Koh Phi Phi (Island Turtle Turtle)

Having now dived the Great Barrier Reef and what some say is some of the best water in Thailand, I realize that I have been spoiled. Terribly spoiled. Madagascar was better than any dive since then, though the problem might be that I am not spending enough time and money to get away from the daily tourist dive sites. My two dives at Koh Phi Phi were not really that exciting in terms of wildlife or the visibility, though I did get to see a Giant Moray Eel and a Hawksbill turtle. What I was really hoping to see were some reef sharks, but unfortunately we couldn't find any. Instead, nudibranchs - colourful little sea slugs - are what the two divemasters leading the dive pointed out again and again. I tried to summon the same level of enthusiasm, but the sea slugs were still just kind of... underwhelming. The divemasters, eyes wide and gurgling unintelligibly through their regulators, would point at a blot of fluorescent colour two to four centimeters long and then clap their hands. I will consider myself a seasoned diver when slugs elicit the same sort of reaction from me.

After catching the ferry to mainland Thailand and then the bus to the next ferry on the west coast to take me out to Koh Phi Phi, I arrived at about 2:30 in the afternoon and made my way directly to Blue View Divers. A friend I met on Koh Phagnan had highly recommended them, so I decided that I would head out for a day with them. I was glad for the recommendation, as the island has a plethora of dive shops - about seventeen at last count - and I had no idea which one I should give my business. The thing that makes Blue View unique is that they dive off a Thai longtail. A longtail is basically long wooden boat with a fairly shallow draft propelled by what looks like a retired two-liter engine. The prop sits at the end of a shaft about eight to ten feet past the stern, hence the name "longtail." All the other dive companies do their trips with bigger boats that dock at the main pier, and with ferries needing the space during the day, all boats docked at the pier have to be launched before eight in the morning. The longtail gives Blue View some flexibility in terms of departure times, and we headed out around noon for the two dives. I was thankful for the late start as I have come down with a sore throat and I am trying to catch up on my sleep before the beginning of the Trans-Siberian leg of my journey.

At the dive shop I asked to be pointed in the direction of the cheapest hostel on the island. I was given directions to The Rock where I foolishly booked a night before actually looking at where I would be sleeping. The seventeen-bed dorm looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years, and graffiti on the wall gave a detailed and graphic history of each mattress in the room. This sort of reading did not make for sweet dreams. The next day I went looking for another place to say, and lo and behold, across the street from The Rock (which I now refer to as The Hole) there was another hostel, for the exact same price, and significantly cleaner.

I spent a lazy day after my diving day catching up on rest, and on my last day on the island I went kayaking to some of the less-visited beaches. I rented an open-hulled sea kayak with Alex, a Swede I met in my new hostel, and we spent the morning on the water. We found our rhythm after fifteen minutes of paddling, and after that I am sure we were the envy of every tourist on the yachts and catamarans docked in the harbor. Our first stop was Monkey Beach, though there were unfortunately no monkeys to be seen, and then we paddled across the mouth of the harbor to Maya Beach. The snorkeling at each beach was stunning, and I saw nearly as much snorkeling as I did diving.

I caught the ferry to Phuket in the afternoon where I am now, and tomorrow I fly north to Chiang Mai. I hear that the weather up north is significantly cooler give the higher elevation, especially at night, and I am looking forward to the change. Especially with this burn I now have from three hours on a sea kayak without a shirt on.