After leaving Cambodia behind following the bus journey from hell, we've now made it down to the thai islands. We flew from Bangkok to Phuket, stayed one night there in Patong (like Benidorm on steroids). We then got the ferry over to Ko Phi Phi. This was the island which you'd all have seen on the news when the tsunami hit in 2004. The narrow bit of sand between the two rocky islands only gets to about 2m above sea level. they didn't stand much of a chance when the 6m wave came.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_Phi_Phi
The island is now back to it's former glory, and is really beautiful. The sea is proper warm and calm, and there are no cars on the island, so it's relatively quiet (except for the occasional fishing boat motor!). We stayed here for two nights in a beach hut about 20m from the beach on a quiet stretch of the island (away from the backpackers accomdations which are crammed in). The final day before the ferry to Krabi we hired a sea kayak to go snorkling around the island. We went to a beach called Monkey Beach, which surprisingly had a colony of monkeys living on it. One tried to rob our stuff off the kayak, so i tried to scare it off, which prompted it to bear its teeth. I filled my pants at the prospect of being attacked and contracting rabies, but the little bugger just ran off. I'd learnt my lesson, I think.
The snorkling itself was amazing, with corals and tropical fish everywhere. There were areas of desolate sea bed where the tsunami had destroyed the corals. It will take hundreds if not thousands of years for them to grow back. Although it was cloudy and even rained on our way back to the main beach, we both got quite burnt. Will I never learn?? The aftersun was in the fridge last night! The locals are fascinated by the colour of my shins, hence i wore trousers last night for dinner.
We're now in Krabi, back on the mainland. It too has some amazing beaches and sea kayaking opportunities, which we're going to explore today. After staying here for another night I think we're going to Khao Sok national park to do some more trekking (maybe a nightime one?).
Hope you're all doing fine. Missing you all loads, why don't you all come to Thailand, then to NZ???!!!
James
x
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3 comments:
Hi both,
Blog is great, sounds like your having an interesting and eventful experience..
Got your text on Saturday James, text u back from Prague, not sure if u got it.
Take care and keep the blog updated.
Dan
hi u 2 ,
ur snorkling escapade leaves me in mind of cyprus!!!!!! by the way what about some more pic's love u both loads,take care ,dad
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Hello!
It really does sound amazing. Hope you're both having a great time.
Lou x
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