‘DiCaprio beach’ on the mend

Serene waters: Tourists entering Pi Leh Bay on the Phi Phi islands in longtail boats. The lockdown brought on by the pandemic has resulted in a gentle renaissance for the area. — AFP

WHILE travel stopped and the world locked down, in the dazzling blue waters of Thailand’s idyllic Phi Phi islands, a gentle renaissance was under way.

Mass tourism had brought the archipelago, immortalised in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, to the brink of ecological catastrophe.