Last Day on Phi Phi Island

This is my last full day on Phi Phi Island. Tomorrow I go back to Phuket by ferry, then make my way up to the airport by evening, and arrive in Japan the following morning. Then I resume teaching the day after that.

So I'm spending my last day here on a beach in Nui Cove. The snorkelling here is about as good as monkey beach. It's kind of secret, so there are very few people here, but there's no lunch stand here, like on monkey beach, so I'll just starve until my longtail boat comes to pick me up again at 4:00.

But I like it here. The water is clear and the scenery is amazing. I just pulled myself away from typing this to ask a tour boat that just pulled up if they had any extra lunches to sell. No luck. I probably look like a castaway to them: alone on this beach when they pulled up, no food, scraggly beard because I haven't shaved since I left Japan.

Well I guess there's nothing left to do but get back in the water.

Scuba and Monkey Beach Again

Yesterday's scuba went well. Many people panic their first time, being dropped in the ocean without first being given a chance to get comfortable with the equipment. I was lucky to find a dive shop that gave me a free trial run with the equipment in the pool. By the time we got to the ocean the next day I was ready, though still a little tense. The first dive was near the entrance to a sea cave. The second was around a large, steep rock island that plunged deep into a beautiful bay. We went all the way around, with the wall, all decorated in coral, sponges, and fish, at our right side the whole time. Twice we swam through small canyons; a little intimidating, but fun.

Something I didn't know about scuba was that the jacket fills with air and empties of air from the tank with two buttons. I think it's the hardest part, with equalizing ear pressure coming in at second.

We didn't see any sharks, but on our way back to the main island, we did see some dolphins. We tried for a while to get close enough to swim with them, but they kept on disappearing and then reappearing somewhere else. We had to give up because the tide was going out.

That was yesterday. Today, I'm spending the day on monkey beach. The snorkelling here is the best I've found on the island, and the monkeys love to entertain. I'm writing this on the palm pilot (which is running out of juice), with the waves lapping at my feet. I guess it's time to bring this to an end.

Chill Day

So yesterday the tour boat picked me up from bamboo island as I had arranged, and we continued on to monkey beach. Unlike bamboo island, monkey beach is appropiately named, as there are actually wild monkeys on the beach.

Today was a day for relaxing. But, in the evening I went to one of the dozen dive shops here on Phi Phi island for a 30 minute scuba crash course. Then tomorrow I'm going scuba diving for my first time. It's going to be just me and the instructor. We are expected to see lots of cool things like leopard sharks, which aren't dangerous. Well time for bed now.