Advertisement
Published: April 20th 2006
Edit Blog Post
My last entry was the day after the full moon party on ko pha ngan and i was going diving the next day and adam was renting a scooter. well we both came back safe and sound and left ko pha ngan the next day at 6am, arriving in ko phi phi at 4pm that day.
As soon as we got off the boat on ko phi phi, there were hoards of people trying to sell us accomodation, taxi boats and dive trips... after a long journey it was pretty overwhelming, so as soon as we had got past the thick of it we stopped for a second to catch our breath. The place we stopped happened to be outside a dive shop with a chatty english guy standing out the front who offered for us to stow our bags in his shop while we tried to find somewhere to sleep, this sounded very appealing and so we became friends with ed - the dive guy.
we walked around for a bit trying to find anywhere half-way decent with air con for less that 1000 baht (about NZ$40), after a fairly fruitless search we settled on a place that
had aircon for 900 baht. as we were signing in, the owner-lady was quite rude to this american chick, so adam and i gave each other sideways looks in anticipation of a frosty hosting, but for some reason she took quiet the shine to us and whenever she saw us would always sing "hello adam, hello stacey!" and when i went to sign out this morning she asked when i would be coming back to phi phi!
after we'd found somewhere to stay we went back to the dive shop to retrieve our bags and of course felt obliged to book a dive trip with ed seen he'd been so helpful. so the next day we went out on the boat, me diving and adam snorkelling.
Diving at phi phi was absurdly better than ko pha ngan - the coral was much brighter and there were heaps more fish and stuff.. very cool. On the second dive we saw a couple of leopard sharks which, according to the dive master, were "courting". apparently it's not often you see one leopard shark swimming around (usually they're sleeping on the bottom) let alone two, so i suppose we were pretty
lucky there.
Adam's snorkel buddy was a girl named lucy who was travelling with her mother, so we met lucy and carol for dinner later that evening. Lucy and carol turned out to be quite the party duo - apparently carol had got hooked on "happy" (ie pot-laced) pizzas in cambodia and turned up to their guesthouse at like 5am with some guy she'd been skinny-dipping with!! pretty classic team.
After dinner we went to a bar and watched a really amazing fireshow, then moved onto another bar which we thought also had a fireshow, but it turns out they had a different type of show on that night... a transexual caberet...
Lady-boys are a peculiar phenomenon which seem particular to asia. we couldn't really figure out the attraction for either participant or audience, but it was pretty funny none-the-less. After the show the lady-boys came down into the audience and posed for photos with everyone (then asked for baht for the priviledge, but i suppose we should have known). After the show the stage was packed out with drunk tourists dancing, so lucy and i joined in the fun while carol got hit on by some
middle-age guy. altogether a good night.
We had organised to go out with lucy and carol the next day to hire a boat and explore some other islands, but lucy unfortunately caught some stomach bug which came on during the night and there was no way she was leaving the hotel room. So adam and i found a long-boat driver and negotiated to go snorkelling near bamboo island...
The lonely planet states "Phi Phi's beauty will evoke tears" and it bloody well does! or perhaps it was our long-boat driver saying apologetically, as he put his little daughter (maybe 5 or 6) into the long-boat, "her mum die in tsunami, just me and her now". Then again, I've been known to get misty over a well-written pasta commercial, so perhaps I'm not a great test audience. But phi phi is amazing, with massive limestone cliffs and beautiful beaches, great snorkelling and diving. It's paradise.
The main, and only inhabited island - phi phi don - has a very thin bit in the middle with huge jungle covered cliffs on either side... some describe it as shaped like an apple core or butterfly... the thin bit in the
Adam and a lady-boy
that is some matt make-up its got there middle is where the development is and it's a very low lying area and couldn't be more than about 25 metres wide. because of this the tsunami pretty much totalled the whole island - it washed straight over it. apparently it was evacuated and declared uninhabitable for a time, but by the sounds of it many people stayed on the island without water or adequate sewerage. There are still heaps of the area that is still being rebuilt and there's piles of rubble around and stuff, but it's recovered admirably. At one restaurant they've marked a high-water mark on the wall where the tsunami hit, and it's well above head height, it would have been pretty scary.
As adam's departure loomed, i was getting a bit nervous about what to do with myself once he'd gone, so we asked ed (to recap - the dive guy) about liveaboards (you live aboard a boat) out to the similan islands, so tomorrow I'm booked on a four night liveaboard to said islands... it's the mac-daddy of diving, four dives a day at places which are renowned not just for standard beauty, but whale sharks and manta rays as well. should be
The high-water mark
ok, you might not be able to it, but it´s about a third of the way between adam´s head and the top of the photo great.
But to get me ready for such an uber-diving-extravaganze, i had to do a couple more courses, so last night ed took me on a night dive! that's diving into pitch-black water!! with a torch of course, but it was pretty nerve-racking at first, we went down using a bouy-rope as a guide and my hands are sliced from the barnacles because i refused to let go of it, but once you get used to it it's amazing!! I felt like i was on the national geographic channel. at one point a couple of barracuda swam threw the torch stream and whenever i shined the torch up you could see heaps of little fish reflecting in the light. and if you cover your torch light (don't turn it off... it might not turn on properly, then you're screwed) and wave your hands around it distrubs some organisms that glow. it's out of it.
Then this morning ed took me on a deep dive to 30 metres (the standard certificate only allows you to go to 18m), which was a but scary cos there's heaps more chance of the bends and stuff, but it was alright. Although as
Boats at beautiful Phi Phi Ley
ie small phi phi - where they filmed the movie ´the beach´ apparently i'm writing this i'm feeling a bit light-headed, but hopefully that's just tiredness.
After the diving this morning i caught a ferry to phuket and am currently in patong... it's gaudy... the only place i've been that's more gaudy is niagra falls... there's heaps of neon lights and strip clubs. the beach is probably nice during the day, but at night it seems rotten, but i'm leaving on said liveaboard trip tomorrow so i don't have to endure it much longer, and when i get back from the liveaboard i'll probably head up to vietnam and cambodia before my borneo trip starts on the 6th of may.
over and out.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.222s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 40; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Debbie
non-member comment
Fantastic
Stacey I am really thrilled you are having such a great time - I love the stunning photos - keep them coming, I'll need them to get me through the winter.