June 29, 2001 - Friday - Kho Phi Phi, Thailand
We went on our snorkel tour today. The long boat took us out of Ton Sai Bay and we crossed a very rough area between the 2 islands, appropriately called the Viking Straits. The boat then rode by some caverns where people collect bird nests for the Chinese soups. We didn't stop.
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| Awesome looking lagoon at Phi Phi Ley. |
We then drove by this lovely looking lagoon with shallow turquoise waters and towering limestone cliffs. We didn't stop. We finally stopped at a rough looking inlet and were told that we could swim to the shore and walk through a hole in the rock onto a path to go to Maya Bay, where they filmed the movie The Beach. The water was rough and many people were cut-up when they tried to reach the shore.
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| Lagoon used for the movie The Beach - without the digital mountain to enclose the lagoon. |
I had my aquasocks on so I didn't get injured. The water was crystal clear even in the rough turbulence; there were many fish swimming here and anemones galore. This must be what it looked like on Phi Phi Don before the tourism took over and ruined the reefs around that island.
We were hurried back into the boat after that and cruise into the lagoon we previously passed. All the driver did was refuel his boat before heading out again. I really wanted to snorkel there but I guess it wasn't one of the "scheduled stops". We headed back to Phi Phi Don after that, despite my and Michael's protest.
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| Long Boat ebbed against the shore as we ate our lunch. |
The boat circled around and stopped at an island - I think it's called Bamboo Island and we had our lunch there. It was OK - nothing too spectacular with garbage strewn on the interior of the island. The lunch was a pitiful small carton of egg fried rice. There was another long boat docked there with a group of 6 very pasty British lads - from Liverpool.
We headed to Ray Lei Bay after that and snorkeled around there with some good reefs. We went to sharks point after that and even though the water was rough, the water was clear also and there were a large number of fish around the rock. It was until the last few minutes before I reentered the boat again when I saw a black-tipped shark swimming far below. I didn't freak out like the last time.
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| Michael rolling up some ummm... "aromatic grass" after a hard day of play. |
The boat trip ended and we headed back to our home stay. After showering and changing, we headed out to dinner and then I stopped by the Amsterdam Bar again for my nightly tennis. Aput was there and she was being a super flirt again and I tried to ignore her as best as I could but she was very insistent.
It was starting to make me uncomfortable, but I was a regular at that bar so I went back to the bar and looked through their music selection and put on my tunes for myself. Aput came by and asked me to buy her a drink and soon afterward, she started balling her eyes out. There was absolutely no warning of why she started crying so much.
There was an older guy there who comforted her and finally I went to her to see what's up and she just kept on crying and crying about the German guy who she left and how it didn't work out and how she wanted to settle down and have a family but am having a difficult time doing so.
I tried comforting her as best as I could and then I went back to the home stay for a while before meeting up with my group at the Tiger bar. The Thai girls were there too and they danced for a while. Aput was looking tired and sad and finally went home. She originally went home but came back. I think that was the last time I saw her. She left the island next day.
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