Phi Phi Party!

We arrived this afternoon back at the beloved Ao Nang beach after spending four days on Phi Phi Island (pronounced "pee pee island"--yes the jokes were limitless), a resort island located about 45 miles to the west. The island was beautiful and one of the first things we did was hike to the "view point," a spot that overlooks the center of the island. We each sweat about 5 lbs., hence the lack of contact in the photo below, but the view was well worth it!

While the scenery was nice (I think we all still favored Ao Nang), the reason for our visit was scuba diving, which we took part in right away. We went with Phi Phi Scuba as our dive operator, and our divemaster was Ash, a 23-year old Brit from south London who got derailed in Phi Phi sometime in April. Also aboard was Minnesota-born Pat, who definitely lightened the mood and reminded me of home with his Super Troopers/Steve Zissou references. In a nutshell, we all really liked the diving crew--they all seemed to be former backpackers who simply never left the island.

Our first two dives were considered local, just south of Phi Phi Don at Bida Nok and Bida Nai. Despite the fact that Brian and I are relatively experienced divers and have dove/snorkeled in a number of beautiful locations, this first dive at Bida Nok was the best we'd ever done. You name it, we saw it--sea snakes, sea turtles, a plethora of reef fish, moray eels, and finally a pair of octopi performing a violent mating ritual during our safety stop at the end of the dive (see video). What are the odds?!

The second dive was also a hit, though it obviously had a tough act to follow. We were so impressed with the area we decided to do a three-dive tour the next day visiting the King Cruiser wreck, Shark Point Phuket, and Maya Bay (where the movie "The Beach" was filmed). The wreck dive was a lot of fun and a bit more of a challenge, due to the current and lots of spiny poisonous sea creatures. We descended onto the site on a line and did about two circles around the wreck, a 150-foot ferry that ran aground on Shark Point in the late 90s. Though the visibility was not perfect, the dive was again full of life--I distinctly recall coming face to face with a large Lionfish, who proceeded to point his poisonous spines at me as a warning. The next dive was also a memorable one, as we were lucky enough to hang out with a local celebrity, a 5-foot leopard shark.

The last dive of the day was a bit more strenuous for me because of a foot injury that had become more and more aggravated with each dive (a local ran into my heel with his bike the day before), and a small leak in my already underfilled scuba cylinder. But I was glad I pulled through and still made the dive, as we saw several sea turtles and a 4-foot baracuda who showed off his teeth to me (just like the 6 footer that challenged me and my friend Riley in Mexico). My favorite part of the dive though was the swim throughs, which were narrow breaks in the rocks filled with thousands of reef fish. It made you feel like a fish yourself. I was able to snap a photo of us leaving Maya Bay (see above) to prove to my friend Bob that I had actually been to 'The Beach,' though I think I've seen better scenery on this trip already.

After the three dives, we were obviously exhausted, so we took a nap, ate dinner, and then decided to give the island nightlife a chance, since we hadn't really partied on the trip up to this point. Brian and I finally dabbled in the local favorite, Thai whiskey, and the girls drank some Chang beer (the Thai equivalent of Schlitz malt liquor) before heading out to 'Hippies,' a beach party bar that came highly recommended by our newly-acquired diving buddies. It was a lot of fun, especially when the tide came in and the dance floor got flooded with ocean. Good times!

The one drawback to the whole Phi Phi Island experience was that the day after we left the local dive sites, two whale sharks were spotted. I've always wanted to see a whale shark in the wild (the one I saw at the Osaka aquarium in Japan was a sad respresentation of the largest fish on Earth), but I guess I missed my chance on the Thai west coast. Maybe we will have more luck diving Koh Tao in the east.

To share one last random site with you, just before we hopped on the ferry back to Ao Nang, I snapped a photo of a monkey shaking a man's hand next to the pier (pictured above). The funny part was that as I passed by I noticed another foreigner taking out his camera to get a photo when the woman pictured (who apparently owned the monkey) shouted "picture 50 baht!" It seems like everything here in Thailand has a price, even if it's only a couple dollars (50 baht=$1.60), but I feel even better about getting the photo without drawing the woman's attention. All in all, we got what we wanted from our time on Phi Phi Island--phenomenal diving and some island partying. Veni vidi vici!