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Published: March 11th 2008
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The Beach
The secluded beach from "The Beach" has been found by thousands of tourists. After Cambodia we returned to our home base of Bangkok and purchased our tickets to India. We had a week to kill before leaving for Calcutta so we headed south in search of the rare whale shark. Chris has a dream of seeing a whale shark and, at this time of year, they are migrating north and can be spotted off the western coast of Thailand. So, we flew to Phuket where we immediately caught a bus to Khao Lak, which arguably has some of Thailand's best diving.
Khao Lak seemed to be a major tourist destination for German families and older couples. There were very very few young travellers there, so it made for early nights. It was also a lot more expensive than we had heard. We sucked it up for a few days so we could dive and considering we spent most of our time in the water, it wasn't so bad.
We dove Richelieu Rock on the first day and Chris dove off some of the Similan Islands the next day. These two locations are known to be among the best in the world. The diving was great, but, sadly, no whale sharks. After these
Chris and Bex
We're checking out a puffer fish dives, we decided it was time to go somewhere cheaper, more fun and with more great diving - Koh Phi Phi.
Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) is actually two islands just southeast of Phuket, with beautiful beaches and tonnes of young travellers. There is a really cute little town on the larger island with lanes lined with shops selling beach attire, souvenirs, and pretty well anything else you might need. There is no motorized transport on the island, so we walked everywhere and if you need to go somewhere farther, you can hire a longtail fishing boat. Also, for movie buffs, the smaller island is where 'The Beach' was filmed.
Our main concern was diving (Koh Phi Phi also has occasional whale shark sightings). We did four dives from Koh Phi Phi and saw lots of amazing things - a leopard shark, lots of blacktip sharks, about 5 turtles, seahorses, stingrays, barracudas, dolphins. Alas, there were no whale sharks. All the underwater pictures we've posted were taken by Mandi at Aquanauts Scuba. Anyway, the diving was great and we both had a wonderful time.
When we weren't diving, we were at the beaches during the day.
At night, we spent our time eating and drinking - what's new? There were great little bars right on the beach serving overpriced cocktails and playing beachy music - Bob Marley, Jack Johnson, etc. One night we were having a drink at a bar with a Thai-Rasta theme going on and we noticed a girl on the beach doing poi. Our friends that we met in Cambodia, Jakov and Janet, juggled poi and taught us a few moves one night in Ban Lung. Poi are, sort of, balls on chains that people spin in circles and do tricks - you've seen people doing this at Fringe Festivals or busking in the city. Anyway, Chris went down to ask the girl about it and she put us in touch with Lee, who instructs poi juggling during the day from the same bar.
The next day we came back to the bar in the late afternoon and took a lesson from Lee. For the first time in my life I was better at something sporty and physical than Chris!! Lee taught us a few moves that night and we practiced them on the beach to the reggae beats in the background.
The guys who work at the bar all juggle fire poi and spin fire staffs and put on a great show at night - it gave us something to aspire to! The next night we tried the fire poi ourselves - and Chris later noticed he had singed off some of his arm hair.
We also had a "small world" moment on Ko Phi Phi, when walking along a narrow street in town. We ran into Chris' first cousin Katie and her boyfriend Jordan!! We ended up having lunch and then meeting for drinks on the beach later that night . We all had a lot of drinks, a lot of fun and a lot of laughs on the beach that night. It was nice for Chris to run into family and great for me to finally meet Katie. Katie lives in Calgary, so it was crazy that I'd meet her in Thailand of all places!
In addition to this, Chris had planned to meet up with an old diving friend of his, Adi, in Southern Thailand. For lots of reasons this didn't work out. Chris went to an internet cafe in Phuket to write to Adi to
apologize for not being able to make it work and let him know that we were leaving for India. Adi and Chris entered the internet cafe at the exact same time and we were able to sit down for a couple of hours before leaving for Bangkok. I love the small world moments while travelling!
All in all our week on the beaches was a huge success, except for the fact that the whale sharks didn't make an appearance. Chris will see those whale sharks one day, just maybe not on this trip.
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