Phi Phi Islands

On Jeff's last "long off" (he's doing shift work out here, so he doesn't get traditional weekends off, but instead he works many days in a row and then gets 5 days off) we wanted to head out to the Phi Phi islands, which have some of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand. Phi Phi Don is the only island with hotels. Its not very big, but we found a great looking hotel at a great rate and were all set to go. Then, the day before we were leaving our hotel contacted us to let us know they were all booked. We desperately started searching for another hotel that could offer such a great rate (while also having basic amenities like hot water and A/C), but couldn't book anything on such short notice. So we decided instead to stay in Phuket (the city we were flying into) which had a much better selection of hotels. We still wanted to see the Phi Phi Islands, so we booked a tour through our hotel and took a day trip from Phuket to the islands.

A van picked us up early in the morning and took us to the Royal Phuket Marina.

We posed for a souvenir photo and along with about 25 other people headed to our speed boat. By speedboat, the islands are only about an hour away. The sky looked threatening and our guide Axe warned us that a monsoon was coming in, so we were in for an unpredictable day of weather. About 20 minutes after that ominous speech, the skies opened up and pour down on us. While the boat was covered, the roof didn't quite reach the sides of the boat, so water was pouring, soaking everyone on board. I don't know if you have ever been flying through the open sea while soaking wet, but let me tell you, it was COLD! As you can tell, I wasn't having the best time.

Jeff on the other hand was loving it and was actually sticking his head out of the boat to look at the islands. He managed to get some good pictures once the rain died down a bit. Our first stop was Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh (South Phi Phi Island). This beach is an incredibly popular spot for all of the day trips out of Phuket and Ko Phi Phi Don (North Phi Phi Island). With all of the hype surrounding the beach, I was expecting something huge, but it was actually quite tiny and crowded. The weather wasn't great when we got there, but the clouds started to break apart and we got some great pictures.While at Maya Bay the weather started to clear and we actually saw the sun! After about an hour on the beach we headed to another small bay on Phi Phi Leh. The water was very deep and crystal clear. The boat dropped anchor and we swam around for about thirty minutes. It was drizzling a little bit while we were in the water, but nothing compared to the boat ride in! We then hopped back on the boat and went to the other side of Phi Phi Leh to Viking Cave. The wooden sticks you see are actually scaffolding which the locals use to collect birds nests. The nests are then sold to make delicacies such as bird's nest soup.Next we headed over to Phi Phi Don and made a quick stop at Monkey Beach. This may surprise you, but Monkey Beach is full of monkeys! It's a small little stretch of sand where every tour boat stops for a few minutes to throw bananas at the rowdy monkeys. Some tourists are daring enough to let the unpredictable monkeys climb on them. Wisely, Jeff and I were not those tourists. Unluckily for him, this guy was. Two seconds after this picture was taken, an unseen third monkey entering from stage left lunged to get the banana at the other side of his head. At some point during the lunge, the monkey aborted the banana mission and locked on to this guy's right ear. Monkey shrieking ensued, and subsequently this gentleman traded in his ear-to-ear grin for an "Evander Holyfield after fighting Mike Tyson" look. Damn dirty ape!The sun decided to return and we were ready to hop in the water to do some snorkeling from the boat. We dropped anchor in the open sea and hopped in. The coral and the marine life was so beautiful down there. The underwater camera case we bought in Singapore last year definitely came in handy!

We found Nemo!

By this point we had worked up an appetite, so we stopped on Phi Phi Don for some lunch. Notice in the pictures that the sky was actually blue!

After lunch we headed out to one last beach where we were able to walk right into the coral for snorkeling. We had a great time just chasing after fish and exploring on our own.

We also found Gill, a Moorish Idol

And we found Bubbles, a Yellow Tang

These Parrotfish were so cool!

Some very cool coral

A sea urchin

Unfortunately Jeff must have upset one fish in particular because he went after Jeff with a vengeance and Jeff definitely got bit. Luckily he was filming at the time, and let me tell you it is pretty funny to watch.

After about an hour of snorkeling we came hopped back on the boat for the return trip to Phuket. Our return trip was much better than the trip out, since the rain had all but disappeared! Our tour guide Axe admitted at the end of the day that we were very lucky with the weather because he was sure it was going to be a terrible day! Thankfully for us it wasn't!