Southern Thai Islands

So of COURSE, Victoria and I had to head south to one of my favorite places ...Koh Phi Phi. She gets to hear me talk about it all the time so I figured I would let her see what all the fuss was about. We flew into Phuket and got up early and took a speed boat over to Koh Phi Phi. After stopping first at Maya Bay for some walking around in the "jungle," we headed around to the back of the island for some snorkeling. Koh Phi Phi is comprised of two islands...Koh Phi Phi Lei and Koh Phi Phi Don. (Don being the bigger one). Phi Phi Lei offered us some great snorkeling. Victoria was a natural. I didn't even really have to teach her anything. She was totally cool and very much at ease in the water and breathing. She was able to see a variety of marine life ...Parrotfish, Moorish Idols, various wrasses, Damselfish and even a triggerfish. (a little one). As we headed back to our boat, we noticed a boat named "J. Mansion" which made both of us think immediately of Victoria's brother John Mark whose awesome podcast is entitled "J.Mix." Victoria did her own little rendition of the podcast intro here on the video. For those of you who have heard John Mark's podcast intro, this will be hilarious. For the others who haven't, thank you for indulging us.






We headed on to Phi Phi Don with a little stop at Monkey Beach to see the monkeys. I was fairly suprised at how they weren't afraid to come aboard in hopes of a banana tossed their way. They are brave little creatures. Heading on to Phi Phi Don for lunch, we swiftly scarfed down a little meal since we were limited with our time in Tonsai Bay (the main little village of Phi Phi Don). I wanted Victoria to see the Tsunami damage so we ventured to the back side of Lo Do Lum Bay. The backside hasn't really improved much since my last visit a year ago. The main area of town however is looking good and a little better developed.





Venturing onward to Kai Island, we had another snorkeling opportunity and pressed on with excitement. Upon reaching the site, we saw a number of pink jellyfish and moved forward with a little more trepidation. Our boat captain told us that some grey tipped reef sharks were over congregating by the southern tip of the little atoll and I of course, dragged Victoria over that direction... TOTALLY against her will. As we headed over, she saw a large one of them and I saw what I believed to be a baby shark. Right around that time, we both came up out of the water and said to each other . . "I have this unbearable stinging..." - Victoria on the neck and me on my lips and face. We started to head back and the stinging increased. Our boat captain said we probably got stung by a jelly that was somewhere around us that we simply didn't see. It was really painful. Venturing ashore onto Kai Island, one of the local girls rubbed some weird leaves on both of us. It supposedly stops the stinging . . .it didn't. PLUS we turned a weird shade of green. So we were not only in pain, but also ugly. It really didn't go away until the next day. All in all, I guess it was a blessing. It may have been worse had we ventured into baby shark territory. Mama sharks can be mean ... even if they ARE docile reef sharks.



We did not want to leave island life, but reluctantly headed to the airport all to find our flight delayed by an hour. To pass the time, we watched "Elizabethtown" on my portable DVR and were at least consoled by the sight of Orlando Bloom. The plane finally showed up to get us about two hours late, putting us into Bangkok about 2 in the morning. We were pretty delirious by that point so anything and everything sent us into total hyterics. Sometimes total fatigue can end up being quite fun.