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Published: June 20th 2009
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As our plane arrived above Phuket, Thailand we were treated to a complimentary scenic flight as we circled the beautiful islands below while we waited for clearance from Air Traffic Control. Once we arrived and passed through Customs, we were absolutely bombarded by people; "Taxi, taxi, sir? 600 baht.." We were barely able to make it through the mob, but eventually found the airport shuttle, which would transfer us to the ferry terminal for 85 baht each. We had read that Phuket has an extremely high rate of road fatalities, and we quickly understood why. Traffic was chaos - drivers did not pay much attention to road signs, traffic lights, or lines on the road and people on scooters, often entire families, zipped in and out of traffic. Rather than stay on the main island of Phuket, we had decided to spend our time in the more scenic Phi Phi Islands so we went directly to the ferry terminal to get our tickets. The journey to Koh Phi Phi Don, the main island, took a couple of hours. As we pulled into the harbour the water changed from a deep blue to aqua and the island looked like paradise! While we
were on the docks, we realized that the water was so clear we could see entire schools of fish below us. We were led to our accommodation, a self-contained stilted bungalow on a high point of the island. Most of our day was spent in transit, but after we checked in we made our way back down to the village; a maze of markets, restaurants, travel agencies, and dive shops. We had a wonderful dinner at a wood-fired pizzeria and booked our dive trip for the next day. The diving was absolutely incredible, so much so that we had to write a separate entry about it
(see Diving with Whale Sharks and Manta Rays...).
Following our day of diving, we decided to take it easy and enjoy the beach. We spent the morning wandering around the many markets and shops, and ran into a German couple we had met when we worked in Mildura. We spent the afternoon at the beautiful beach. The salinity of the water was high enough that we could just lay back and float effortlessly in the calm and crystal waters - talk about relaxation! We alternated between the beach and the ocean for the afternoon. The evening was spent in one
Say Cheese!
Andrew with the little boy who wanted his picture taken of many of the bars on the island, where we sampled the local Thai Whisky (as we recall, it was surprisingly good). The next day we decided to make the climb up to the island's peak. We were already half-way there where our bungalow was located, but unfortunately we had to go back to the base to catch the trail. We went up to two lookouts which provided stunning panoramic views of the island. I got the camera out to take a picture of Andrew, and a little boy came scrambling over the rocks, stood beside Andrew, and in English said, "One...Two...Three" and stayed there smiling until I took a picture.
That afternoon, we booked a tour by long-tail boat to take us snorkelling and to the nearby island of Phi Phi Lei. We met the other couple who would be joining us, and the Thai "captain" before picking through a selection of mismatched fins to try and find a matching pair. We climbed in the boat and were off to our first stop - Shark Point - an area known to be inhabited by dosile leopard and reef sharks. We had been excited by the possibility of seeing
these species while diving, but found we were much less comfortable on top of the water than we were under the water. Our guide let us out, pointed to a rock and told us that's where the sharks would be. None of the four of us worked up the courage to venture too near to that rock. Their was, however a multitude of fish and coral. We snorkelled around for about half an hour before returning to the boat and heading to Monkey Beach. A small beach surrounded by dense forest, the water was so clear and the sand so white, it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. The beach would have been quite secluded if it weren't for the throngs of tourists out on various tours. We did manage to spot a couple of monkeys in the trees before departing for Phi Phi Lei. This island is uninhabited and is known for the picture-perfect Maya Bay. As we came around the island's towering rock cliffs and entered the bay the view was breath-taking; clear waters and white sand standing out against the lush green rainforest and jagged rocky peaks. The movie, "The Beach" was
filmed here, and I must say I can't think of a better place to make a film with that title. Our guide supplied us with lunch and we dined on the sandy beach before going for a swim. We had a bit of time to walk through the forests of the interior before going to a secluded area of the bay for more snorkelling. Their were so many fish here we didn't think we could get in the water without landing on them! We snorkelled at a couple more spots around the island before making our final stop at the Viking Cave. The bat-filled caves looked like they should have been a pirate hideout many years ago. We were able to snorkel here as well. At one point while Andrew was still in the boat, I stuck my head out of the water to talk to him only to see a school of fish
flying at me. There were hundreds of them coming straight for me - I covered my head, but they diverged around me anyway. We had seen some of these flying fish from the boat, but to have a swarm of them coming at you is an
incredibly strange experience. Apparently they were fleeing from a school of barracuda... We also saw shoals of small fish underwater - to watch so many fish in such a tight formation moving as if it were one unit, particularly in response to our movements, was fascinating. As the sun began to set it was time to conclude the tour and enjoy our last night on the island!
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L, M, N
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WOW!