Phi Phi Island

This is an old posting - I haven't been able to get on my computer in
a few days. I'll post more when we get to Tokyo (in 12+ hours) and
explain the whole "sorry, this flight has been canceled" fiasco on
Ethiopian Air.
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What's happened since we last blogged? Not much but it feels like a lot.

The Hilton here is one of those resorts where you have everything you
need to be comfortable and even though it's full of white people the
neighborhood more than makes up for that. Yesterday we walked around
town, went to the beach, swam in the pool, and walked around more.
There are a handful of local restaurants and a ton of tailors and
eyeglass places. Thai people don't generally like to negotiate but
we've been able to haggle some really good deals at legit shops. Jason
got a pair of Ray-Ban prescription eyeglasses and a pair of Ray-Ban
prescription sunglasses for about $350 US including the lenses and
exam. (The real kind of Ray-Ban this time.)

Today we had a full day of sightseeing and snorkeling. We started in
Chalong Bay and after an unbelievably rough hour ride over to Phi Phi
Island we swam in Maya Bay (where some of The Beach was filmed),
snorkeled in Loh Sama Bay, looked at Pileh Cove, took pictures at
Viking Cave, fed bananas to monkeys at Monkey Beach, ate lunch at Phi
Phi Don, and snorkeled at Khai Nok Island. You'll have to look at the
pictures to decode all this – Maya Bay has big cliffs… Pileh Cove is a
lagoon… Viking Cave has some bamboo structures built into the cliffs
where Scandinavians used to hide out during monsoon season (or
something like that)… you can figure out Monkey Beach… Phi Phi Don is
the largest of the Phi Phi Islands (pronounced Pee-Pee) and has a ton
of scuba shops… Khai Nok Island is a tourist set-up with bad
snorkeling and lots of rocks.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of guidance regarding snorkeling and
diving here. We were allowed to snorkel in low tide and a lot of the
coral has already been killed. And they obviously don't see it as an
issue because we were never told not to touch the coral. Also, the
boat crew throws pieces of bread into the water while the tourists are
snorkeling so the fish will come up to the top of the water, but the
fish have lost their fear of humans – same with the monkeys. One fish
kept nibbling on one of Jason's fins. The monkeys were climbing on the
boats and grabbing bananas from human hands. One more good reason we got vaccinations!

Tonight we went back for one more fitting for our custom tailored
suits and shirts, then over to an area of town where the locals shop.
The main store is called Big-C, which is like Kmart on steroids.
There's a food court, clothes, stationary stuff, home goods,
electronics, etc. but all at low quality. Then we walked down the
street to the real mall which was supposed to close at 10pm, but by a
little after 9:30pm the lights were shutting off, storefronts were
closing, and the salespeople were standing at the ready with their
purses.

The other day I came across an article about Thai prisons. It's pretty
interesting and describes the process for going to visit a Westerner.
I can't find it now or remember where I saw it but here's a good website about Thai prisons. Click HERE to read it. Somebody remind me to watch Bridget Jones 2, The Beach, the James Bond movie w/ Pierce Brosnan, and Brokedown Palace when we get back.

Check out the pictures from today by clicking HERE. The scenery was
absolutely beautiful and I'm not editing much so there are a lot of
pictures.

We're hoping to have time for Thai massages on the beach tomorrow
before we pick up everything at the tailor and pack for the trip back
to the airport. We fly back to Bangkok tomorrow, stay 1 night in
Bangkok, then fly back to Hong Kong for 1 night before going to Tokyo.
We'll be exhausted from all the plane rides coming up soon but we are
excited about Tokyo.

Phuket is probably our favorite beach vacation we've taken so far. We
loved Tobago and have wanted to go back for a while but it's not as
safe or cheap and the food isn't as good. We'd probably even stay at
this hotel again because it's really comfortable and reasonably
priced. We'd definitely recommend it. This has been a perfect addition
to our Asia trip, but as always, we wish we had more time here. A
couple more days would have bought us a safari trip, scuba lessons,
time in Patong Beach (touristy), time in Phuket Town (local), and a
lot more sunburned skin.