All In a Day's Work

Koh Phi Phi Ley

Toured the other island today. Cost us 200 Baht (roughly $6.50 USD) for a 6-hour tour including water, drinks, fresh fruit, snorkels, and a party boat!

We took a longtail boat, which was very authentic. I feel like I have touched on almost every form of transportation since leaving Australia, less than two weeks ago! There were about 20 people on our boat from all over the place and meeting them and exchanging travel advice was a nice experience.

We started out by going to Monkey Bay which was dim in comparison to the Monkey Forest that we visited in Bali but it was still good.

Then we went around to a little bay that I don't know the name of and swam for a bit. The water was turquoise with really good underwater visibility.

After that stop, we went snorkeling which was nice but I didn't have an underwater camera. I saw Nemo, his dad, and even his mother was still alive! I was scared to touch the sea anemone. There was also this devilish-looking black and white fish that I'm gonna have nightmares about. Oh, and I saw what I would describe as a sea caterpillar except that it was as long as three quarters of my arm and fat! It was wild. It's feet were suction things and it was spotted. I swam a lot that day!

Next stop, Maya Bay. I knew not to expect exactly what The Beach portrayed, only because it is all touristy now and that for the movie they actually planted extra palm trees and things to make it look more tropical (which were removed after filming). But looking past all of the people and boats, it was a very nice spot. A secluded cove surrounded by high rock faces covered in greenery. We walked off the beach and through the rainforest as well and found little huts where locals presumably live.

On the ride back, we docked up with a larger boat (after I was granted my request to operate the longtail boat, which was a lot more difficult than it looked!) and cruised back to the main island in style. They played music, sang, some danced, and I dove from the boat into the ocean as we went along. The sun set and we took a leisurely pace back to Koh Phi Phi Don.

Just offshore from docking the pier, this happened:

When pictures are impossible and words fall short, how can I possibly explain to you what it is that I experienced?!? The water glows at night. Actually, it doesn’t just glow, it sparkles! On the way back to port, we jumped off of our boat one last time into the extreme darkness of the bay and when you disturb the water, it starts to sparkle like green diamonds…exactly like in the Disney movies when a fairy waves her wand. Little bright green, four-pointed sparkles. I was told that it is the plankton that glow like this. I don’t care what it was, it was freakin’ AH-MAZ-ING! I was so absorbed by what I was experiencing that I wasn’t even caught up thinking of all of the other things with me in the water that go “boom” in the night. I grabbed a snorkel to see what was happening beneath the surface and the more you moved and created a ripples underwater, the more glowing green specs appeared. I’ll admit, it was more impressive above water due to the fact that it sparkled but underwater was still a sight to behold because the water that was supposed to be black as the night was...was glowing!

My next post will describe the note that this night ended on, and in my personal opinion: the fat lady sung her ass off like she was auditioning for American Idol in front of Jesus.