Day 80 - 84 The Islands

Mom and I arrived late Saturday night to Phuket, which is the largest island of more than 100 islands that surround Thailand on the Southwest coast of the country on the Andaman Sea. The island and surrounding islands are probably most famous for the tsunami that hit in December 2004. From Phuket you can travel to a least a couple dozen islands around and is a big travel hub for foreigners.

We stayed right in Phuket town, because it is a good location to get to the pier where we boarded a ferry Sunday morning to take a 2 hour ride to Ko Phi Phi Don island about 40 km Southeast of Phuket. It is ranked the third most beautiful island in the world and definitely lives up to it's reputation. It is about lined with limestone cliffs, white sand beaches, and the clearest water I have ever seen. The infrastructure of the islands was completely destroyed by the tsunami in 2004 and since then they have rebuilt the one little town on the southwest side of the island that lies between two bays (NOTE: The before and after pictures of the island are unreal. Before the tsunami the guesthouses were built among the trees and gorgeous plantation on that island, but now everything is exposed because all the trees were whipped out by the wave) There are no cars or motorbikes allowed on the island. Guesthouses, shops, restaurants and few resorts line the walking paths that people can walk through to get to the beaches and the pier. We stayed at a bungalow resort that was set into one of the large hills on the island that overlooked the beach. We spent most of Saturday on the beach and swimming in the pool that overlooked the sea, then enjoyed a great seafood meal on the beach.

On Monday we did a snorkeling tour of some of the islands and the beaches surrounding Ko Phi Phi. Our first stop was Maya beach where the movie "the Beaches" was filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio. We were able to snorkel here and take a sea kayak from the boat onto the beach to walk around the National Park. From there we went to Shark's point, Bamboo Island, and Monkey Beach to do more snorkeling and enjoy the untouched beaches. A lot of the coral in the area was damaged by the tsunami, so I guess it is not as bright and vibrant as it once was but we saw over 60 species of tropical fish in a given location so it was great! We got back to the pier just as the sun was starting to set that night.

The next day we enjoyed the beaches once again before heading back to Phuket on the late ferry that night. When we arrived back to Phuket and we stayed at a resort on Kata beach, located on the Southwest side of the island Tuesday and Wednesday night before flying out Thursday morning. I guess you would call us beach bums for this portion of our trip, but it was great to be in such a beautiful place and enjoy the time together!! I had to go back to teach Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Pictures: 1. Mom in the pool at our resort on Ko Phi Phi 2. Our "taxi" service on the island 3. Monkey Beach 4. limestone cliffs that surround the island 5. Mom and I snorkeling off the boat 6. Long tail boats on the beach