
Unfortunately, I was not able to visit all the beaches of the island, but I will tell you about the ones I visited - Tonsai Bay and Loh Dalam Bay, and later I will add descriptions of the missing beaches.
Ton Sai Bay Beach on Phi Phi Island
This is the first bay that you will see upon arrival on the island; it is on it that the port is located from where boats and ferries depart and arrive.
Its central and right part (if you look at the island from the sea) is not suitable for swimming, there are too many boats and boats in the central part, and in the right part there are a lot of stones and dead corals. Photo below.
The left side is more suitable for swimming, there is even a beach area with sun loungers and umbrellas.
Unfortunately, on the day I took the pictures, it was cloudy on this side of the beach, so you won’t be able to appreciate all the beauty from the photo above, but you can still make a superficial assessment.
I would like to note an important nuance: in this bay you can sleep peacefully at night, since there are almost no discos or noisy establishments nearby.
Loh Dalam Bay beach on Phi Phi Island
This bay has a large, long beach; it is more suitable for beach holidays and sunbathing, unlike its neighbor. Here you can rent a sun lounger, the price is 50 baht, or lay your towel on an empty spot on the beach, which is what almost all the young people I met there do.
You can see a photo of Loh Dalam Bay beach below.
Having visited these places, I concluded that the season in Thailand matters, so if you want to see Phi Island in a more beautiful form, then it is better to go here from late December to February.
My opinion and review about this beach on Phi Phi Island. There are quite a lot of people, but there are enough places, the sand is white, soft, when the sun comes out it is very beautiful, the water is clear, azure, the entrance to the sea is pleasant, there are no algae, stones or corals at the bottom, this beach did not cause any negative emotions in me.
Video of Phi Phi Island from the observation deck
IMPORTANT! You can get to the observation deck from two sides. 1) Up the steps through the hotel, you will need to pay 20 baht for entry; it’s a high, difficult walk, be prepared. 2) On the way, you can rent a motorbike to get to the top or pay a taxi driver to take you (price 250-300 baht (I think)), or you can walk, but it’s very far. Therefore, it is better to use option N1.
Prices on Phi Phi Island
I won’t delve deeply into prices, but I will describe an approximate picture of the island’s prices.
- Food prices: on the streets in cafes and eateries from 60 baht for a slice of pizza or a plate of Thai food. In restaurants and cafes about 300 baht per person.
- Housing prices: Shared rooms from 190 baht per bed, private room from 300-500 baht, a room in a more or less decent hotel from 1200 baht, a room in a good hotel from 2500 baht.
- Entertainment prices: Alcohol on the streets starts from 150 baht per bucket, there are prices the same as everywhere else, hookah 300-400 baht, drinks in bars from 100 baht and above.
- Prices for excursions: from 600 baht and above, depending on where. (I will write a separate article about this)
- Massage prices: can be found for 200, but the standard price tag is 300 baht for a Thai massage.
- Diving prices: from 3,500 thousand baht for two dives.
Prices are for 2012, low season; in high season they are approximately 30-40% higher.
Phi Phi Island at night
When night falls on Phi Phi, on Loh Dalam Bay beach, a completely different life awakens. Bars and beach discos open and young people get out of their rooms to get another dose of adrenaline... some from discos, some from jumping into the crowd, some from alcohol and other pranks, some from meeting new people, and some - from a fight between your friend or foe...;)
And now everything described above is only in photos and videos.
Preparations begin for a huge flow of young people who want to have a blast this night like it’s the last time... Merchants are preparing buckets of alcohol, a starter kit...
Street bakeries prepare delicious pizza... after all, walking all night requires energy...
Almost everything is ready, waiting in the wings...
And everyone is waiting... waiting for their clients, dear, loved ones and only with money, as they say in Pattaya - “ No money, No honey«.
Closer to 00:00 o'clock, the most popular beach bars Slinky, Moken, Waddy, open their doors to long-awaited customers.
Note: most of the people in these establishments are European youth (USA, England, Spain, etc.), a few Thais, almost no Russians.
The night has just begun, but for the guy in the photo below it is almost over, with the last of his strength he grabbed the flag and is trying to stay in this world of fun for at least a couple of minutes...
The guy is very good...
For some, just dancing is no longer enough...
Video on Phi Phi Island
Well, perhaps the most exciting and interesting spectacle is boxing. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the bar where the ring is located, I don’t think it will be a problem to find it. The bottom line is this: you can challenge any bar visitor to a duel, and the winner will receive a free drink. There is no payment for the fight. Total 3 rounds, 2 minutes each, you specify the fighting style in advance - it could be Thai boxing, kickboxing, boxing.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t record a video, my memory ran out, but I really wanted to... But I still have a few photos for you of one of the fights. Two healthy guys crushed each other with dignity.
Boxing on Phi Phi
At the end of the fight, apparently the guys had adrenaline going off scale and they didn’t want to stop, as a result there was almost a fight between the two teams... The spectacle was interesting... At that moment it was about 3 o’clock in the morning (as far as my memory serves) both opponents were drunk. I advise you to visit and maybe even take part in such a show, it’s interesting.
Well, that’s probably all, I tried to tell and show the most interesting things that you can see on the island. In the next article I will show you many beautiful photos, tell you about hotels and excursions.
See also about Phi Phi:
Math enthusiasts around the world eat a piece of pie every year on the fourteenth of March - after all, it is the day of Pi, the most famous irrational number. This date is directly related to the number whose first digits are 3.14. Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Since it is irrational, it is impossible to write it as a fraction. This is an infinitely long number. It was discovered thousands of years ago and has been constantly studied since then, but does Pi still have any secrets? From ancient origins to an uncertain future, here are some of the most interesting facts about Pi.
Memorizing Pi
The record for memorizing decimal numbers belongs to Rajvir Meena from India, who managed to remember 70,000 digits - he set the record on March 21, 2015. Previously, the record holder was Chao Lu from China, who managed to remember 67,890 digits - this record was set in 2005. The unofficial record holder is Akira Haraguchi, who recorded himself on video repeating 100,000 digits in 2005 and recently published a video where he manages to remember 117,000 digits. The record would become official only if this video was recorded in the presence of a representative of the Guinness Book of Records, and without confirmation it remains only an impressive fact, but is not considered an achievement. Math enthusiasts love to memorize the number Pi. Many people use various mnemonic techniques, for example poetry, where the number of letters in each word matches the digits of Pi. Each language has its own versions of similar phrases that help you remember both the first few numbers and the whole hundred.
There is a Pi language
Mathematicians, passionate about literature, invented a dialect in which the number of letters in all words corresponds to the digits of Pi in exact order. Writer Mike Keith even wrote a book, Not a Wake, which is entirely written in Pi. Enthusiasts of such creativity write their works in full accordance with the number of letters and the meaning of numbers. This has no practical application, but is a fairly common and well-known phenomenon in the circles of enthusiastic scientists.
Exponential growth
Pi is an infinite number, so by definition people will never be able to establish the exact digits of this number. However, the number of decimal places has increased greatly since Pi was first used. The Babylonians also used it, but a fraction of three whole and one eighth was enough for them. The Chinese and the creators of the Old Testament were completely limited to three. By 1665, Sir Isaac Newton had calculated the 16 digits of Pi. By 1719, the French mathematician Tom Fante de Lagny had calculated 127 digits. The advent of computers has radically improved human knowledge of Pi. From 1949 to 1967, the number of digits known to man skyrocketed from 2,037 to 500,000. Not long ago, Peter Trueb, a scientist from Switzerland, was able to calculate 2.24 trillion digits of Pi! It took 105 days. Of course, this is not the limit. It is likely that with the development of technology it will be possible to establish an even more accurate figure - since Pi is infinite, there is simply no limit to accuracy, and only the technical features of computer technology can limit it.
Calculating Pi by hand
If you want to find the number yourself, you can use the old-fashioned technique - you will need a ruler, a jar and some string, or you can use a protractor and a pencil. The downside to using a can is that it needs to be round and accuracy will be determined by how well a person can wrap the rope around it. You can draw a circle with a protractor, but this also requires skill and precision, as an uneven circle can seriously distort your measurements. A more accurate method involves using geometry. Divide the circle into many segments, like a pizza into slices, and then calculate the length of a straight line that would turn each segment into an isosceles triangle. The sum of the sides will give the approximate number Pi. The more segments you use, the more accurate the number will be. Of course, in your calculations you will not be able to come close to the results of a computer, however, these simple experiments allow you to understand in more detail what the number Pi is and how it is used in mathematics. 
Discovery of Pi
The ancient Babylonians knew about the existence of the number Pi already four thousand years ago. Babylonian tablets calculate Pi as 3.125, and an Egyptian mathematical papyrus shows the number 3.1605. In the Bible, Pi is given in the obsolete length of cubits, and the Greek mathematician Archimedes used the Pythagorean theorem, a geometric relationship between the length of the sides of a triangle and the area of the figures inside and outside the circles, to describe Pi. Thus, we can say with confidence that Pi is one of the most ancient mathematical concepts, although the exact name of this number appeared relatively recently.
New look at Pi
Even before the number Pi began to be correlated with circles, mathematicians already had many ways to even name this number. For example, in ancient mathematics textbooks one can find a phrase in Latin that can be roughly translated as “the quantity that shows the length when the diameter is multiplied by it.” The irrational number became famous when the Swiss scientist Leonhard Euler used it in his work on trigonometry in 1737. However, the Greek symbol for Pi was still not used - this only happened in a book by a lesser-known mathematician, William Jones. He used it already in 1706, but it went unnoticed for a long time. Over time, scientists adopted this name, and now it is the most famous version of the name, although it was previously also called the Ludolf number.
Is Pi a normal number?
Pi is definitely a strange number, but how much does it follow normal mathematical laws? Scientists have already resolved many questions related to this irrational number, but some mysteries remain. For example, it is not known how often all the numbers are used - the numbers 0 to 9 should be used in equal proportion. However, statistics can be traced from the first trillions of digits, but due to the fact that the number is infinite, it is impossible to prove anything for sure. There are other problems that still elude scientists. It is possible that further development of science will help shed light on them, but at the moment it remains beyond the scope of human intelligence.
Pi sounds divine
Scientists cannot answer some questions about the number Pi, however, every year they understand its essence better and better. Already in the eighteenth century, the irrationality of this number was proven. In addition, the number has been proven to be transcendental. This means that there is no specific formula that allows you to calculate Pi using rational numbers. 
Dissatisfaction with the number Pi
Many mathematicians are simply in love with Pi, but there are also those who believe that these numbers are not particularly significant. In addition, they claim that Tau, which is twice the size of Pi, is more convenient to use as an irrational number. Tau shows the relationship between circumference and radius, which some believe represents a more logical method of calculation. However, it is impossible to unambiguously determine anything in this matter, and one and the other number will always have supporters, both methods have the right to life, so this is just an interesting fact, and not a reason to think that you should not use the number Pi.
One of the most exotic countries in Asia invariably enjoys increased popularity among tourists from all over the planet. This paradise offers secluded beaches, nightlife, stunning landscapes and unique attractions. Colorful Thailand fascinates guests who come here in search of adventure.
Travelers who get acquainted with the fairy-tale kingdom plunge into eternal summer and forget about all their problems. Tourists who feel welcome at the country's resorts admit that they have found a real paradise that they do not want to leave.
Description of the archipelago
The distinctive Phi Phi Islands (Thailand) are located in the province of Krabi and are located 40 kilometers from Phuket. The Phi Phi Islands archipelago includes six islands, the most famous of which are the popular Phi Phi Don and the picturesque Phi Phi Le. Since they are located far from the mainland, they can only be reached by ferry, and the journey from the pier to the resorts will take no more than an hour and a half.
The Phi Phi Islands (Thailand) are equally beautiful, but differ in that one is completely uninhabited, while the other is bustling with daytime activity and the natural charm of the resort makes a lasting impression on vacationers.
However, not everything is as wonderful as it seems at first glance. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm because numerous tourists disturb the flora and fauna of the island, and the archipelago itself cannot cope with such an influx of guests.
Best time to visit the resort
When is the best time to come to the fabulous Phi Phi Islands, reviews of which are not only full of delight? The most favorable time to visit the exotic archipelago with a tropical monsoon climate is considered to be from October to March. During the dry season, when the weather itself favors relaxing or active recreation, the average water temperature is 29 degrees Celsius, and the air temperature is about 30. The rainy season begins in June and lasts until September.
Phi Phi Don
The archipelago, whose area is approximately 28 km 2, is divided into two parts and connected only by a narrow isthmus (Ton Sai Village). It delights tourists eager to swim in the warm waters of the ocean and sunbathe on snow-white beaches. This is a relatively new, but already rapidly developing resort, gaining popularity.
The island, whose population ranges from two to three thousand inhabitants, is famous for its entertainment venues for every taste. True, tourists note that Phi Phi Don is a rather expensive holiday destination, since nothing is grown here - all products are imported.
There are no cars on the island, and the main transport is bicycles. Those with a heavy suitcase can use the services of porters who will take you all the way to the hotel. As experienced tourists say, the road often gives way to quick sand, which causes difficulties. Therefore, it is better not to save money and give a hundred baht to the person who will help with luggage delivery.
Near the Ton Sai pier there is a village considered the heart of the island. There are bars, restaurants, souvenir shops, diving centers, laundries, massage parlors and hotels here. This is a favorite place for all avid party-goers, and guests who prefer privacy and do not want to save on necessities choose the east of the island, where the most respectable boutiques and hotels are located.
Phi Phi Le
The second largest island of Phi Phi Le (Krabi, Thailand), which is a limestone monolith towering above the water, is surrounded by two bays - Lo Sama and Maya Bay. The latter gained fame after the release of the drama "The Beach". You can get to the mesmerizingly unique beauty of Maya Bay, where the main events of the Hollywood film unfolded, in a few hours from Phuket by ferry. The beach, surrounded by majestic cliffs, has been the subject of litigation that has lasted for many years.
Litigation
The fact is that the film company in 2000 significantly changed the appearance of Maya Bay to give it a “paradise” look. The fantastic beauty of the beach was created artificially: coconut trees were cut down and giant sand dunes were filled in. However, the company did not fulfill its promises to restore the natural landscape, and the damage caused to the ecosystem could not be repaired. The state government sued the film crew, but in 2004 Mother Nature intervened and made her own adjustments.
Tsunami
Belonging to the province of Phi Phi (Thailand) were at the epicenter of a tsunami caused by an underwater earthquake. More than a thousand local residents and foreigners who flew in on vacation died. A monument to the victims of the disaster was erected on the picturesque Phi Phi Don, and every year they pay tribute to those who left this world so early. However, according to experts, it was the tsunami that restored the ecosystem of the island’s bay.
A paradise with unspoiled nature
Just 12 years ago, there was no tourism infrastructure on Phi Phi Le. Everything changed after it was included in the Marine National Park. This is a stunningly beautiful tropical paradise with pristine nature that is a must see. People often come here for a day to watch the sunrise and fully enjoy the inaccessible cliffs emerging from the depths of the sea, amazing lagoons and explore mysterious caves that hide a lot of interesting things.
What else to see
The observation deck is another amazing place that tourists who come to the picturesque Phi Phi Islands (Thailand) should not miss. View Point offers stunning views of a luxurious area created for relaxation and bliss, and two bays from above resemble the wings of a huge butterfly preparing to take off. The climb to the site takes about 40 minutes, and tourists often abandon the adventure due to the intense heat, so the best time to visit it is morning or evening.
The mysterious Viking Cave, home to swallows, is a sacred place for the people of Thailand. On the walls of the grotto, which can only be reached via a bamboo bridge, images of ships and animals are immortalized.
In this paradise you can go snorkeling or diving, dive into the waters of a sunken ship, practice rock climbing, rent a kayak and explore the archipelago on your own.
Phi Phi Islands: description, beaches
The largest beach on the island is Ton Sai with white sand. This is a great place for youth recreation, since most of the discos and bars are located here. Ships with new tourists arrive at Ton Sai Bay, and from here guests of Thailand sail to neighboring beaches that cannot be reached by land. The center of Ton Sai is always crowded, so to swim, you have to look for corners in other places. This is an accessible but rather dirty beach with a pier where new ferries and boats are constantly arriving, so the muddy water here is not very suitable for swimming.
On the other side of the isthmus is Lo Dalam Bay - a clean and cozy beach. True, tourists admit that Loh Dalam Bay is quite shallow, and during low tides the water goes almost 200 meters. Young people love it for its nightly outdoor parties that last until the morning.
Monkey Beach is often included in the excursion program of pleasure boats. The beach of the colorful island of Phi Phi in Thailand with cute, endearing animals is very popular with foreign guests who love to feed the cheerful monkeys bananas and pieces of pineapple.
Long Beach can only be reached by boat from Ton Sai Bay. There are always a lot of tourists on the beautiful beach with clear water, so those who like solitude can recommend Laem Tong Beach, where several luxury hotels have been built for travelers who prefer peace and quiet.
Where to stay?
In total there are about 80 hotels and guesthouses of varying levels of service. Accommodation here is much more expensive than on other islands in Thailand. It is worth considering that at the height of the tourist season, prices increase several times.
Guests of this paradise recommend staying in the north of Phi Phi Don island in a few hotels located near the secluded beaches of Laem Tong Beach or Long Beach. And for poor young people who came to have fun, we can recommend the resort center, where everything they need for a fun holiday is located.
Tourists choosing luxury hotels on Phi Phi Island (Thailand) will have to fork out 1,800 baht per night. Those who want to save money can choose the so-called beachfront-hotels, which have nothing but a bed and a fan (600 baht per day). They are located in the area of the village of Ton Sai, where life is vibrant even at night.
Perhaps the most famous hotels and guesthouses are Viking Nature Resort, Phi Phi The Beach Resort, Phi Phi Dream Guest House, Zeavola Resort, Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort & Spa, Phi Phi Banyan Villa.
It is better to talk about Phi Phi Island (the locals call it that way, despite the Russians’ attempts to pronounce every letter and call it Phi Phi Island) with a set of facts rather than a coherent narrative, because there is nothing special to connect there.
Pee Pee suffered the most during the tsunami seven years ago, but now you can’t tell that from him at all. Abkhazia fought with Georgia twenty years ago, and the closer you get to Georgia, the traces of this war are more visible, as if nothing had been done in the country for twenty years. Here, one can only remember the destruction by reading Wikipedia or news sites from the end of 2004. The island is in perfect condition. There is an assumption that the Abkhazians don’t give a fuck about a lot of things, including whether tourists come to them or not (they don’t - and that’s very good, there’s less hassle), but the Thais don’t give a fuck.
Pi-Pi is a pedestrian island. Where you cannot reach on foot through the jungle, you can go by boat (taxi boat, to the beach next to the pier - 100 baht per person). Therefore, in principle, there are no bikes here, except for those with carts, where closer to night they collect garbage all over the island, and one bike for a policeman.
This means that Thais travel around the island on bicycles. On average, the speed of a bicycle is the same as that of loitering tourists, so any benefit for the cyclist is doubtful. But on his way, every ten meters he rings the bell: make way! There are dozens of cyclists there, everyone has a loud bell, you can’t live without it, so the streets are noisy and fun.
Phi Phi Island is very beautiful and very expensive. For the package tourists-mattresses whom I met before leaving, this was no problem: you just had to get hooked (or be born) in Moscow, work at all available jobs from morning until late at night, as all Muscovites do, and save half a million in a year dollars, and it will be enough to squander in Thailand in a month. Therefore, they looked at me condescendingly, as if I were a fool with a backpack, and they themselves complained to each other that, they say, they rented a good hotel in Phuket for 2000 rubles a day, and there everything was more or less, but here, in Pi- Pi, they rent a room for 3,000 rubles a day, and they like it less. It’s clear that they only went to dinner in tourist restaurants on the main street, and the sight of eateries for locals made them cringe, because, they say, how can you eat anything there when in a restaurant they bring you pizza, and there - some chicken or duck with rice.
Generally speaking, there is nothing to do on Pi-Pi except sleep, eat, sunbathe, swim and, so to speak, free program. As a free program, there are a small number of purchased aunties, a dozen disco bars on the coast, where people merge in the ecstasy of fucking, and several cafes of a mysterious nature, where a joint costs 200 rubles and knocks an adult horse off his feet. Therefore, the only entertainment on the island is water excursions to the nearest islands: with scuba diving or just with a mask and fins.
The high cost of Pi-Pi is compensated by its beauty. I, a traveler without experience, have never seen a more fabulous and colorful place in my life. But when going there, keep in mind that in many respects it is, for example, twice (!) more expensive than Bangkok.
1. The cheapest housing among the more or less decent ones cost 800 baht per day at Pi-Pi (with a discount) - without air conditioning and water heater. In the Khao San area, at half past five in the morning, I found a decent guest house with a ceiling fan (my dream), a water heater and an air conditioner for 400 baht. And this was the most expensive category of rooms that they had left. Rooms without air conditioning and with a shower on the floor generally cost about two hundred baht, but they were occupied by tourists greedier than me.
2. In the laundries on Pi-Pi, everyone, as if by agreement, keeps the price of 50 baht per kilogram of linen. The first thing I saw when I got out of the taxi in Khao San was the laundry price tag - 25 baht.
3. Street food, coconut water, shakes, pancakes and other tasty and healthy little things - on average 50 baht versus 30.
So, one might say, I fled with Pi-Pi when I realized that in just a day or two, there would be nothing left of my budget at all. If there was more money, I would, of course, stay longer. It's truly magical there.
Whether on Phi-Pi, Koh Samui, and probably in other resort areas, there are notices at the entrance to hotels with something like this: “It is strictly forbidden to bring whores into your rooms! The fine is 500 baht. Pay the fine and drive whoever you want.”
The isthmus between the two bays is the narrowest point of the island. If it were not for the crowd of tourists, you could walk through it in a few minutes. With Europeans looking around, the journey will take twice or three times as long. But we're not in a hurry, right?
One evening I went for a walk towards The Long Beach. Someone, somewhere, heard from someone that this is, they say, the most awesome beach on the entire island. I got there over the stones that littered the entire shore. Well, screw it, the beach is the beach. The same sand, only far away and a lot of stones. The beach near my accommodation is much better.
From The Long Beach to the city there is a failed lift that has become a sign.
To prevent the broken tree from just disappearing, Buddha was cut out of it.
From this side of the island, the sunset turned out to be unimportant, because the sun did not go into the sea, as everyone loves to photograph, but set behind the mountains.
At low tide, the water moves away from the shore a hundred meters, or even more.
Let's add a little civilization to the coastal stones.
On one of my last days on Phi Phi, Russian package travelers and I went on an excursion to the nearby islands. One of them turned out to be the so-called little Pi-Pi, which even has two spellings in English, not to mention Russian pronunciations. Everyone was talking about the fact that the movie “The Beach” was filmed there - apparently the only merit of the island. It seems that if it were just a beautiful island on its own, without traces of DiCaprio, then no one would even spit on it.
We, like real mattress packers, arrived with a dozen exactly the same boats, so the entire beach was busy with people, everyone swarmed in the water and took the billionth photo “I am against the backdrop of the bay.”
Against this background, yeah.
But my money began to melt like ice from 7/11 in a glass of rum-cola, and for economic reasons I had to make my way to Bangkok with Pee Pee.
The situation is paradoxical for Russia-Ukraine, but a combined ticket to Bangkok (the so-called joint ticket) is more profitable to buy in small travel agency shops scattered throughout tourist places. The path from Pi-Pi to Bangkok looks like this: first, on a large boat - to the mainland (Krabi); then from the pier in a windowless jalopy - to the hidden who knows where bus station; at the bus station, which you simply wouldn’t get to on foot, you can finally have breakfast and lunch; then by bus to Suratani, then by tuk-tuk to another bus station, where a direct night bus to Bangkok finally awaits. Let's start with the fact that a joint ticket costs 600 rubles with all transfers and transfers (of which 150 are boats and 450 are buses), and at the pier a boat ticket alone will cost three hundred. And when you sail to the mainland, no one except taxi drivers will take you anywhere. That is, in this case, an “independent” trip, when you do not use the services of any agencies, but buy all the tickets yourself separately, will, firstly, cost more, and secondly, it will take so much effort that you will only need a couple of transfers you won't want anything else.
This is how we arrived in Bangkok at five in the morning. All the way my throat was constantly sore, apparently tormented by the icy necks, although I began tormenting it long before it suddenly decided to rebel. Somewhere in the back of my head, wrapped in a blanket, the air conditioner was blowing. The Polish woman unfolded the front seat so that her legs could be stretched out, placing them on her ears.
However, we got there. The night bus was surrounded by taxi drivers like ants around a dead May beetle.
“Guys, a taxi is inexpensive, where to go,” they repeated word for word after their Kyiv colleagues.
In order to determine where I am and where I should go, the phone charge would not be enough. It was clearly not a bus station, but just some nice place, and for some reason the driver wanted to drop us all off here. Catching a tuk-tuk or waiting for a bus (which one?) at five in the morning was stupid. The taxi driver, who finally got me to say that I needed to go to the Khao San area, asked for two hundred, which was suspicious. Because he wouldn’t be able to take a long-hauled tourist over a long distance at five in the morning for that kind of money, which means Khao San is somewhere very close. Well fuck him, let's go. There are cases when, in terms of time, cost and comfort, two hundred rubles for a taxi driver is the best option. At least the least mind-blowing one.
We stopped at a traffic light. Then suddenly the taxi driver starts laughing:
- Ahahaha! Ahaha! Thais yesterday... - he didn’t have enough vocabulary for further, and he made a characteristic gesture, hitting the end of the fist with the other with the palm of one hand. - Boom-boom! - He added and pointed to the sidewalk.
There was nothing special on the sidewalk. The boy was withdrawing money from an ATM, and the girl was waiting for him on the back seat of a motorcycle.
Boom Boom! - the taxi driver repeated with laughter and again slammed his palm on his fist.
The fucking gesture was quite unambiguous, but no one had ever voiced the friction as “boom-boom.” “Maybe there was Thai boxing yesterday?” - I thought. And only then, when the guy drove away, I saw in the girl’s hands a long rose, wrapped in transparent film, and a huge red pillow in the shape of a heart with the white inscription “LOVE”. “Valentine’s Day, fuck you,” Stirlitz guessed.
The taxi driver's fucking was revealed about five minutes later, as we drove from the bus stop to Khao San. Seeing familiar places, but without even trying to appeal to anyone’s conscience, for some reason I drawled:
- Yes, fuck, I didn’t know it was so close...
The taxi driver ignored my words.
The search for housing was complicated by the fact that it was five in the morning and everyone was asleep. After leaving Khao San, I started wandering around the neighboring streets until I ended up in a quiet part of Rambutri. The most persistent ones were finishing their beer in a night bar, a middle-aged European was sleeping right on the tiles with a bag under his head, taxi drivers were talking about something with a policeman, and two prostitutes walked in front of me, and the one on the left from the back made me want to get married. Slender legs, butt barely covered by a dress, bare back, black hair below the shoulders. I didn’t want to fall out of the fairy tale into harsh reality, so I, walking behind her and admiring her, preferred that she not turn around. But she turned around.
In general, Thai women are not particularly beautiful. In order for someone you meet on the street to really like, you have to walk hundreds of meters. But with prostitutes it’s the other way around: you still have to look for an ugly one. In short, my bride was beautiful. In her hand she held a rose in film, as thin as the girl herself.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she purred and handed me a flower.
“And you... too,” I answered, taking a breath, but did not accept the rose.
She took my hand, and time stopped for me.
- Where are you going? - she asked.
I looked like a real macho who puts women into bed with one commanding look. The women squeal and cum profusely, shaking all over. That’s how I was: sandals in the sand, shorts that hadn’t been washed for a couple of days, a sweaty T-shirt that hung on me like a shroud after global weight loss, a hiking backpack on my back and a haunted, fucked-up look. Add to this sixteen hours on transfer beams and a developing sore throat - well, I look exactly like my youth. However, the girl turned out to be not timid and did not collapse in orgasm in the middle of Rambutri. Or my gaze was not commanding enough.
“Yes, I’m thinking about where to sleep,” I answered boredly.
- So come to us! - the beauty perked up.
“No, really,” I muttered, “thank you, of course, but...
“Well, why,” she said, as if annoyed.
- I'm off the road, tired, dirty and fucked up. Let's do it, I say, next time.
“Well then, see you tomorrow,” she cheered up and said goodbye: “Otherwise you could come to us!”
I looked after them, and at that moment I wanted to wash myself, rest, sleep, get better and run after them.
What is Pi equal to? we know and remember from school. It is equal to 3.1415926 and so on... It is enough for an ordinary person to know that this number is obtained by dividing the circumference of a circle by its diameter. But many people know that the number Pi appears in unexpected areas not only of mathematics and geometry, but also in physics. Well, if you delve into the details of the nature of this number, you will notice many surprising things among the endless series of numbers. Is it possible that Pi is hiding the deepest secrets of the universe?
Infinite number
The number Pi itself appears in our world as the length of a circle whose diameter is equal to one. But, despite the fact that the segment equal to Pi is quite finite, the number Pi begins as 3.1415926 and goes to infinity in rows of numbers that are never repeated. The first surprising fact is that this number, used in geometry, cannot be expressed as a fraction of whole numbers. In other words, you cannot write it as the ratio of two numbers a/b. In addition, the number Pi is transcendental. This means that there is no equation (polynomial) with integer coefficients whose solution would be the number Pi.
The fact that the number Pi is transcendental was proved in 1882 by the German mathematician von Lindemann. It was this proof that became the answer to the question of whether it is possible, using a compass and a ruler, to draw a square whose area is equal to the area of a given circle. This problem is known as the search for squaring a circle, which has worried humanity since ancient times. It seemed that this problem had a simple solution and was about to be solved. But it was precisely the incomprehensible property of the number Pi that showed that there was no solution to the problem of squaring the circle.
For at least four and a half millennia, humanity has been trying to obtain an increasingly accurate value for Pi. For example, in the Bible in the Third Book of Kings (7:23), the number Pi is taken to be 3.
The Pi value of remarkable accuracy can be found in the Giza pyramids: the ratio of the perimeter and height of the pyramids is 22/7. This fraction gives an approximate value of Pi equal to 3.142... Unless, of course, the Egyptians set this ratio by accident. The same value was already obtained in relation to the calculation of the number Pi in the 3rd century BC by the great Archimedes.
In the Papyrus of Ahmes, an ancient Egyptian mathematics textbook that dates back to 1650 BC, Pi is calculated as 3.160493827.
In ancient Indian texts around the 9th century BC, the most accurate value was expressed by the number 339/108, which was equal to 3.1388...
For almost two thousand years after Archimedes, people tried to find ways to calculate Pi. Among them were both famous and unknown mathematicians. For example, the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, the Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, the Chinese mathematician Liu Hui, the Indian sage Aryabhata, the medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci, the Arab scientist Al-Khwarizmi, from whose name the word “algorithm” appeared. All of them and many other people were looking for the most accurate methods for calculating Pi, but until the 15th century they never got more than 10 decimal places due to the complexity of the calculations.
Finally, in 1400, the Indian mathematician Madhava from Sangamagram calculated Pi with an accuracy of 13 digits (although he was still mistaken in the last two).
Number of signs
In the 17th century, Leibniz and Newton discovered the analysis of infinitesimal quantities, which made it possible to calculate Pi more progressively - through power series and integrals. Newton himself calculated 16 decimal places, but did not mention it in his books - this became known after his death. Newton claimed that he calculated Pi purely out of boredom.
Around the same time, other lesser-known mathematicians also came forward and proposed new formulas for calculating the number Pi through trigonometric functions.
For example, this is the formula used to calculate Pi by astronomy teacher John Machin in 1706: PI / 4 = 4arctg(1/5) – arctg(1/239). Using analytical methods, Machin derived the number Pi to one hundred decimal places from this formula.
By the way, in the same 1706, the number Pi received an official designation in the form of a Greek letter: William Jones used it in his work on mathematics, taking the first letter of the Greek word “periphery,” which means “circle.” The great Leonhard Euler, born in 1707, popularized this designation, now known to any schoolchild.
Before the era of computers, mathematicians focused on calculating as many signs as possible. In this regard, sometimes funny things arose. Amateur mathematician W. Shanks calculated 707 digits of Pi in 1875. These seven hundred signs were immortalized on the wall of the Palais des Discoverys in Paris in 1937. However, nine years later, observant mathematicians discovered that only the first 527 characters were correctly calculated. The museum had to incur significant expenses to correct the error - now all the figures are correct.
When computers appeared, the number of digits of Pi began to be calculated in completely unimaginable orders.
One of the first electronic computers, ENIAC, created in 1946, was enormous in size and generated so much heat that the room warmed up to 50 degrees Celsius, calculated the first 2037 digits of Pi. This calculation took the machine 70 hours.
As computers improved, our knowledge of Pi moved further and further into infinity. In 1958, 10 thousand digits of the number were calculated. In 1987, the Japanese calculated 10,013,395 characters. In 2011, Japanese researcher Shigeru Hondo exceeded the 10 trillion character mark.
Where else can you meet Pi?
So, often our knowledge about the number Pi remains at the school level, and we know for sure that this number is irreplaceable primarily in geometry.
In addition to formulas for the length and area of a circle, the number Pi is used in formulas for ellipses, spheres, cones, cylinders, ellipsoids, and so on: in some places the formulas are simple and easy to remember, but in others they contain very complex integrals.
Then we can meet the number Pi in mathematical formulas, where, at first glance, geometry is not visible. For example, the indefinite integral of 1/(1-x^2) is equal to Pi.
Pi is often used in series analysis. For example, here is a simple series that converges to Pi:
1/1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 + 1/9 – …. = PI/4
Among the series, Pi appears most unexpectedly in the famous Riemann zeta function. It’s impossible to talk about it in a nutshell, let’s just say that someday the number Pi will help find a formula for calculating prime numbers.
And absolutely surprisingly: Pi appears in two of the most beautiful “royal” formulas of mathematics - Stirling’s formula (which helps to find the approximate value of the factorial and gamma function) and Euler’s formula (which connects as many as five mathematical constants).
However, the most unexpected discovery awaited mathematicians in probability theory. The number Pi is also there.
For example, the probability that two numbers will be relatively prime is 6/PI^2.
Pi appears in Buffon's needle-throwing problem, formulated in the 18th century: what is the probability that a needle thrown onto a lined piece of paper will cross one of the lines. If the length of the needle is L, and the distance between the lines is L, and r > L, then we can approximately calculate the value of Pi using the probability formula 2L/rPI. Just imagine - we can get Pi from random events. And by the way, Pi is present in the normal probability distribution, appears in the equation of the famous Gaussian curve. Does this mean that Pi is even more fundamental than simply the ratio of circumference to diameter?
We can also meet Pi in physics. Pi appears in Coulomb's law, which describes the force of interaction between two charges, in Kepler's third law, which shows the period of revolution of a planet around the Sun, and even appears in the arrangement of the electron orbitals of the hydrogen atom. And what is again most incredible is that the number Pi is hidden in the formula of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle - the fundamental law of quantum physics.
Secrets of Pi
In Carl Sagan's novel Contact, on which the film of the same name is based, aliens tell the heroine that among the signs of Pi there is a secret message from God. From a certain position, the numbers in the number cease to be random and represent a code in which all the secrets of the Universe are written.
This novel actually reflected a mystery that has occupied the minds of mathematicians all over the world: is Pi a normal number in which the digits are scattered with equal frequency, or is there something wrong with this number? And although scientists are inclined to the first option (but cannot prove it), the number Pi looks very mysterious. A Japanese man once calculated how many times the numbers 0 to 9 occur in the first trillion digits of Pi. And I saw that the numbers 2, 4 and 8 were more common than the others. This may be one of the hints that Pi is not entirely normal, and the numbers in it are indeed not random.
Let's remember everything we read above and ask ourselves, what other irrational and transcendental number is so often found in the real world?
And there are more oddities in store. For example, the sum of the first twenty digits of Pi is 20, and the sum of the first 144 digits is equal to the “number of the beast” 666.
The main character of the American TV series “Suspect,” Professor Finch, told students that due to the infinity of the number Pi, any combination of numbers can be found in it, ranging from the numbers of your date of birth to more complex numbers. For example, at position 762 there is a sequence of six nines. This position is called the Feynman point after the famous physicist who noticed this interesting combination.
We also know that the number Pi contains the sequence 0123456789, but it is located at the 17,387,594,880th digit.
All this means that in the infinity of the number Pi one can find not only interesting combinations of numbers, but also the encoded text of “War and Peace”, the Bible and even the Main Secret of the Universe, if such exists.
By the way, about the Bible. The famous popularizer of mathematics, Martin Gardner, stated in 1966 that the millionth digit of Pi (at that time still unknown) would be the number 5. He explained his calculations by the fact that in the English version of the Bible, in the 3rd book, 14th chapter, 16 verse (3-14-16) the seventh word contains five letters. The millionth figure was reached eight years later. It was the number five.
Is it worth asserting after this that the number Pi is random?
