Phuket - Day 3
After a restful sleep, we were up bright and early - just missed the sunrise. The sky was beautiful, but didn't get a picture because it was too foggy. We were up so darn early because we were going on out boat tour to Pi Pi Island. Our wake up call was about 30 minutes late, so we were also running late. Luckily the guy who came to pick us up, didn't have any other people to get, so he waited while Hiroshi and I had a quick breakfast. We had some of those delicious croissants and watermelon.

On the way to the dock, Hiroshi fell asleep and missed all the morning activity. Lots of food stalls being set up at that time and traffic was quite heavy. Talk about crazy drivers. Safety in Thailand is non-existant I think. Basically you've got people riding motorcycles in shorts, maybe a t-shirt, no helmut and flipflops. Oh, and don't forget the three family members sitting on the bike with them... and yes, this would be a normal motorcycle. We're not talking Harley sized. Unbelievable.

We arrived at the dock and there were people working. The dock area was quite smelly actually - I'm not sure what it smelled of, but it was rather unpleasant. We met the owner of the tour company and he was quite nice. We got some coffee and picked out our flippers and then waited to board. Once everyone was on board the speed boat (there were about 20 people total in the group), we headed out for the 45 minute ride to Pi Pi.

Pi Pi is actually two islands - a smaller uninhabited one, and a larger one that has a small village on it. At first we went around the smaller island into all the bays. The bays were stunning. The water was so clear and the most beautiful aquamarine colour. And the limestone cliffs were beautiful as well. I got quite a few nice shots of rock formations. At one point we went into a small bay and it was littered with plastic bottles and other garbage. It was so sad. The place is gorgeous - I can't imagine how anyone could be so insensitive as to dump things there. I mean, it could have been blown in from the sea, but somehow, I don't think so.

Eventually we arrived at Monkey Bay, which is named such because of the monkeys that hang out there. We were lucky because they were there for us to see. Apparently they aren't always there. In this bay we did our Powersnorkelling. Powersnorkelling is like snorkelling except you have a scuba regulator in your mouth which is connected by hose to a pump on the surface. This allows you to go hang out on the bottom of the ocean. Other than your mask and fins, the only other gear you need is a weight belt. I had quite a bit of difficulty with this. I kept getting clausterphobic almost and kinda panicky. I also couldn't go down very far without my ears crushing in - even blowing them out didn't help all that much. Hiroshi, however, loved it, and was able to swim right down to the reef. When we went to leave the tour guides had fun trying to untether the boat. They had to fight off screeching monkeys with flippers to get to the anchor on the shore, while the monkeys in the upper branches of the vegetation on the cliff were 'voicing' their discontent by shitting all over them. The guides didn't mind though - I'm sure they are used to it, and true to Thai good nature, they were joking about it.

After we Powersnorkelled for about 30 minutes, we went to the big island for lunch. After lunch I hit a pharmacy and got some aloe lotion for my sunburn lotion. I was in agony. Despite staying out of the sun and wearing a t-shirt to combat reflective rays, I was still getting worse. Both Hiroshi and I were very diligent about the suntan lotion. Walking back to the boat we hit a few shops for some postcards and then we got to go sea kayaking in the bay. This was fun! There were people parasailing and quite a few boats in the bay though, so we didn't venture too far.

Our next stop was a big coral reef between the two islands. This was amazing! We got to use a power scooter thing here - basically the lazy man's way to snorkel *lol* Essentially it is a motorized thing that pulls you thru the water. You can go underwater and have it pull you, but I was content to stay on the surface. Hiroshi had trouble with this part and had to get a life jacket. I had trouble with the regulator, and he had trouble with the snorkel. The life jacket helped him though and we went exploring the reef.

We saw so many fish! It has been a dream of mine forever to go and see tropical fish in the ocean. This of course also being a trip to conquer my fears. First the fear of water on my face (that might have been why I was panicky with the Powersnorkelling) and second the fear of fish biting me. I know, that is a ridiculous fear, but I have it. At one point someone threw some toast in the water to feed the fish (they like that for some reason). All of a sudden the fish came darting out from all over the place like piranha! This was amusing when I was on the boat, but not when I was in the water and the dingbat threw the toast about two feet away from me. I freaked. There were all these fish around me, and I wasn't too comfortable to begin with whenever a school of fish went by, but to have a hord of hungry fish chasing by me... not happy. And, yes one DID bite me! Only they don't have teeth, so it didn't hurt. So maybe that was a good thing, that it happened and I didn't die or whatever, but it was a highly stressful moment! Ok, stop laughing at me now please.

Anyway, while we were exploring we saw a ton on gorgeous coral - stag, brain and a kind that was like layered shelves. Lots of fish - blue and yellow, white with tiny black spots, bright blue, orange and white striped, a few angel fish, bright yellow, a bunch of small boring ones, sea urchin, and things moving in the sand. It was great! I tried to find tropical fish pictures to show you all the fish I saw, but I haven't been able to see any. However, if you go to my photoblog and look at the Sony aquarium pics from a few weeks ago, those are the fish I saw!

After we finished snorkelling, we had a very bumpy ride to a small island. The island was wonderful, but I think it is the tourist trap part of the tour. Basically you are put on the island, and there is nothing to do except rent a beach chair for an hour - at 150B (about $5 which is expensive for Thailand). I was unimpressed at this point due to flaming sunburn pain, and a sore backside from all the bumps on the way there. Actually Hiroshi and I were both stiff in the lower back for two days afterwards. The island was nice, but not worth the hassle getting there. That was the only part of the day that I wasn't thrilled about. Otherwise it was wonderful.

After that we went back to the dock. We were wiped out after an early start and a day in the sun. We had a little nap on the 40 minute drive back to the hotel. Then had fruit drinks and some appetizers at the restaurant while we watched the sunset (which is where all the sunset pics came from). We only had appetizers because we wanted to go to a restaurant called Don's for dinner.

Later that night we headed out to Don's. They actually came and got us. It is an open air restaurant and the mosquitos were out with a vengence. Luckily they thought Hiroshi tasted better than I did ;) We had a very filling, very cheap meal! We shared a beer and had tortilla chips (made fresh) and garlic bread to start. Then Hiroshi had beef bourginion (sp?) and I had spare ribs. Mmmmm good! And all of this for 450B! That's like $12 US!! Total! Wish we had found that restaurant sooner! The restaurant at the hotel is nice, but expensive in comparison. This one is just down the road. So next time we go, we'll take a ride down to Don's. Oh, and the pickup was free!

So after getting dropped off back at the hotel, we walked back to our room to go to sleep. Well, Hiroshi walked, I waddled. I couldn't bend my knees at this point which made going down steps rather hilarious. =) Despite the aching sunburn though, it was a fabulous