We arrived in Phuket earlier today. Our ferry trip was an exciting one and we didn't have to pay more for the adventure. There were already passengers on the ship deck when we arrived at the dock this morning (from Ko Phi Phi to Phuket) and after storing our backpacks we decided it was probably safer to remain on the deck for the 1.5 hour trip rather than to go into the crowded cabins and find single seats apart from one another. The first half of the trip was fine and then we started noticing deck water coming over to our side of the boat (where we were sitting with our feet hanging over the edge of the boat) because people started realizing that we had a bit more shade than they did in the cloudless sky. Apparently the ocean spray knew where the low point was on the deck! Shortly after that we hit a 'rogue wave' (personal neighbourhood joke) and the boat listed significantly over to our side causing a 'Hail Mary' moment. Several minutes later, one of the crew members was quickly moving passengers over the the other side of the boat and shifting the on-deck luggage over the starboard side. It was a happy ending....I'm writing this.....and we have now landed in the site of the 2004 Boxing Day tsumani so what could possibly go wrong.....especially on my 59th birthday :)
Prior to arriving here we were in Ko Lanta which we really liked. The limestone cliffs surrounding all of the south western Thailand islands are breath-taking. It is less crowded than the other southern Thailand islands. The beaches were wonderful and from our hostel (close to the beach where we watched the sun go down) there was a 2 km path over to Long Beach (an even better beach) which was worth the trek. And the following morning I was able to follow the NY Giants Superbowl victory on the internet......no cable at the bars at 6:30 am :(...... but it was worth the effort while sitting next to the beach.
From Ko Lanta we took another ferry to Ko Phi Phi, another island with fantastic beaches. We took a full day boat tour around the island, and surrounding islands, which was only $20 pp. There were 3 snorkelling stops (good, but not Hawaii benchmark), a stop at Monkey Beach (filled with you know what), another stop at Maya Beach where the The Beach was filmed (and it felt like walking in butter......vs. grains of sand), and finished at 7 pm with the most perfect sunset that you could imagine (the full sun disappearing slowly into the ocean). The next day we had another trek over to Long Beach (their version........but I suppose every time you have a 2-3 km white sand beach......you probably use names that entice the tourists).
The seafood continues to be wonderful.......white snapper, squid, shrimps, prawns, barracuda, kingfish and more.......all at riducously low prices. But white wine continues to be very expensive because the SE Asian countries (so far) heavily tax alochol that is not produced here.......and this is not a grape growing region........so $1 beers are the norm but not always the preferred option.
Tomorrow we will leave Kata Beach, where the 2004 tsunami damage has disappeared and visitor traffic has increased, and head into Old Town Phuket where we will be well positioned for our full day travel over to the east coast of Thailand to the island of Ko Samui. We decided to skip the east side of Malaysia because of the monsoon season but that is now over so we want to experience that coast before we head further north.
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