One Fish, Two Fish, Yay Fish, Boo Fish

This morning we got up early to take a long tail boat to Koh Phi Phi Leh (a smaller island next to Ko Phi Phi Don) for snorkeling and swimming.  We and the Italian couple paired with us set off around the northern tip of the island, then south along the west side of the island, which is mostly sheer cliffs; Ko Phi Phi Don is essentially one big karst.

Long tail boats as we left Koh Phi Phi Don.

Scenery on the west side of Koh Phi Phi Don.

Some perspective on how tall these cliffs are:
see the boat in front of the cliff?

After about an hour of riding in the NOISY long tail boat (ours sounded like a tractor with no muffler), we landed in Maya Bay, an inlet in the huge karst that makes up Koh Phi Phi Leh and has a glorious white sand and warm water beach surrounded by the sheer cliff faces of the karst.  The island is thin enough here that a short walk through the peaceful jungle brings you to the other side of it, where you can see coral reefs under the shallow water.  The walk through the jungle was a striking contrast to the beach itself; there are a lot of tourists and their noisy long tail boats on the beach, but only a few steps into the jungle it was completely silent except for the breeze through the tree leaves.

Gavin and I on Maya Beach.

Long tail boats on Maya Beach.

Obligatory "yoga on the beach" photo.  With the magic
of Photoshop, it looks like we are on a deserted beach,
which certainly wasn't the case.  :D

Maya Beach WITH all the tourists visible.  :)

After swimming and relaxing at the beach, our boat took us to the other side of the island that we had walked to earlier, and we hopped into the water to snorkel.  The reef was very shallow, and much of the coral was dead, but there were a TON of fish, and some of the most friendly and social fish I have ever been around; I think tourists must feed them.  They swam right into our faces and all around us, and followed us as we swam around, getting as close to us as possible without actually touching us.  We also saw a few bits brightly colored soft coral that closed when we waved a fin in front of it.  There were also anemones with clown fish swimming through their fronds.

Long tail in the snorkeling area near Koh Phi Phi Leh.

Very shallow water made the reefs visible even from out of the water!

Panorama of the snorkeling area from our long tail boat.

 

Snorkeling near Koh Phi Phi Leh. Yes, I am one of "those"
people who wears a UPF shirt snorkeling. Hey, I get sunburned
really badly in the ocean!  :)

Gavin snorkeling.

Look at how social these fish are!  They are practically bumping into my face!

After snorkeling we made a brief stop at the Viking Cave.  We parked pretty far away from it, we couldn’t even see a cave, it just looked like a large inlet.  Gavin jumped into the water first, and while walking along the shallow bottom he said a fish swam up his shorts and back out!  I got in the water next, and suddenly a white fish about the length of my hand was darting around and through my legs.  I stopped to watch for a second, and it BIT me!  Hard enough to draw a little blood!  I have never been bitten by a fish in the ocean!  I am guessing maybe it had a nest with young or eggs right under the boat where we had parked.

Panorama of Viking Cave area.

Me on our long tail boat.

 

On the way back to Koh Phi Phi Don, we and several other tourist boats stopped to ogle a colony of sea gypsies who live in caves on Koh Phi Phi Leh.  They had built bamboo scaffolding to hold up their dwelling and to climb from one to another.  We didn’t actually land at the village, just slowed down enough to see it and take pictures.  I wonder what the gypsies think of all us tourists gawking at them all day…

We were back on Laemtong Beach by around noon, so we walked down the beach to have lunch. We sat down at MaMaPing Sea Gypsy restaurant, as it was one of the only restaurants on the beach that didn’t look like it belonged to a resort; they just had outdoor grills and electric skillets on tables to cook outside.  I had a DELICIOUS panang curry (a type of red curry), and Gavin had a tasty noodle dish.  There were flies galore swarming the kitchen area next to us, but I didn’t see any food actually exposed to them until they brought out a bunch of meat to put on the grill…  One of those instances where it is best NOT to see the kitchen!  :D

After lunch we finally got around to doing what one is supposed to do on an island beach resort: relaxing.  :)  We walked down the beach and found some perfect lounge chairs and a hammock in the shade of a large tree, and we read our books for a while.  I can only relax for so long, so after a bit I walked through the ocean down to the beach massage pavilion, and I had a decadent beach massage, in the open air with the sounds of the waves and lovely smelling aromatherapy massage oil.  It was a little weird in that she took off my bikini top, but I was covered the whole time so it didn’t matter.  But she had unthreaded the straps, so I couldn’t put it back on.  :)  I had to use paper clips to thread the straps back through the bikini, all while trying to hold a towel to cover myself.  :)

Gavin reading a book in a hammock on the beach. Can you get more tropical
resort cliche than that?  :)

After my massage we headed up to the Sunset Bar a little early to make sure we didn’t miss the sunset again since it was our last night here.  We were one of the first people there, so we got to pick a nice spot to watch the sun go down over the ocean with a couple drinks.  We left pretty much immediately after the sun set to avoid the mosquitos swarms of last night.

Beautiful sunset from the Sunset Bar.

I took like a hundred pictures of the sunset.  :)

Panorama of the sunset.

Since during the sunset we were watching rain moving toward us over the ocean and it started to get windy and cool like it was about to storm, we stayed on the resort for a Thai food buffet for dinner.  Afterward, as we were walking toward the beach for an evening stroll, we heard singing coming from the reception area.  We wandered over, and we saw several Thai people holding candles and watching a large television and singing together. Today was the king of Thailand's birthday, and I guess they all were joining in on the celebration via the TV.  A resort staff person passed Gavin and I some candles to hold.  After the celebration, we walked hand in hand along the dark beach, a lovely end to our last night on Koh Phi Phi.

Celebrating the king of Thailand's birthday.