Island Life

I am now on Koh Lanta and just completed a grueling 5 hours in the classroom and 4 hours in the pool during Day 1 of my 3 day PADI Open Water dive course. But as is now customary, let's back up a few days in order to ensure that all my adventures have been properly documented complete with visuals.

Here are my pictures of me posing with ladyboys after the Simon Cabaret show on Phuket.

And here I am doing my best arms spread ladyboy impression. Don't I look feminine?

My half-day adventure tour around Ko Phi Phi ROCKED!

We spedboat all around the island and surrounding islands to all the bays, alcoves, cliffs, and beaches stopping for the occasional snorkeling opportunity or cliff-jumping site. I did a few cliff jumps from 8 meters (roughly 25 feet) and then 15 m (about 48 feet). You had to do a bit of climbing to get up to the jump sites, and unfortunately, I was so pumped up with adrenaline prior to leaping off the boat that I forgot to pass my camera on to get them taped. I also could not bring my camera with me in the water because as you may or may not know, bringing an electronic device into a body of water may cause irreversible damage. But, let me assure you all that what lay below the surface of Ko Phi Phi was coral and fish. I saw these species with my own eyes and you will just have to take my word for it that they were colorful and swam using their own efforts without the use of any electronic currents or batteries. The best was when the tour guide tossed some pieces of white bread into the water around you and you were suddenly swimming amidst a school (that is the proper nomenclature) of clown, angel, trigger, dragon, sprout, devil, hydrangea, infinity, pine, spore, robin and rainbow fish. I am unsure if all of those aforementioned specie names are the proper nomenclature as I am no longer the reef fish expert that I may or may not have been during the adolescent years.

After these adventures, we provided to monkey beach - which contains exactly what the name implies - a beach full of MONKEYS (I'm sure Hilary is getting more and more excited as she reads this). The jungle comes right up to the beach, and monkeys are everywhere. There is a stand that sells bananas, so these monkeys are certainly used to human interaction. In fact, you will soon be approached by several monkeys as they spot the bright yellow goodness in your hand, and I had my first banana stolen out of my hand within seconds. Being a monkey myself, I put my second purchased banana in my backpack out of view, and sat down on a large rock to enjoy it myself. But wouldn't you know - monkeys aren't very good at sharing and soon I had a primate companion join me on my perch, who literally ripped half the banana out of my hand. I still had some left, so we were able to enjoy together - just monkey and me sitting on a rock eating banana in the sun.

After monkey beach, we continued around the island finding all sorts of giant rock formations extruding from the turquoise depths, eventually finding ourselves at Ko Phi Phi Ley, which is a smaller uninhabited island that is only accessible by day trips, and also happens to be the spot where in The Beach (starring one Leandro Barbosa - I mean DiCaprio) was filmed, in a location called Maya Bay - which is a beautiful little beach in which words do not do justice - so I won't even try. Imagine crystal clear topaz waters peacefully spilling onto a white sand beach surrounded by jagged cliffs backed up onto a jungle background - that's Maya Bay - the perfect imagination of anybody's beachside daydreams that happen when sitting in a windowless office cube doing the 9 to 5 - it's what desktop wallpaper is made for. After our visit, we watched the sunset prior to continuing back to Phi Phi Don (the main island).

The next morning, I awoke to climb up hundreds of stairs and hundreds of meters of uphill sidewalk in order to get up to Phi Phi viewpoint in order to look down from above and take in the island. The island is shaped like a giant H, and was absolutely devastated by the tsunami 3 years ago - the majority of the development is on the crossbar of the H, which is probably only 100 meters in width and all at sea-level, so its easy to imagine just how bad the waves destroyed the island as they came from both sides. Still, seeing the island now, you never would have noticed that all the buildings had been rebuilt in the past couple years.

After descending, I hopped on a fairy and headed off to Lanta, where I arrived last night, promptly signed up for my scuba course, and began that today. Practicing in the pool with a hot Swedish instructor who just happened to spend 4 years in DC as a real estate agent prior to beginning her travels and settling as a dive master in Lanta, I learned the basics of breathing underwater, and navigating weightlessly throughout the water. Remember to always keep breathing with long deep breathes and to always watch out for your buddy - which is certainly easier when your buddy is a hot Swedish girl. The best way to describe it is it is like sky-diving with the floating sensation. Tomorrow, we take our lessons into the ocean for 2 dives - Can't wait - so with that, I now grab some more delicious Thai cuisine and head off to bed exhausted and excited for more adventure!