Thailand - The Gorgeous Islands

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The next leg of our trip took us to the beautiful islands of Thailand, famed for their powder white sand and crystal clear water.
We flew into the Island of Phuket from Sri Lanka and spent only a night there before moving on to our first destination in Thailand, the island of Ko Phi Phi, an adyllic island lined with palm fringed beaches and the most amazing bottle green sea you are ever likely to see.
It became famous as the setting for the Leonardo Di Caprio film The Beach and it is as gorgeous as the film portrays!

This was where I had chosen to do my PADI Open Water Dive Certificate, a qualification that allows you to dive to a depth of 18m in the open sea.
The course was brilliant including a couple of practice dives in shallow water before the proper dives in the open sea.
During my dives I saw Leopard Sharks, Black Tip Reef Sharks, Hawksbill Turtles, LionFish, Giant Moray Eels, Banded Sea Snakes and loads of other cool stuff.
Needless to say I passed! Now I am free to go diving whenever I like!

Laura joined me on one day of diving but she had already obtained her open water certification so she spent the 2 or 3 other days I was diving lying on the tropical beach sunning herself!
The Snorkelling off our beach was also amazing, within a few metres of the beach you would be surrounded by beautiful, colourful soft corals and hundreds of colourful reef fish (including nemo fish and doree fish!) Angel Fish, Parrot Fish, Puffer Fish were all easily seen and the visivility was just being in a swimming pool. About 20 metres from the beach you would also encounter dozens of Black Tip Reef sharks around 6 feet long in some cases. I reccomend Phi Phi to anyone who likes the under water world.
Our nights were spent drinking and eating to excess and enjoying the live fire shows that seem to be showed at most bars where expertly trained(or in some cases not) artists would twirl flaming batons around their heads, between thier legs etc to the beat of funky thai music!

After Phi Phi we moved onto Ko Phagnan where we just spent 3 nights on an almost deserted beach in a small bay to the north of the island.

Our final stop on the thai islands was the tiny island of Ko Tao where we stayed for the celebration of Songkran (Thai New Year). The whole of the country celebrates Songkran by enjoying a giant waterfight.
Every person is in possesion of at least one water pistol of a large bucket of ice cooled water instead. The roads turn into rivers as pick up trucks full of passengers in the back stage wars on each other soaking themselves and anyone within a mile radius! It was a fantastic occasion to be a part of and I only wish we celebrated New Year in England with such verve!
We spent 4 days on Ko Tao in total based in the most picturesque bungalow high above a turquoised colour bay with white sand sweeping around the rocks our resort restaurant was directly above the water about 20m up which allowed you to watch the small sharks prowling the shallow reef waters for prey a great spot to be. We spent our time here enjoying more great snorkelling, sun bathing eating and drinking.
Our next stop is the Thai capital of Bangkok famous for.... well lots of things anyway!!!

Hope everyone is well the photos will return in a couple of blogs time as I have now fixed the problem, sorry about that!

Take Care.

Love Steve & Laura

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