Never hold your breath!

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Having said goodbye to Nui and Phuket, I hopped on a cruiser to Phi Phi Island, one of those tourist-laden islands between the Phuket peninsula and the mainland, intending only to stay one night. However, heeding the immortal call "Are you for scooba?", I said a loud yes and enrolled in a 3-day Open Water Course to get my scuba diving certificate. So now I'm on a tropical island, which was made for hedonism, and I'm having to get up at 6.30am in the morning, so I can learn how to avoid an embolism, a subcutaneous emphysema or even nitrogen narcosis while diving. Meanwhile I'm surrounded by seemingly hundreds of twenty- to thirty-somethings, guzzling alcoholic cocktails from buckets (I'm not kidding). Mind you, on the two occasions since coming to Thailand when I dared to have more than four drinks I regretted it the next day. The humidity coupled with my notoriously sensitive stomach pretty much limits me to about two to three drinks. And while I'm learning how to dive, it's best to stay away from the grog altogether. The nitrogen narcosis will get me drunk enough. (Such a shame though, as apart from the cocktail buckets you can also buy 3-litre beer dispensers, which incorporate a cooling unit. These things are ingenious and would be an absolute hit in Australia. They don't exactly encourage sensible drinking though. But what in Thailand does? More about this later.)

I switched from my initial accommodation, a private room in a quaint guesthouse, to a bed in a 16 person dormitory. But for less than 10 bucks a night, who's complaining? The local food and scenery is excellent as always, and if you manage to ignore all the drunken foreigners, this can be quite a nice place. (Also I'm using this as an opportunity to sneak in a few Western-style meals without standing out as a culinary philistine.) However if this wasn't a great spot to go scuba diving (one of the best in the world according to some), I probably wouldn't have stayed here longer than a night. Internet's a bit expensive here, so pictures will have to wait a while.

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Photos

phi phi
few traces are left from the tsunami destruction. on the whole, the island has recovered extremely well.

phi phi beach
to be fair the sand on phi phi's beaches is wonderfully fine and light.

book shop
"do you by chance have any thailand travel guides?"

Comments

[Aidan]

do I really need to think of a title for a random post?
Hey mate, just thought I would let you know that Paul is off around the world, if you want to read about his adventures, check him on: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Paule/ AND Amy and I have been to the travel agent, due to cost and time, I think we will miss each other in August. We are flying Thai Airlines, stopping in Thailand for 12 days and then NYC for 10. I have followed suit and set up the same blog. There wont be much on it for awhile, but you can check it out if you get time: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/abright I am very jealous of the dive course and cant wait to read more tales!!