...a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

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Geo: 7.75454, 98.7671

So Dew was given a flier about helping to keep Phi Phi clean. There is an environmental group that organizes beach clean-up efforts for different parts of the islands. On the 22nd there was a group heading out to Monkey Beach to help clean up the beach. Dew and I volunteered to go.

It was a few hours well spent and we got to meet a lot of other well-meaning people who gave an afternoon out of their holiday to give back. We combed the beach and collected garbage into bags. We collected so much garbage that there wasn't room enough for us to fit into the long tail boat with it. So one boat went back to the pier full of garbage, and the other boat went back with as many people as would fit. Nine of us were left on the beach. Before our trusty leader left us there, she yelled over to another long tail that was nearby and asked if they would mind taking us back with them. I guess the request was lost in translation, because shortly after our boat left, the other left as well. The nine of us just stood there. "I'm sure one of them will come back for us".

And hour later...and now seriously into low tide a boat showed up. It couldn't come to shore because it was too shallow, so fully dressed we swam out to it. After a painful 100ft walk over really sharp coral with no shoes. When we got back to shore, it was too shallow to get close, again, so we were left about mile out (no kidding) and had to walk/swim/shuttle to shore. Again on top of eerily sharp coral that was near impossible to walk on.

When we finally got to the beach, we were all bleeding from our feet and hands, and elbows, and knees and all the other parts we had fallen onto. We walked to the dock and picked up our stuff from the original boat, and all went out for a badly needed beer. Several actually. I don't have any pictures of all the bad part, only the nice bits while we were collecting garbage. You don't want to see the rest, believe me.

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