We booked a tour from Ao Nang to the Phi Phi Islands, a small chain of islands widely regarded as some of the world's most stunning. Not wanting to risk taking my iphone on the boat, Pinky and I searched through the gift shops of Ao Nang for a waterproof camera. The choice came down to a B5000 digital Go Pro camera or a B600 35mm underwater camera. I opted for the 35mm, but I should have changed the film; I imagine it's been sitting on the shelf in the little shop since the early 2000's.
Koh Phi Phi is really amazing, I promise! It's quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life, so much so that it didn't even look real. Please ignore the poor photographs.
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It was an all-day boat trip to several beaches in the Phi Phi islands. Our first stop was Phi Phi Le. The name is short for "beach". It's the smaller of the islands, and, being a national park, is unpopulated except for day-tripping tourists. It's become super famous in the past decade as the filming location for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, The Beach. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. We had some time to explore the beach, then took a snorkeling excursion in the still bay, observing schools of colorful fish in the crystal blue water.
Next, the boat took us to Monkey Beach, although there were no monkeys to be seen. Our guide was hilarious!
"What day is it today... Oh! It's Wednesday! It is a holiday for the monkeys. It's their long weekend."
He also showed us a cave called "Viking Cave" where there is an ongoing archaeological excavation which is turing up old viking artifacts, leading to speculation that the vikings may have sailed all the way around the Cape of Good Hope* to Thailand sometime in the Middle Ages.
By then it was lunchtime, and we sailed to Phi Phi Don, the biggest of the Phi Phi Islands. It's name means "mainland". Phi Phi Don is a populated island, and home to the village and many resorts. We had lunch there, and had a while to walk around the beach.
The last stop of the trip was another snorkeling excursion at Bamboo Island. There wasn't as much marine life to be seen there, although the beach was amazingly beautiful.
I wish that I was able to capture in words or photographs how stunning Phi Phi was. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and an amazing adventure in the Andaman Sea. After returning to Ao Nang, I purchased a waterproof phone case so that I'll be able to take better pictures at sea in the future and won't have to rely so much on the camera, although it was kind of fun to use. I had forgotten how fun it is not knowing how your pictures look until you get them back from the shop!
* I rarely get the chance to link to the South Africa portion of my blog, so I won't miss an opportunity to do so!
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