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Published: February 25th 2014
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We got woken up at 0630 by our Thai Bob Marley guide, who had coffee and bananas ready for us while we watched the sun rise. We didn’t have the most restful night’s sleep after the wind kicked up and blew in our ears all night and I was nervous to roll off the top which would have been a 20 ft. drop into the ocean.
We went back to “The Beach” and took some sunrise pictures before the hordes of morning crowds appeared and snorkeled a bit more by the boat before having breakfast and returning back. We spoke with more tourists and found most people that we have spoken to during our travels are vacationing from anywhere from 6 months to 5 weeks. Our 3 weeks is just unheard of, and we are often asked how it is even possible with such a short amount of time. Whenever we explain to foreigners that the average American gets 2 weeks of vacation they recoil in horror, as the typical European starts with 5 weeks vacation, and builds up from there to usually over 2 months by retirement. This probably accounts for why we have only met 3 sets of
Americans over the last 3 weeks, 2 of which were working in the region as missionaries and teachers. Also many Europeans can’t opt to cash out their vacation like we do, and instead force their workers to take off for their own health and sanity. No wonder we are the leader in stress related health conditions, we literally work our citizens to death, and employers and co-workers guilt their employees (like us) when they do take whatever time is owed to them.
After we returned to Koh Phi Phi from our overnight we borrowed some snorkeling equipment from the dive shop we had booked our dive trip with tomorrow. The owner, A Scotsman who came 18 years ago for the first time and never left, gave us directions to a local snorkel spot called “Shark Point” where we had a good chance of seeing some small Black Tip Reef Sharks.
We checked into our hotel for the next 2 nights, Viking Nature Resort ($50 standard/$70 deluxe). The Resort was an exhausting 30 minute hike around the bay, up and over small hills through the jungle along the way, but well worth the peace and tranquility being away from
the bars and tourist chaos in town. Each teak and bamboo cabana was beautifully decorated and had a large deck with hammocks overlooking the ocean, easily the most beautiful place we have ever stayed.
We hiked over to Long Beach and found the rock outcroppings of Shark Point quite a far swim away from the beach into the bay. We swam across a strong, choppy current and finally made it to the rocks, initially disappointed in the lack of sea life. I first saw a small shark just on the periphery of our visibility, and alerted Dennis who did not seem to share my enthusiasm. Little by little more and more sharks started to appear, larger and larger as well, as they began to curiously circle us, drawing nearer with each pass. After a bit I decided that we should probably head back because we were so far out and nobody knew where we were. Dennis was relieved by this proposition, even though his shark phobia is decreasing.
We had dinner at the resort and then headed into town to see the much advertised fire shows at numerous bars throughout the island. Our show had 3 local teenage
Thai’s spinning flaming sticks and chains to an acoustic guitarist playing covers of Nirvana, Metallica, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The kids were absolutely amazing and would easily put any baton spinning cheerleader to shame.
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