Koh Phi Phi

Next stop on Sarah and my Thai adventure was Koh Phi Phi. To get to Koh Phi Phi, you have to fly into Phuket and take a ferry. We spent one night there which was enough. It was definitely not by favorite place. Think sex tourism and lady boys. After going to see the Big Buddha, we boarded the ferry for some fun in the sun. We spent the first afternoon getting to know the town and trying to set up a dive for the next day. Sarah told them she was asthmatic which didn't go over too well. The cute guy from South Africa trying to get us to dive agreed to let her go with a doctors note, so it was off to the doctor for Sarah! With her note in hand, we woke up early and went to the dive center where we were turned away any way. Fail. With a whole day ahead of us and no plans, we decided to book an island hopping your instead. The boat was awesome!

Monkey Beach

We started at Monkey Beach, which is a beach full of monkeys. Very, very aggressive monkeys! The trip traveled on to this little bay where we hopped in the water and were surrounded by millions of little striped fish that looked just like Flounder from the Little Mermaid.

Sarah swimming with the fishies

 The trip ended at Maya Beach, the beach made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio's movie The Beach. Not a bad substistute for diving! 

Koh Phi Phi Beach

We made it back in time to book a night dive with a different dive shop which we didn't tell about Sarah's asthma. Learned that lesson! The night dive was pretty exhilarating. I'd only done it once before and it was as cool as I'd remembered. At one point during the dive, the dive master has us all turn off out flashlights and sit at the bottom of the ocean. Then we had an underwater dance party flailing our arms and legs to make the phosphorescents glow. Amazing!

The Viewpoint

On our last day, we met Hana, a friend from LBS, at the beach to hike up to the viewpoint. It was scorching hot, but the hike was worth it. The view was really breathtaking. 

Cousins!

After relaxing by the pool for a few hours, it was time to take the ferry back to Phuket to meet Mr Boon, our local cab driver. Had it not been for his speed-demon driving abilities, we wouldn't have made it to the ferry on the first day or the airport on the last day in time. I definitely underestimated the size of Phuket. It's huge! Koh Phi Phi was amazing and I hope to go back one day. Three days was not enough!