Ko Phi Phi Leh

What is the coolest thing to do while on an island in the middle of
Thailand?
Well, we think we did it. We went on a snorkling/camping trip on the
sister island called Ko Phi Phi Leh. This island is not populated with
people because it is a national forest. It also happens to be the spot
the movie "The Beach" was filmed starring Leo Decaprio. We boarded a
boat yesterday at four and headed to the island. Our guides name was
Nemo, but he reminded us more of Mougaly from Jungle Book. He was very
hyper and full of life and he looked like Mougaly. Everytime he wanted
to get our attention he would say, "Hey white people, phucking
listen." (in a Thai accent) We thought this was funny!
On our way, we stopped and snorkled in a large cove. We saw all sorts
of fish, sea urchins and coral. It was so beautiful and exciting!
Afterwards we headed to "The Beach". This place was the defintion of
heaven on earth. Gigantic cliffs protruding from the water in all
directions. Nik played a game of international futbol with the boys
(which he will write a blog about). We then enjoyed a fantastic meal
of non other than chicken curry and Buckets. Buckets are a popular mix
drink of pretty much whatever you want made in a sand bucket. Meaning
they can be very dangerous and they proved to be to many of the people
in our group. We were fortunate enough to swim in the dark and play
with the phospherecence in the ocean, then sleep on the beach. One of
the best parts was watching the lightning far off in the ocean between
the cliffs we were surrounded by. In the middle of the night the rain
started to come our way, so Nik and I made our way to a covering where
some other people were sleeping. To bad we had to because the rest of
the night we were surrounded by scurring rats and trails of ants. I
didn't see any rats, but apparently it kept Nik up. He said they were
way to close for comfort. Although the sleeping on Ko Phi Phi Leh was
not the best we still believe this was probably the coolest thing we
could have done and definitely something we will never forget.
Quick memories:
- Walking to the bathroom at night seeing a bat with the wing span of
about 3 feet. That's size HUGE!!
-Meeting some American sisters from non other than San Francisco. We
don't see many Americans over here. So to meet ones from our area on
our camping trip was exciting.
-Meeting Guido from Italy. His name fit him to a tee. He kept the
entire group laughing with his crazy antics and excitement for
everything.
- Watching a fire show the guides put on for us. Lighting sticks and
ropes on fire and spinning them around. Guido got in on this and I
think we were all scared for his life, especially since he had to much
to drink.
- Jumping off the top of our boat into the water (about 15 feet). Nik
did a few backflips, I just jumped, but it was fun!! He also was
jumping in the next day in the rain before we headed back and got
stung by a jellyfish. Nothing to bad, there weren't any marks, he
could just felt a weird stinging on his arm and legs.
- Playing with the phospherecence in the water. If you have never seen
it, it looks like lightning bugs or static light in the water. Pretty
amazing!!