Day 61: Phi Phi island

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We just had our last full day on Ko Phi Phi before we head across to the east side of thailand for ko samui. It is much as I remember it from when I was here in 2007, except it is a little bit more built up. There's still some rubble from the 2004 tsunami though. We have been here 5 or 6 days.... kind of lost track. Classic island fun.

We went on a snorkel trip one day that was really fun - saw some of the nearby islands, including the mandatory Maya Bay which is where they filmed a few scenes from "the beach" (on phi phi they would have you believe that the entire movie was shot there to sell more tickets). We hired a longboat taxi one day to go cliff jumping, and then to Monkey Beach which literally has a hundred monkeys running around on the sand. We also watched fire juggling shows, thai boxing, and "miss ladyboy 2009" (a beauty pageant for ladyboys). And of course we also laid around on the beach.

The highlight was probably scuba diving today. After asking around to a few dive shops, we found out that they all have a price agreement between each other, so we picked the one that had the nicest pictures of their boat (a little more went in to the decision, but not much). We also learned from talking to our australian dive master that most of the dive shops hire western dive masters. Technically it is illegal, but when immigration comes the dive shops tell their employees to go to the beach for a while, or else they pay off immigration. It works because phi phi is so small and isolated, and they know when immigration is coming. The aussie we talked to had come to phi phi just to get her scuba certification, but then they offered her a job and she decided to stay on the island through the tourist season. Anyway, back to the diving...

The first spot was Ko Bida Nok, which pretty much all the other dive companies also went to. But it didn't matter, the dive was still really good. We saw a leopard shark about 6 ft long, a large ray, a sea turtle, a scorpionfish blended in with the rocks, lionfish, lots of stuff. The soft coral was really cool too. The second dive was just off of malay bay. This time we saw 4 or 5 sea turtles, and a bunch of other new fish. Apparently there was a black tip shark that steph and I just missed seeing, but it was small. Both dives were a lot of fun though.

I'll leave you with some of the better pictures from phi phi. A lot of them were taken with my camera which has a broken screen and no viewfinder, so i'm pretty proud how well they turned out.

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Comments

[Nancy]

Hi Gabe and Stephanie, I love catching up with you and seeing your photos. Hutch and I just did a 12 day chigong retreat, and I am feeling like I am turning around this prognosis! Doing chigong for abut 7-10 hours a day here at home now, as that is what it takes...It is a total paradigm shift. Love to you both, and keep up the good work- exploring the world! Love, Nancy

[gabanie]

Thanks for reading!
Glad to hear you enjoyed your retreat. 7-10 hours a day sounds like a lot of work, but glad to know it makes you feel better! Tell the rest of the fam' we say hi. Love, Gabe and Steph