Phi Phi

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Hi everyone,

Just in case anyone is sending texts - there is no cell phone coverage on Phi Phi but we are traveling to Phuket tomorrow morning so maybe there.

Yesterday we had a fantastic day. We went on a long tail boat tour around Ko Phi Phi Don, the island we are staying on, and Ko Phi Phi Ley, the island in front of our beach. It was a six hour trip - not because the islands are big, but because we snorkeled in about 6 or 7 different places.

Both islands were spectacular with towering cliffs and hidden lagoons, but it was the snorkeling that blew our minds.

We thought that the coral and fish at Shark Point were amazing, but they didn't hold a patch on the places we saw yesterday. There were much, much bigger corals, more shapes, colours and patterns. And what can I say about the fish. Well they were mostly the same as we have seen before, although bigger, except for an 8 foot long Moray Eel with a huge head, but there were millions more of them - literally!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At Rantee Bay, our first stop, not far around the point from our beach, we were swarmed by fish as soon as we were in the water and getting nibbled all over. At one point Tracy was feeding them with bread we had brought with us. I was watching from a little way away and I couldn't see him at all, just a rough outline that the fish had created around him.

From Rantee we were supposed to go to Bamboo Island. I knew this place was very buzy and therefore a lot of the fish stayed away, so I told the other 3 people on our trip about Hin Klang underwater coral mountain. I had read about this place on the internet and it is supposed to be one of the best places to snorkel in these parts - they liked the sound of it and we went there instead. It was within sight of Bamboo island, but in the middle of the sea. We could see a mass of boats filling the beach on Bamboo, but here there were
only 2 other long tail boats.

It was better than I was expecting and the others were so pleased we came here. No more fish than we saw in Rantee, but the coral here was even more spectacular, untouched and huge. It was like a forest. Jack really wants to scuba dive and frustrated he is too young.

From here we traveled around the remainder of Phi Phi Don and stopped for lunch at Monkey Beach. No monkeys though and we had brought a very big bunch of bananas especially for them. Jack was dissapointed especially as we should have seen them on Railey and didn't and he was looking forward to seeing them before we left NZ.

We went over to Phi Phi Ley after lunch to Maya Bay. Everyone wants to see Maya Bay because the movie The Beach was filmed here. We've never seen the movie and didin't see what the fuss was about - there were far more beautiful lagoons and bays further around. What we did love however were the fish here. We had run out of bread so I thought I would see if they liked bananas. Well they did including the skins, in a big way. We were swarmed by fish as big as 40cm long. Bananas worked better than bread too because they lasted a lot longer. I so wish we had an underwater camera - I don't think anyone would really be able to visualize what we saw. We lost a little bit of skin with the bigger fish and I must admit that I was hoping no bigger fish were on there way. An awesome experience.

We finished off at Phi Phi Ley and on the way back stopped at a small beach within sight of our beach and guess what we found?
MONKEYS, finally. Lots of them and Jack was very, very happy. We watched them play on the beach for about 1/2 an hour.

A fantastic day!!!!!!

Love to all and will write again from Phuket.

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