On Thursday morning Lindsay and I boarded a longtail boat at West Railay Beach that cruised us over to the large, 300-passenger ferry to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee). It was so nice to be on a large boat that wouldn't get jostled about by the waves! Lindsay and I happily sat out on the deck with our legs dangling over the side for the 1.5 hour ride. The mere fact that the ferry docked at Ko Phi Phi (as opposed to dropping anchor off shore and shuttling passengers to the beach via longtail boats) indicated that Ko Phi Phi would be very different from our previous island stays.
We spent our first hour on the island searching for accommodation: the sun was blaring, and the streets were very busy with hoofing backpackers, bicycling Thais, and the loud banging of post-tsunami reconstruction. We finally settled on a family-run joint located on the outskirts of town called the Laleena Guesthouse. After checking-in I decided to beat the heat with a banana smoothie and took refuge in an internet cafe. Lindsay, on the other hand, opted to layout at the beach like a proper tourist. After updating my blog for a couple of hours, I headed back to the hotel and found Lindsay half asleep in our room mumbling about the heat...
That night we walked down to Long Beach for dinner at one of Ko Phi Phi's nicer resorts. We both ate fresh white snapper that was prepared in a delicious Mediterranean style. After dinner we navigated the narrow, crowded streets and shopped around for a snorkeling tour. We decided to pass on the multitude of loud, smokey bars and clubs for a good night's sleep since we had 8 hours of snorkeling ahead of us the next day. Our neighbors at the hotel obviously had a different agenda since they returned from town drunk and extremely loud at 3 am. They were really obnoxious, as were the numerous mosquitoes that were biting me during the night (we needed the window open to keep cool at night but there wasn't a screen...not good).
We began our longtail boat snorkeling trip at 10am on Friday morning with ten other tourists (4 Brits, 2 Brazilians/Australians, 1 Swede, 3 Lithuanians/New Jerseys). The trip didn't get off to a good start at Shark Point, our first stop. We all strapped on our gear, got into the water and after a few minutes began getting stung all over our bodies. One of the Brazilian/Australians said that it was sea lice that were stinging us; someone else said that it was the chopped up bits of jellyfish that were floating all around. I don't know what was the cause, but the stinging was very distracting and really detracted from the snorkeling experience. In addition, the chopped up bits of jellyfish seriously compromised visibility. After 15 minutes everyone was back in the boat ready to move on.
We spent the next 40 minutes battling the waves on the longtail boat riding out to Bamboo Island. We parked alongside many other boats on the picturesque beach and ate the complimentary lunch of fried rice. Nothing spectacular about the rice except that Lindsay found a lot of egg shells in her portion. I snorkeled a bit there but didn't see any noteworthy fish. After lunch we made five more disappointing snorkeling stops around Ko Phi Phi Leh (a supposed marine reserve and the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands). The coral looked dead and the fish were certainly not plentiful or diverse, plus we encountered stinging sea lice/jellyfish at most stops.
We did make a visit to Monkey Beach where there were...monkeys. Not surprisingly, the monkeys were fat and tempermental from constant feedings from tourists. At one point I was chatting with one of the Brits from our boat who was eating a corn on the cob (a common snack over here). Our conversation was interrupted when we both noticed that a rather large, mean-looking monkey was charging towards us. The man had absolutely no choice but to hand over his cob and back away from the bossy monkey. It was ridiculous!
The most attractive beach we anchored on was one that was filmed in DiCaprio's "The Beach." The limestone cliffs rose high and encircled the area providing an amphitheater-like effect. After "The Beach" we puttered past Viking Cave and then the captain asked whether our group wanted to wait 45 minutes out on the water for sunset (we were on the "sunset tour"). Everyone unanimously declined on this opportunity, so we headed back to Ko Phi Phi. In retrospect the excursion probably would have been better if we never snorkeled--the cliffs that rose out of the water were much more interesting and beautiful than what could be seen below.
That night Lindsay and I assuaged our snorkeling disappointment with large, tasty calzones at an Italian restaurant, yeah for Western fare! After dinner we purchased tickets for the next morning's ferry to Krabi and bus tickets onward to Khao Sok.
Needless to say I was excited about moving on from Ko Phi Phi...
*Geology tangent*
In case you're wondering about the limestone cliffs in this region, here is the (simplified) geologic history as I understand it...
The limestone was deposited about 200+ million years ago as a massive coral reef that extended from China down to Burma. The reef was uplifted about 65 million years ago when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate to form the Himalayas. When uplifted, the limestone faulted and cracked vertically in many places creating "joints". Over time rain preferentially eroded the limestone in those vertical joints (acids dissolved in rainwater dissolve calicite, the main mineral constituent of limestone), creating the spectacular cliffs that we see today.
We spent our first hour on the island searching for accommodation: the sun was blaring, and the streets were very busy with hoofing backpackers, bicycling Thais, and the loud banging of post-tsunami reconstruction. We finally settled on a family-run joint located on the outskirts of town called the Laleena Guesthouse. After checking-in I decided to beat the heat with a banana smoothie and took refuge in an internet cafe. Lindsay, on the other hand, opted to layout at the beach like a proper tourist. After updating my blog for a couple of hours, I headed back to the hotel and found Lindsay half asleep in our room mumbling about the heat...
That night we walked down to Long Beach for dinner at one of Ko Phi Phi's nicer resorts. We both ate fresh white snapper that was prepared in a delicious Mediterranean style. After dinner we navigated the narrow, crowded streets and shopped around for a snorkeling tour. We decided to pass on the multitude of loud, smokey bars and clubs for a good night's sleep since we had 8 hours of snorkeling ahead of us the next day. Our neighbors at the hotel obviously had a different agenda since they returned from town drunk and extremely loud at 3 am. They were really obnoxious, as were the numerous mosquitoes that were biting me during the night (we needed the window open to keep cool at night but there wasn't a screen...not good).
We began our longtail boat snorkeling trip at 10am on Friday morning with ten other tourists (4 Brits, 2 Brazilians/Australians, 1 Swede, 3 Lithuanians/New Jerseys). The trip didn't get off to a good start at Shark Point, our first stop. We all strapped on our gear, got into the water and after a few minutes began getting stung all over our bodies. One of the Brazilian/Australians said that it was sea lice that were stinging us; someone else said that it was the chopped up bits of jellyfish that were floating all around. I don't know what was the cause, but the stinging was very distracting and really detracted from the snorkeling experience. In addition, the chopped up bits of jellyfish seriously compromised visibility. After 15 minutes everyone was back in the boat ready to move on.
We spent the next 40 minutes battling the waves on the longtail boat riding out to Bamboo Island. We parked alongside many other boats on the picturesque beach and ate the complimentary lunch of fried rice. Nothing spectacular about the rice except that Lindsay found a lot of egg shells in her portion. I snorkeled a bit there but didn't see any noteworthy fish. After lunch we made five more disappointing snorkeling stops around Ko Phi Phi Leh (a supposed marine reserve and the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands). The coral looked dead and the fish were certainly not plentiful or diverse, plus we encountered stinging sea lice/jellyfish at most stops.
We did make a visit to Monkey Beach where there were...monkeys. Not surprisingly, the monkeys were fat and tempermental from constant feedings from tourists. At one point I was chatting with one of the Brits from our boat who was eating a corn on the cob (a common snack over here). Our conversation was interrupted when we both noticed that a rather large, mean-looking monkey was charging towards us. The man had absolutely no choice but to hand over his cob and back away from the bossy monkey. It was ridiculous!
The most attractive beach we anchored on was one that was filmed in DiCaprio's "The Beach." The limestone cliffs rose high and encircled the area providing an amphitheater-like effect. After "The Beach" we puttered past Viking Cave and then the captain asked whether our group wanted to wait 45 minutes out on the water for sunset (we were on the "sunset tour"). Everyone unanimously declined on this opportunity, so we headed back to Ko Phi Phi. In retrospect the excursion probably would have been better if we never snorkeled--the cliffs that rose out of the water were much more interesting and beautiful than what could be seen below.
That night Lindsay and I assuaged our snorkeling disappointment with large, tasty calzones at an Italian restaurant, yeah for Western fare! After dinner we purchased tickets for the next morning's ferry to Krabi and bus tickets onward to Khao Sok.
Needless to say I was excited about moving on from Ko Phi Phi...
*Geology tangent*
In case you're wondering about the limestone cliffs in this region, here is the (simplified) geologic history as I understand it...
The limestone was deposited about 200+ million years ago as a massive coral reef that extended from China down to Burma. The reef was uplifted about 65 million years ago when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate to form the Himalayas. When uplifted, the limestone faulted and cracked vertically in many places creating "joints". Over time rain preferentially eroded the limestone in those vertical joints (acids dissolved in rainwater dissolve calicite, the main mineral constituent of limestone), creating the spectacular cliffs that we see today.
No comments:
Post a Comment