Paradise on Koh Phi Phi

Ahhh, a day in the life of a beach bum

Our beach bummery has continued on to the island paradise of Koh Phi Phi (pronounced ko pee pee - yes, it still makes us giggle like middle schoolers). Phi Phi has one main island where there is shopping, hotels, restaurants, etc where everybody (mainly Aussies) stays (mainly drinks) and a bunch of smaller uninhabited islands around it that you can visit on day trips. It's very vacation-y and we love it!

We signed up for a Sunset Snorkeling Tour, which was great. All the Thai dudes guiding the tour looked like pirates with long hair and earrings and bandannas. We all climbed aboard the boat and hung out on the top deck as we buzzed off to our first location. When the boat docked, we all got to jump off the top deck into the water and swim to the beach. It was a small beach where non-friendly monkeys lived. They hissed and screeched at you and ganged up to drive you back off the beach. There were many tour boats stopping there... why, I don't know. Unloading tourists into hostile monkey territory doesn't seem like the best idea.

One of our tour guides throwing pineapple away from the crowd so people could escape

Next, we went back to the boat and cruised along to our next destination called Viking Cave.

Out to sea!

Viking Cave

Apparently there are ancient paintings inside the cave of Viking ships, so that's how it got it's name. All the scaffolding/stick ladders are built by people who live in the caves. They gather swallow's nests from the top of the cave. Bird's nest soup is a very expensive delicacy served in Asia, and this is where they gather the nests for the soup. Crazy! People live in there, AND they scamper up these stick ladder things to get nests AND people eat them! I'll say it again. Crazy! Our guide said they used to let visitors in the cave, but not anymore.

Next we stopped for some snorkeling around a reef, and we could also kayak into a lagoon. The water was pretty choppy, so snorkeling was difficult, but Brannan was able to stay in for a while and look at all the fish. Then we took our little kayak into the lagoon, which was beautiful!

Kayaks heading to the lagoon

Shallow waters with surrounding cliffs in the lagoon

The water was so shallow that it was bright blue and we could jump out and swim around and easily hop back in the kayak. It was so beautiful, but unfortunately our camera stayed dry on the boat so we didn't get any pictures while we were out there.

Next, we went to the area's most famous destination - Maya Bay, where the movie "The Beach" with Leo DiCaprio was filmed. I've never seen the movie, but they sure picked a sweet location for it.

Somehow they were able to get rid of all the tourists to film a movie about a deserted island

The boat actually dropped us off on the opposite side of the island so we could walk across. It was a nice barefoot walk and we encountered this poor guy

No, he is not wearing a white tank top

We both saw the fellow and said "OOOOooooooooohhh" Ouch! But we resisted walking up and slapping him on the shoulder.

We were able to hang out at Maya Bay for about an hour and swim and sit on the beach. This beach had the BEST white sand I have ever felt between my toes! It was great to relax and enjoy it.

Beachin' it up

Then it was time to head back to our boat for the Sunset cruise home. They cooked up some fried rice and had some pineapple and watermelon to eat on the way back. It was pretty cloudy so we didn't actually get to see the sunset, but still had a great time.

That night we caught a fire show on the beach, where guys light the ends of sticks and ropes on fire and twirl them around. It was like baton-twirling, but with FIRE!

There is a guy in the middle of those sparks! He basically lit two sparklers on the ends of ropes and flung his arms like a windmill.

We also knew we wanted to try scuba diving while we were in Thailand as a Christmas present to ourselves. Because of the warm, clear water the diving is supposed to be really great here. So we ended up deciding to do it while we were in Koh Phi Phi. There are a million dive centers on every street, so we knew it was a popular place for diving.

We got signed up for a 3-day open water certification course, and spent the first day in "confine" which is a roped-off shallow area specifically used to train divers. Our instructor Stephan was from South Africa (so he sounded British-ish) and was great; he was really easy to learn from. We also had a Frenchie named Audrey who was getting certified as an instructor so she was there to demonstrate some skills. My favorite thing was that she would ask me questions, but was saying them as statements. She would say "your air is on" and I would say, "ok thanks!" And she would be like, "no no it's a question. You're air is on...?" 
Haha
And the instructor from South Africa made jokes about the French all the time. It was great.

So on our first day we learned our basic skills - how to breathe, how to clear your mask of water, how to retrieve your air hose if you lose it, how to maintain your buoyancy, how to ascend & descend, how to share air if your buddy runs out - all the basics you'll need. I found it pretty stressful to try to remember everything. The hardest part was putting your face underwater and remembering to breathe. It kept freaking me out because it's natural to hold your breath when you go under and I kept getting panicky trying to remember I actually had air to breathe. It took me a couple of dives before it felt more natural, but still never felt completely comfortable going under.  Brannan, on the other hand, took to it like a fish and had a blast the first day.

After our first day of basic skills in confine, we went out at 7 the next morning to do our first 2 real dives.

Trying to look bright-eyed at 7am.

We got out there, did our first dives (with only one mild flip-out when I first went under) and repeated some of the skills we learned. It was nice because we spent a few minutes doing some skills and then we were off having fun looking at coral and fish. Our first 2 dives were around 45 minutes each, so we got some fun sight-seeing in.  We saw a small reef shark, some huuuuge turtles, Nemo fish and lots of schools of colorful other fish.

The next day we did our final 2 dives (with no freak-outs, yay!) and spent nearly an hour each time down there. Again, we only repeated some skills for the first few minutes and then it was off to explore the reef. We saw more turtles, starfish, a huge cuttlefish, a lionfish, and plenty of others. The last dive was the best because now we were both pretty comfortable with our breathing and our buoyancy and could enjoy the sights a little more. 
At one point Brannan went in for a closer look at a huge snapping turtle and almost head-butted it before he was able to back up. That would have been a great story... "Brannan, how did you lose that ear?..." 

So not yet perfect in our scuba skills, but better.

I also got to touch a bubble coral, which sea turtles eat. It felt like jello and would pop and regrow in seconds if you pushed too hard. There is a lot of crazy stuff underwater!

Hooray - certified!

 Overall we came away with a great experience. I found it a little more stressful than fun, but Brannan really had a good time and only found it a little bit stressful. The best part is, when we got home both days after diving, we still felt like we're bobbing and floating around and it's REALLY hard to get to sleep! Hopefully we can get rid of our sea legs and become land lubbers again soon.

Now, we will just relax and enjoy the beaches of Koh Phi Phi for a few more days before heading off to our next destination. By Christmas, we should be the tannest people you know!