Today we are in Thailand!
It is a wonderful beach area with the bluest, green water! We were going out to see the famous Phi Phi Islands (pronounced Pee Pee). This is where beautiful great giant formations of limestone rise from the sea in weird and wonderful shapes, and where there are little secluded bays. One location is where the Leonardo DeCaprio film, The Beach was filmed. James Bond films have also been filmed out here.
Phuket is a Thai island, some 500 square miles large, which is really just a big tourist destination. Our ship was tendered in this port, in Patong Beach.
HAL had rented large tenders to supplement theirs so we really racked and stacked a lot of us on the tenders, which were very hot and humid, by the time we set off for the 10 minute ride to shore. An extremely long gangway was in place on a huge long white sandy beach.
We were to bus to a high speed speed boat that would take us to Phi Phi, swim, snorkel and have lunch at a resort. This is a little resort town although there were lots of billboards advertising luxury resorts and condominiums. There were Tuk Tuk's everywhere that we could hire out for the day!
We saw evidence, once again of money that is building new structures, but as through Asia, it is cheek by jowl with the old. Thailand also has a mess of wires everywhere, so it is next to impossible to get a good picture without thousands of wires in it!
After 45 minutes we arrived at the marina to get to our boat.
Then we climbed aboard the fast boat which had 3 x 200 hp motors and we made our way slowly out of the channel into the open ocean.
We saw many small islands along the way - some with people, some without!
About a 45 minute high speed boat ride later, we arrive at Phi Phi island. No question this is a magnificent structure rising in the ocean, but as we sailed into the very sheltered lagoon, imagine our surprise to see hundreds of boats and thousands of people!!! We calculated at least 2000 or more all on this beach. Most of the beach was occupied by the boats moored in backwards and then we walked through the throngs of people to a small roped off area to swim. I wondered what the pee pee content was in the Phi Phi islands! We were so hot we plunged in!
The boats and the water were magnificent!
I walked around the island, through the trees, to the other side and another bay area! There were luxury cottages and tent camping along the way!
Next we went to another bay area that had stalactites hanging from the walls of the limestone cliffs.
Then we were off around the bend to see the "Viking Caves" where supposedly 1000 years ago Vikings had taken safe harbour and painted their story inside. Today the cave is the place where the natives collect bird nests for bird nest soup - which we did see them gathering.
Then around another corner where they told us to get on our snorkel gear and dive off the back of the boat for 30 minutes on a coral reef. A banana peel attracts alot of fish!
Then it was off to the resort for lunch. We had a good Thai lunch and I had a stroll around the island!
We passed more islands on our way back!
We traveled back to the mainland, went for a walk along the beach when we got back. The tide was out and you could see mud fish in the sand!
We tendered back to our ship, exhausted from the day, sat at the sail away with our new friends, then to dinner!
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