Koh Lipe

We waved goodbye to lovely Phi Phi and boarded a boat south to Koh Lipe, another idealic isle with a quieter vibe. Our boat broke down in the middle of the sea so we waited  for a couple hours (and did some backflips off the boat) until a new one came.

 

At a port stop, a Thai vendor got on and sold us the best dang fried chicken on a stick I'd ever had.

We spent our first couple days diving. It was our first experience with a less-than-awesome dive company. The dive masters that led us touched fish, ran into us, and generally weren't that professional or friendly. Trip Advisor online review, here we come! But we still had some gorgeous dives and some good days hanging out on the boat with folks from Canada, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Italy...and more. And Patrick met a fellow snake enthusiast from England, so that was awesome.

 Coral, alive and well.

 Scientists are saying the ocean is changing Ph at such a rapid rate many of our reefs may not exist in a mere 20 years. Yikes. Really. Part of the impetus for us going to see them now.

 Sea urchin. The blue dots were so luminous, they really seemed to give off their own light.

Which reminds me! There are no pictures of this, but every night as we walked back along the beach to our bungalow, we watched phosphorescence wash up on shore. Little tiny pebble-like clumps of...something... generating it's own greenish light. Glowing dots on the edges of waves, sometimes so numerous it looked like lightning flashing in the waves in the dark. Whoaaaaaa! It was really something.

 Chill out beach bars alight as night falls.

 Gigantic clams, commonly called ''Boring Clams'', which is ridiculous, these are gorgeous.

 Skunk anemone fish

 

 Scorpion fish. Highly camoflauged, highly poisonous if you step on one.

Clown fish (above) and soft coral (below) are much more colorful when you shine a flashlight (torch) on them.

Anemone close up in a brilliant blue sheith when they spawn. 

We visited one dive site that had the most magnificent soft coral gardens we'd ever seen. And at a shallow depth so you could really see their colors. No photoshop needed.

Visited a beach full of shells on our kayak adventure. How many pieces of trash can you find? This was the least trashy place I could point the camera on the beach. Idealic islands and beaches and water, covered in trash. The reality of visiting a second world country. 

Amy's favorite coconut ice cream.

Amy's cracking up at Madame yoohoo. She says "Pancake Pancake" then a trilling "yoohoo yohoo!" constantly.  Quite the sales pitch.

Our bungalow on Lipe.  The 2nd little piggie made this one, fortunately there are no wolves there this time of year.

Hang up the clothes so the cockroaches don't hide in them. 

The Seahawks amazed the small crowd way over in Thailand.  The event was dj'd and everything. 

          Patrick's mosquito repellent. 
                          Very organic.

 Patrick's MMA bout...I mean Thai massage.

  Bye Bye Koh Lipe!

Koh Phi Phi Don

Hello! No, dear blog, we didn't forget you. It is a magical thing to find both a time and a place to share our trip with you. But here in Singapore, we have found it. So here goes, a review of the last 2...or 3?..  weeks. What day is it?

Koh means island in Thai.We visited 3 this trip.

 First stop, Koh Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee).

 

One of our fave restaurants.  On the right you see the main path that traverses the island. There are no roads here, only pathways lined with little shops, restaurants, massage parlors, bars, and local Thai establishments. And a zillion million cats. Everywhere.

Koh Phi Phi was touted as an idealic isle with unmatched beauty and a lot of other travelers there to see it. It lived up to its reputation on both accounts though the other travelers and the development weren't bad. First of all they are travelers from all over the world, so they are interesting and fun to meet. And secondly, no matter how developed this is, it is still Thailand! A country and a people and a world that are so very different than the states, even if it is 'developed.' I enjoy the Thai people very much. They smile a lot and are friendly and helpful. They work hard, running small businesses from sun up to sun down every day, but they don't seem down with toil. They hang out with their friends, and their kids run around with them - work and the rest of 'life' seem very integrated. And, they make really good food! Thai food here is very much like the Thai food served stateside.

We spent 5 days here, getting reacquainted with diving, and hiking and snorkeling too. Diving is so much fun. You get to meet and hang out with other world travelers and expats so there's some community to be had. Nice to be able to ask some English speaking locals about the lay of the land and other travelers about their trips and destinations. And the underwater world here is...breathtaking. Walls of rainbow corals and anemones, surrounded by colorful fish and other cool things like turtles, squid, and eels.

The 'pet' monkey at our fave restaurant. Chained up, sadly. Some of his wild buddies ganged up on us on our first day and stole our coconut shakes. Ran up to us, snarling and chasing us, 'till we gave up the goods. So sad. But better than getting rabies.

Funny sign followed by serious sign.

 Koh Phi Phi was one of the worst hit spots in the Thailand tsunami about 10 years ago.

Travelers palm.

Cool bike wall, nothing hipster about it.

 

Shrines, sacred trees, and offerings to the Buddha are abundant.

 Our dive shop, cool people, good place.

Off we go! 

  A sea snake on our first dive. Then 2 more. Awesome.

 Too bad there's hardly any color showing but green at 20 meters.

  Mesmerizing, the view from below.

As a dive shop put it, "Same planet, different world." 

Below, a puffer fish. 

We don't bother them enough to puff up, they can only do it a few times before it kills them.

   Our Thai longtail driver, adept with all limbs.

 Our longtail boat, equipped with the 'Buddha Bow' decorated so the Buddha will protect it at sea. 

This picture really sux. I can't believe how much more beautiful this place actually was. Which is saying something I suppose. This water has an unreal glow of turquoise, the cliffs are jagged and shimmery.... But, it is a taste. The beach pictured is actually... the beach... in the movie "The Beach."

 Need I say more?

 Our hike up and over the interior mountain, equipped with 2 important things: a fresh coconut and a monkey stick. Yes, the tool on the right aptly renamed for its primary purpose of shooing off primates.

 Top of Koh Phi Phi. A hell of a climb. It's hot here. Worth it though. This is where the coconut came in.

And a pretty nice spot to land on the other side of the island.  Time for some snorking! We don't carry fins all over Asia for nuthin'. 

  Colors show up better at snorkeling depths. Lovely corals here.

These lil turds (aka seargent majors) are used to being fed bread by evil tourists apparently hell bent on ruining the marine world, or at the least, are very, very ignorant. Thus, we were followed by large schools of them the entire time we were snorkelling, nipping our ears and being generally annoying. This behavior is otherwise unheard of by fish left to be wild. Perdy little things tho.

Parrot fish, gnaw-er of coral. So common, but oh so lovely.

 Hike back over the hill, through the bannana field. There were chickens with babies running around up here. Well, actually, chickens were running around just about everywhere.

Good bye Phi Phi! We loved thou. But onward we go, to Koh Lipe.