Island Hoping, Thai style

Our arrival into Thailand began from Kuala Lumpur on an overnight coach. We were unlucky enough to get the back seats and felt every bump of the way. After crossing the border, we headed for Krabi where we booked a ferry for Ko Phi Phi, a popular trio of islands off of the Southwest coast of Thailand. Ko Phi Phi Don is the biggest of the three and the only one with overnight accommodation. The locals just refer to it as Pee Pee. By the time we finally arrived on shore, our travel time had come to 20 hours since leaving Kuala Lumpur.

Thelma guarded the bags while I sought out a place for us. Most of the bungalows were concrete and not near the beach at all. I asked one British couple for a lay of the land and they recommended a unique place further down the island called "Viking Resort." They wished they had come across it before they had booked their bungalow. I carried down the beach until sand gave way to a dirt path which ran its way through grass, over rocks, and under trees. I finally emerged among a collection of bamboo bungalows complete with hammocks. It was unlike the other resorts and was right on the beach. In a word, perfect.

Luckily, the tide was still in enough for me to take a taxi boat back to pick up Thelma and the luggage. The town itself has but a few roads, and I only saw one motorbike on the island the entire time we were there. All other transport is done by boat. Th boats are long tail bots with the captain at the rear. What looks like a car engine is propped up to display a long propeller sticking out, reminiscent of Rambo's boat in his latest movie. The entire engine is moved around in order to position the propeller. No rudder is needed.

We were lucky to discover that the resort's piece de resistance was available for use. Perched up in a tree was a unique dwelling with a magnificent view of the bay. When the tide was fully in, the water would lap up to the base of the tree. There was not another place like it on the island and we got it for what seemed like a bargain compared to the concrete bungalows closer to the port. We were constantly getting questions about it from passer-bys who took more than a few photos. The hammock hanging underneath was too tempting to refuse and I would lie in it just long enough to see the sun go down and watch the sand crabs come out. We liked the place so much that we stayed for over a week.

I have never seen such an extreme tide as the one I witnessed in Pee Pee. In the morning, the waves would slightly lap up against the base of our tree house. I would go out snorkeling around the big rocks and chase the schools of fish that lived there. By early evening though, the water had receded so much that boats were left stranded in the sand. The rocks that I had snorkeled around, which almost seemed to be too far away from shore, were now standing on their own amidst puddles of water. The tide turned to our advantage in the early evenings as it meant a quick shortcut to town across the sand and over the rocks that were once submerged in the sea.

The town was one of the hardest hit during the Boxing Day Tsunami a few years back, but it seems to have recovered nicely. The island itself is almost two separate landmasses connected by a thin strip of land. This thin strip of land is what was destroyed. The most we had to worry about while we were there was the rain. It was the rainy season on the west coast, but we heard it was okay to just take your chances. We had one day of monsoon rains, but the other days were pretty calm with only slight rain.

One of the things that Thelma wanted to do while in Thailand was her PADI diving certification. There are plenty of dive shops in Ko Phi Phi. We didn't feel like leaving any time soon, so I lounged about in the hammock during the day while Thelma sat in class. On her last day, I accompanied her and her group on the boat for their open water dives. I got to circle around and check out the fish while Thelma completed all of her underwater exercises; like taking your mask off and putting it back on.

In between dives, while Thelma was swimming around the boat with her group, I went snorkeling with some other certified divers on the boat. We were right next to the island that was used as the backdrop to the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. In the movie, the island is isolated from the outside world with only a small community of backpackers living there. In reality, it is one of the top destinations in the area. Like everywhere else in Thailand, it is teeming with tourists. In the movie, the island walls surround a tidal lagoon, which is invisible from the sea. In reality, clever camera work has concealed the opening of the bay from view. The water is just as pristine as in the movie, but the big snorkeling ship in the bay erases any doubt of secludedness.

I made it back to the boat just in time for lunch. We had to motor to another site and make one final dive. The waves had started to get a bit more choppy and it was not playing nice with peoples' stomachs. I managed to keep my lunch down, but the same could not be said for Thelma. I immediately thought back to New Zealand and how I felt when it happened to me. She managed to complete all of the exercises, and I was proud of her for seeing it through in such rough conditions. We were both glad to get back to land, and put our ambitions at bay for a snorkeling trip that we had planned to go on the next day.

We finally left Pee Pee so that we could hop to another island before making our way to Cambodia. Before we did, I wanted to do some kayaking in the Ao Phang Nang national park. I had reserved a tour for us in Ao Phang Nang, but our ferry was going to Ao Nang. I didn't realize these were two different places until after we arrived and had been hurriedly placed in the wrong van headed in the opposite direction. After I realized where we were headed and some pretty vocal disagreement, I pursuaded the driver to pull over so that we could make our way back to town.

With the help of a local, we found a nice place to stay in Ao Nang. Best of all, it had a television and the opening ceremony of the Olympics were set to come on in 30 minutes. I had been looking forward to seeing it live since I left China. Luckily, I just barely made it. I managed to somehow fall asleep right before they lit the Olympic flame though.

Although we didn't make the tour I had reserved, it didn't matter. Ao Nang had organized canoe tours throughout the region. So we just signed up with a tour company down the street. The area around this section of the coastline harbors many different little bays separated by limestone cliffs that rise out of the sea. There are "secret lagoons" where, if you lay on your back, you can drift through cave entrances and explore. This was what I had read about, but unfortunately the water level was too high for us to experience it:( We still had some unique scenery to paddle around. There were mangroves in the shallower areas and monkeys would come and greet us whenever we stopped.

After some solid hours of paddling, they took us to an emerald pool. It was a freshwater pond and our guide claimed it was 100 meters deep. I'm not so sure I believe him, but I did follow him when he climbed up a tree to jump in the pool. It took a bit of finesse to land in the right place. Just underneath the branches, I could see the bottom of the pond. It would not have been nice to land there. He tossed a leaf out into the water to mark where I should land and I nailed it. Of course after I did it, all of the other guys in our group had to try it. Thelma and the rest of the girls declined.

Ao Nang was great for canoeing, but the beach there leaves much to be desired. We only had a few days left before we had to be in Bangkok to catch a flight. If we were still going to visit an island beach, than Phuket was our only option. Phuket, pronounced "Poo-get", is a fairly large island off the west coast of Thailand. Like Pee Pee, it was also hit pretty bad by the Tsunami. There are many different towns and beaches on the island, but Kata is the only one with any kind of surf. In fact, it is the only place in Thailand with a surf at all.

The town of Kata itself was not that impressive. It seemed over developed for tourism with lots of concrete hotels without any view of the ocean. This was definitely not Ko Phi Phi. However, the beach was an absolute gem. It had an ever so slight crescent shape about its golden sand, and out towards the sea was a small island that only seemed to be inhabited by trees.

Depending on the weather, there can be a wicked undertow, but there are flags to warn everyone on the conditions. We lucked out for some yellow flag days and I initiated Thelma with her first boogie boarding experience. She seemed top be a natural and rode her first wave all the way into shore. Actually, I think she was better than me at it but hey, I do weigh a bit more than her. I think Kata is probably the darkest my tan has ever been and Thelma's darkness had easily surpassed mine. Especially after, unbeknown to her, she started using my tanning lotion instead of her sun block. We had managed to avoid sun burn and a body scrub didn't hurt. Our time in Phuket had flown by and now we had to catch a real flight, up to Bangkok and then another to Phnom Penh the following day.

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