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Published: October 16th 2006
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Back into Thailand! Another hair raising mini bus journey up to Krabie. Pouring rain, highspeeds and overtaking on blind corners do not mix well - added to which the driver's selection of soft rock tunes - painful!
I was a bit nervous about coming to Phi Phi after the tsumani, however the regeneration of the beach areas has been swift. The hotels are back up, the stores, restaurants and bars as back in business. Though whether this regeneration is responsible I wouldn't say. There is still a lot of beach front development and bungalows with tin roofs. Tourism marches on.
The weather is poor on Phi Phi, and we spent more time walking to see the beaches rather than sunbathing on them. The full place is very western, english bars selling meat pies and chip butties - I can see how people end up staying here longer than planned.
We manage to leave tho and arrive at Raleigh beach when the tide is low, so it's off the longtail boat and straight into the sea to wade to the beach. Jagged rocks underfoot and a backpack! Round to the other side of Raleigh where the boats leave for
Ton Sai beach where we learn the sea is too rough to get a ride. We have options: walk through the forest for 45 minutes and it's 15ft drops and mosquitoes or hurry round the coast before the tide is at it's peak - in erm 15 minutes! We pick the latter and are hurriedly wading, crawling, climbing and clinging to wet rocks with our backpacks as the seas thrash against us (think 999). Just as we are starting to lose our nerve we round the last bend and see the beach.
The full beach has an adventure feel to it. You feel compelled to do something. There is not one person sunbathing instead they are all stuck to the vertical limestone cliffs with a piece of rope and as far as we can tell nerves of steel!
So obviously we have to try this rockclimbing. Half a days beginner course for us. After a couple of falls (not quite the near death experiences we thought) we are quite good at it. Once we learn to trust our partners and the ropes, it's all just the fun of climbing up a wall. Depending entirely on own our strength
and nerve we spend 4 hours climbing up and abseiling down. Until our strength leaves us and we wander back resplendent in our climbing gear feeling like real climbers. 1 hour later however and the use of our arms is nil - we can't even grip - who cares tho, we're climbers!
Back up to Phuket, this time avoiding the grim Patong beach and heading straight to Karon beach. We're meeting my Dad and his partner (Joyce) for a week of scuba diving in the Similan Islands.
We're back in a nice hotel - bath, shower, a pool, such luxuries. When my Dad and Joyce arrive we are there to surprise them and spend the next few days catching up, eating cheap seafood (lot's of) and drinking way too much and staying up way too late.
Of all the occasions when we could have gotten food poisoning, all the dodgy dishes we have eaten and tried, Paul picks now to get food poisoning. Some noodles in the hotels breakfast we suspect and he is caught out! He now has 4 days on a boat to cope with.
Onto the Similan Jazz which is to be our
home for the next 4 days. The 7 hour trip out to the first dive site took 9 rather than 7 hours due to bad weather and the drinking the night before started to take it's toll after about 1 hour! Other than Joyce, we are all starting to feel sick as the boat bounces along for 9 hours - no let up!
When we are woken at 6.30am we are trashed. Paul's feeling the after effects of food poisoning, and we are all feeling a little bit weary! However, stepping into 28c crystal clear waters and seeing an abundance of see life beneath us makes us forget the journey here, the tiredness and the weather - we are in diving paradise.
On a liveaboard the schedule is simple. Up at 6.30am and light breakfast, dive, a mammoth full english breakfast, dive, lunch, dive, snacks, dive and dinner! Intermingled with sleeping, a constant backgammon battle with my dad and just staring out at the sea. It is sometimes tiring, 14 dives over 4 days is intense, however the diving is just amazing. Absolutely fantastic. The variety and beauty of the sealife is so wonderful, brightly coloured fishes, huge
slumbering leopard sharks and evil looking moray eels. It takes your breathe away.
Back on land we all have sea legs, Joyce is continuing to sway with the waves! Paul heads straight for the pharmacy and with his daily dose of 15 tablets we should be able to sneak him into Aus without quarantining him for too long!
We're staying in Khao Lak in a hotel on the hillside, you can clearly see how the topography of the area contributed to the massive destruction of this area in Decemeber 2004. On the flat lane below the rebuilding is everywhere. We walked long the beach and new hotels are being built along the full stretch. Behind which is a shanty town of tin huts where a number of locals are still living while they rebuild their lives.
It has been such a great week, seeing my Dad and Joyce and just relaxing, catching up and diving. Yet again we realise how great it is to be sharing our experiences with loved ones, and how very, very lucky we are to have this opportunity to see the world. As Paul says, we are blessed.
Asia has been great.
Great people, great weather and great food! But after 5 months we are well and truely excited about hitting Aus. We still can't believe 5 months have passed this quickly and now we're past the half way point we expect it to fly even quicker!
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craig douglas
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pics
you dude, craig from scotland here...was just reading ur blog sounds so amazing im heading out to thailand in 2 weeks cant wait. cool pics u took by the way. how much was ur underwater camerea if you dont mind me asking.