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Published: June 26th 2012
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Phi Phi Island
Today is the 25
th June and it signifies that I am half way through this current journey to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
There has been no rain here since I arrived on the 18
th June with the local workers spending a lot of time watering gardens and shrubbery.
The trip to Phi Phi Island started with a pick up by minivan at the resort by 7.45am. The harbour is on the other side of the island approximately 50 minutes away if there is not too much traffic. The company that does the trips to Phi Phi is extremely busy and this is not the season for tourists yet. They seem to have at least ten speed boats of the size that we left the harbour in, operating today.
The trip out to the first island we stopped at called Bamboo took us about one hour. As we arrived it looked as though there had been a party on the beach the night before due to the human made litter on the beach of empty drink bottles and plastic paraphernalia . The guide wandered around and picked a lot of it up while we played
and waded, snorkelled, swam and sunned ourselves on this beach fit for paradise alone. It became evident though that the tide washed in the flotsam and jetsam as further up the beach was a tideline collection of detritus that included shoes, bands, plastic bags, lighters, bottles and their tops, and all kinds of things people might lose or toss into the sea as well as dead sea life such as sticks, twigs and coral.
I ventured further into the island and was lucky enough to spot a large lizard. A very large lizard. It looked at first glance like a small crocodile, which gave me a start initially, but as I peered harder and saw it moving I realised for me, what a find it was and of course I didn’t at that moment in time have access to the camera. Drat! After asking later, I found out that it was a monitor lizard and it was BIG!
The next island we visited was Mosquito Island maybe aptly named, expect that we did not go on the island but snorkelled in an inlet that banked sharply down to about 15 metres and of course visibility was only to
about 5 metres. The fish have become a bit samey but these ones were very friendly and seemed to know that when people came so did the food to attract their presence. Consequently, they treated us as though we were food too and came close enough to bite at regular intervals. Not something that I liked much.
From here we went to lunch on a private section of Phi Phi where the company has a restaurant. The meal was a buffet style and included in the price of the day. Once again it was Thai fare and delicious. This was the start of one of my first conversation since being in Phuket. The couple were from Newcastle, she worked in human relations and he in the mines. They were celebrating her birthday with a week in paradise and had left the children at home with relatives.
I suppose I realised why I had not really had many conversations until now and part of it was that I did not want to impose myself on other peoples alone time. Still as I was thinking where the hell was I going to sit, Jo called out and asked me to
join them….wow! I wasn’t invisible after all. So we had a lovely chat about families, ping pong dancing in Thailand, and mining. Yes. I had not heard of ping pong dancing either, but it seems it is a voyeur thing a little bit like the ladyboys and even though it is pretty gross, I hear it is a must see when in Thailand. I am pretty broadminded but I think I will give it a miss.
After lunch we took the boat to Monkey Island and here there were monkeys that might have been Macaque, that lived on the waters’ edge. They too were used to seeing humans and so were not at all afraid of any interaction albeit we were on the boat and they on the land and water. Yes! The water! A banana was in the water about two metres from the shore and the monkey standing upright waded into the water and snatched it to himself before retreating to the waters’ edge to eat it. Wow! To watch the monkey enter the water like that unafraid it seemed was quite something. It seems they have the ability to swim although this one never had to
put it to the test. I tried to get a photo of the monkey but almost too hard to see in the photo. I found the watermelon one for you on the internet.
Following on from here, we went to the cove where the movie with Leonardo di Caprio in it was filmed, called “The Beach” and produced in 2000. Quite understandable! It was beautiful until all the boats came in. The water was a beautiful green colour and here there were waves hitting the shore, so a little bit of surf, and the water got deep quickly. The overhanging rock gave it a special feature all of its own as well as supplying a little bit of shade. The walk through the glade to the other side of this part of the island was just beautiful with sand, tropical trees and shade and almost unspoilt by humans.
It was quite ironic here that it was such a beautiful place to swim and yet once all the boats came in there was no safe place to swim and people left the water to make room for the boats and hung around on the shore in their droves instead.
The next place we went to was a lagoon where mostly the water was safe as the lagoon was only assessable during high tide, but once in it was remarkable for the sheer walls of rock and the depth of the very tepid water. I say mostly safe as we did see a rather large jellyfish hanging out in the water that we all managed to avoid and it, us. Here we played like children until it was time to leave.
Our final place was amazing and it has been visited by humans for over 3000years. Rather than sell it from my perspective I thought I would copy and paste from the internet as it is interesting reading.
The Attraction of Viking Cave Phi Phi Island
If you are wondering what attracts visitors to Viking Cave it is usually the profound beauty. There is no beach area on this part of
Phi Phi Ley. The island simply juts abruptly into the sea. The actual cave is 3.2 square kilometers large. This Phi Phi Ley cave got it's name from the Viking ship cave drawings on the wall. The inhabitants of Viking Cave create the most amazing feature. Thousands of swallows
live on top of the 15 meter high ledges. The collecting of the bird's nests is a regular demonstration on guided tours.
Rock Climbing at Viking Cave Phi Phi Island Adventure seekers should take a look at the rock climbing possibilities at Viking Cave Phi Phi Island. Nowhere else on Phi Phi Island is Rock Climbing so developed. Here you can see local climbers risk their lives while they scale the rocky walls of Viking Cave. They use no rope to tie themselves for safety. They simply climb up simple bamboo scaffolding. These rock climbers are there to show tourists how they work to collect the ingredients for Chinese Bird's Nest Soup.
Tourists are no longer entering this cave I expect due to environmental reasons.
And so only the journey back in the boat that was quite uneventful with mist people nodding off after their days adventure… and back to the hotel.
On the downside it seems I have lost my New Caledonia sarong. I put it in with my other laundry and it didn’t come back. I have been to see the lady and she was quite vague and suggested I come back again
today…but
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Emma + Casper
non-member comment
We are having a nose through your blog! All sounds amazing and we can't wait to get down there and see you! Casper says he is going to take us out for dinner so choose somewhere nice and expensive haha! He also promises to play you at pool! I dont... I can't play!