Phi Phi Island & more snorkelling

My last day in Phuket – after a lot of messing around with the hotel tour manager who, as nice as she was to me, couldn’t seem to get a simple date right when talking to the tour company, I was finally confirmed on the Phi Phi trip.  Finally, the weather had cleared up completely and it was a beautiful sunny day.

Snorkeling is high on the agenda for this tour, so it was another opportunity to practice with my waterproof housing.  My shots were better this time, but it’s still very hard to track a subject, and the with pressure the housing still presses buttons it shouldn’t.  I might have to work out some sort of foam buffer to sit around the button area.  I also chose the wrong snorkeling set to take it down.  Later in the day we dived a fantastic reef and I left it in the boat.  That decision did allow me to enjoy the views, and practice my equilisation techniques whilst diving as deep as I could.

Monkey beach is one of the few places in the world where monkeys enter the sea.  These guys come out to meet the incoming hordes, in the hope of food. Whilst most of the clan are not that keen on the water, and running away shreaking whenever a wave breaks near them, one little guy was showing off near me, performing duck dives and somersaults under the water.  Despite multiple warnings not to get too close, two people were scratched.  You can’t tell some people.

One of the most enjoyable things to do when in Asia is collect examples of bad English. I didn’t get a photo of the “Sham” motor workshop, but I would go so far as to say that this particular business would not be out of place in some parts of Australia. This expensive speedboat hasn’t had a comparable budget put aside for the sign-writing…

Leonardo DiCaprio’s leading role in The Beach did more for this particular bay than any other marketing exercise.  You can, in fact, book the very disgusting room in which he stayed in Bangkok.  This is The Beach, and these are some of the long-tail boats used for short trips amongst the islands and for fishing on calmer days.

Phi Phi Island was beautiful, and these huts look very tempting for a later return.

I don’t remember what island this is, but it is indicative of the hundreds, if not thousands, of nature’s dramatic punctuations in the otherwise  vast, crystal blue ocean of this region.

The boat dropped us onto an island for one last swim and a cocktail before heading home. I decided to do some rock-pool exploring, and stumbled upon a nest of three, maybe four Banded Sea Kraits.  I’m told that these are the most poisonous sea snakes in the world.  These guys were resting in tiny pools of water during low tide.

I have been rushing from one place to another so far, and haven’t had a great deal of time for R&R.  To prove that I actually did stop and take a break, here’s my first Singapore Sling for the trip.  I was supposed to drink this in Raffles in Singapore, but time didn’t allow me to get there.

On my final day in Phuket I realised that I hadn’t captured much of the daily lives of people here, so I snapped a few views out the front windscreen of our bus. Almost everyone gets around on small motorbikes, and you’ll often see families of three or even four crammed in tight onto one. This little girl looked like she was doing the steering and having a great time.

Mornings and nights will find hundreds of trucks loaded with workers, ranging from factory and farm laborers to hotel staff. This is one of the smaller ones. I’ve seen them loaded with up to 30 people.

Phuket – Island Hopping 1

I’m finding it very difficult to blog on a daily basis. Partly because I am always exhausted after a long day, usually starting at 7am, followed by a short break before night activities, and partly because it takes a while to select and edit the photos, So the regularity and quality of posts will diminish somewhat as time goes by.

The last few days I’ve been island hopping, finishing with my last one tomorrow, and I’ve seen a Muay Thai kickboxing event. This was the real deal as opposed to those shows put on for tourists.

I took a full-day speedboat tour to Krabi and a few islands to get a feel for the beautiful water and sands. Although the weather was pretty bad the water was very warm and the snorkeling fun. I will say that the quality of the reefs we saw was very average. Perhaps the tsunami made a real mess of things, perhaps I’ve been spoiled with what we have back at home – even in Port Philip Bay – or perhaps there is better to come. What made the tour great was that I shared it not only with the obligatory United Nations of Tourists, but with 6 off-duty guides. These local Thai’s were taking a rare chance to see the sights they don’t get to see when they are working, and were an absolute riot. Even with the bad weather we were all smiling, all day long. And to top it off they bought me beer for the return trip. Just me, mind you. I guess I look more thirsty than every other tourist in Phuket…

The trip out to the first island took about 90 minutes, during which their cameras didn’t seem to stop clicking. Mine was grabbed halfway through, and I was forced into this shot (Can’t you tell?). For the benefit of those who like to see me in photos (are you all nuts?) …

On the way out there were some interesting sights.  I can see how the tsunami was so devastating, as there is a very long shallow area, and the tides are quite dramatic here.  This guy is collecting “clams” (we call them pipis, whelks and cockles) whilst the tide is out. He pushes the box along, which apparently somehow “calls” the shellfish out, then grabs them and throws them into the box.

Halfway to the first island we passed a boat which seemed to be on fire. Seeing as our captain made no comment or radio call, I can only assume that someone was brewing local coffee or cooking up a storm inside.

My first attempt at snorkeling with my underwater camera housing was a mixed affair.  Whilst the camera didn’t get wet, I wasn’t able to see what I was shooting very well, and the PVC often pressed the function buttons whenever I dived deeper and the pressure increased.  It remains to be seen how successful I’ll be at shooting whilst scuba diving.

We stopped at Chicken Island.  I can’t remember why it is called that, but it’s a nice little sand atoll that has a shallow tidal crossing to another island.  On the landing area was a group of people repeatedly playing a snippet of Indian music.  I didn’t think much of it until someone explained to me they were filming for a Bollywood film.  This was a love scene, and I realised eventually that the two actors were lying on the ground kissing for each take, and that they had been filming the same take for the entire time were on the island – that would be about 45 minutes!

Around the Krabi region are small islands with caves in which people live. They set themselves up to collect birds nests for a period of time after which they set sail back to the mainland to sell their harvest.  Looks pretty peaceful, but I don’t suppose there’d be any wireless internet.

The trip home was very much a different experience to that going out. A storm hit us, and we all got extremely drenched.  Whilst this didn’t bother me at all the locals are not used to anything below about 28 degrees, and they were clearly suffering, even under their ponchos.  They still managed a painful smile, though.