We Went Phi Phi

We are especially glad to be able to make a post this afternoon. The reason that we are glad to be posting has to do with our being unsure whether or not we would have cash anymore. Unfortunately, our ATM card stopped working. We don't know when it stopped working, we've only used in once in Thailand, the first day we were here. We have been conserving cash as much as possible until we could get things figured out. I (Jason) emailed Wells Fargo yesterday to see what the issue might be. Fortunately, they have replied quickly with good news. Apparently some terminals associated with Cirrus, Pulse, and Plus are experiencing some problems. Wells Fargo has agreed for us to use the card for cash advances as needed, free of charge. This is a huge load off our shoulders.

Yesterday booked tickets for today's tour of the Phi Phi and Khai islands. The tour agent was quite a salesman. We must have a cheap look about us, because he bargained himself down %50 from the published tour price in about a minute and a half. While his offer was the best price we had found, it made us suspicious of the quality of the tour we would get. We decided to risk it since he would accept a credit card for payment.

This morning we were picked up at our hotel, right on time. So far, so good. It was nice to be able to describe our place of residence for once. Usually, when someone asks where we are staying, we shrugg our shoulders "Well, it is very small, I am not sure of its' name, it is on a back alley near here."

We were transferred to Chalong Bay, where we were to board our boat. We were happy to see that the boat was as described. The ride out to Phi Phi Ley, the first of the two Phi Phi islands we were to visit, took about an hour and a half. The seas were rough. While I find all the bouncing about rather painful, Larissa seems to delight in it. We were sitting in the front of the boat, along with four other people. Most of us were groaning in discomfort, but Larissa was having a giggling fit. I was glad that she was content.

Phi Phi Ley is known for Maya Bay, which is now often referred to as "The Beach," after the movie of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio made the place famous. The Beach was our first stop. It was almost as beautiful as it was in the movie, but far more crowded. The actual beach is a bit right of this shot. I avoided pictures of the actual beach because it was so littered with boats and people. We enjoyed the sights for awhile, and then went to a different bay for some snorkeling.

We didn't have high hopes for the quality of the snorkeling here. While the bay was beautiful, it was crowded with other boats.
We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the water. While some of the coral was damaged, large areas were virtually covered in different colored anenomes. We saw a baby sea snake and some false clown anenome fish, among many other colorful fishies.

This snorkeling session was really good for my health. As all of you have been made aware, I have been a bit sick in recent days. Well, I am happy to report that I am now coughing and sniffling very rarely, and can breathe easily through my nose. Before this special snorkel I could not have made the same claims. Anyway, I have given myself the all-clear for scuba diving on Thursday.

We left Phi Phi Ley to make the short trip to Phi Phi Don. We first stopped at a place called Monkey Beach. I didn't know anything about this place, but Larissa told me that there were monkeys there. I suppose I should have assumed as much. Sure enough, we could see monkeys scurrying around even before we made it all the way to shore. Larissa gave me a little talk before we made it to shore: "Jason, the monkeys here bite sometimes, they can have rabies, so be careful." We were surprised at how tame the monkeys were. They were happy to receive hand-fed bananas. You can tell that they have been fed a little bit too much though, because most of the time they took one bite of each banana, and threw the rest aside. Here is Larissa with one of them,
and here is one that is too polite to throw away any of his food.

After playing with the monkeys while managing not to contract rabies, we made our way to the water for some more snorkeling. You may have noticed that we really like the water. Larissa wasn't quite as ready to leave the monkeys as me though. She seemed a bit taken back "You like fish more than monkeys don't you?" Yeah, I guess I do. We saw some Clown Anenome Fish. They are different from the False Clown Anenome fish in that they have black lines outlining their stripes.
We took a short boat ride to a second beach on Phi Phi Don. Upon arrival on the beach, we were shown to a beautiful deck on a small cliff overlooking the water. We were delighted to see a full buffet spread before us. The buffet was a mix between Thai and Italian food, we decided to eat both. Keep in mind that we still didn't know whether we would be able to get cash when we got back, so we were intent on filling up as much as possible. I was doing my best to get Larissa to gorge herself to the max, just in case I couldn't be a good provider tonight.

Then we were off to Khai Island. Khai Island is very small, about a kilometer in circumference. We enjoyed snorkeling around its' perimeter. We found some cool caves,


and came across an adult sea snake. We also managed to find a field of jellyfish. Fortunately their tentacles did not seem to be poisonous. All in all, we were very happy with our tour. It was even better than described.