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Published: January 23rd 2006
Long Beach
Long Beach (Hat Yao) on Koh Phi PhiWe had a harried day of travel: flew from Vientiane to Phuket via Bangkok. Spent the night in Phuket but had a negative experience w/ the guesthouse and decided to head to the islands.
Landed on Koh Phi Phi Don after a gorgeous ferry ride from Phuket. Spent two nights in Ton Sai village, breath-takingly beautiful but rebuilding since the tsunami has made it very commercial and loud (due to construction). It was almost entirely populated by college kids on break and wasn't the scene we were searching for. We made our way to Long Beach, a short longtail boat ride from Ton Sai and much quieter. Theres, we signed up for our Open Water Diver course with Long Beach Divers. Got some free lodging but there was a reason it was free ... cockroaches the size of small oranges.
The course involved 2 days of confined water dives and 2 days of open water dives, as well as some videos, reading and quizzes. Boring -- but the open water dives were wonderful. We dove off 2 small islands off of Phi Phi Leh -- Bida Nai and Bida Nok. The visibility was mediocre compared to their best but
Koh Phi Phi Leh
View of Koh Phi Phi Leh from Hat Yao on Koh Phi Phi Don we thought it was amazing. We saw a moray eel, a blue-spotted ray and a long black and white sea snake, plus a million fishes.
From Phi Phi we landed at Ao Nang for a few nights. Did a kayak tour of Ao Thalane bay. Mangroves and striking sea cliffs lined the narrow inlets we navigated. Many crab-eating macaques watched us paddle and a large monitor lizard too.
Headed to Railay Beach next. Also very beautiful, ragged limestone cliffs everywhere. The weather and the snorkeling were poor and we're not rock climbers so it didn't hold the appeal that it does for them. So we headed to Khao Lak for more diving, in the Similan Islands.
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