Life on a Longtail

On one of our days in Koh Phi Phi, we took a full day longtail boat tour. The first stop was Monkey Island, where we got out and fed the monkeys and took pictures of them. Some of the bigger ones were quite aggressive and kind of scary! The one to the left has a baby; see it?

The next stop was for some snorkeling. It was here that our little "waterproof" camera went kaput. Here is one of the final shots I got from it. The snorkeling couldn't compare to the Great Barrier Reef, but it was still pretty awesome. 

We then went to Maya Bay. This is where the movie The Beach (with Leonardo diCaprio) was filmed. Though it was pretty crowded with tourists, including several longtail and regular boats, it was still gorgeous. The whole bay is surrounded with giant green limestone cliffs; you almost can't believe a place like this exists in real life.

The next stop was Bamboo Beach (I think). We may have done some more snorkeling first. Anyway, this beach was the most unbelievably beautiful beach I have ever seen (or probably ever will see) in my life. We shared the white sand and crystal clear warm water with just a few other people for a couple of hours, and it was heaven; I could have stayed there forever!








After some more snorkeling and the viewing of another beach with monkeys, we hung out on the boat and waited for the sun to go down. Another beautiful sunset was the perfect way to end our day on the longtail boat!

Zack is living the life at Maya Bay!

Doctor Fish

One of the stranger things we did in Thailand was get a fish pedicure. I had heard about these places where fish nibbled on your feet, and I always thought it sounded strange, but we figured it'd be fun to try while on our holiday. 

Before putting our feet anywhere near the fish, the employees washed/scrubbed our feet five times. Five times! My feet have never been so clean. They put bandaids over some scrapes on my toes (from some coral), and then we were good to go. I've read that these "doctor fish" spas are illegal in most US states, because the practice is considered unsanitary. But I felt okay about it after I saw how clean my feet were!

That big fish's bites kind of hurt!

It was so ticklish at first! You got used to it after awhile, but sometimes one would nibble on your arch or between your toes and you would squirm. I had a few bigger fish in my tank, and it kind of hurt when they chewed on me. Otherwise, it just kind of felt like something was gently tapping against you.

It tickles!!

The fish especially liked my mite bites or tropical disease marks or whatever the red bumps were/are. I'm not sure if they made things worse or better; the bumps were kind of inflamed when our fifteen minutes were finished.

Zack and I didn't notice any difference in the smoothness or beauty of our feet after the treatment, even though the fish supposedly slough off dead skin. I think it's more of a gimmick. I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was definitely fun to try once!

The fish apparently liked Zack's scaly feet! :)

Day and Night in Koh Phi Phi

From Phuket, we took a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride to the beautiful island of Koh Phi Phi, where we spent two nights. We stayed at Mama Beach Residence, which was up against high rock walls and in a quieter area of the beach. But we could easily walk to the "town," which was a maze of open-air souvenir shops, restaurants, and tour operators.

Whereas Phuket has a lot of stray dogs, Koh Phi Phi has a lot of stray cats. On one afternoon, we hiked to the top of the lookout. The view was amazing (I lost my beautiful wide-angle shots in the memory card debacle). Zack took this picture of one of the cats who sat on the bench with him as the sun went down. Cute, huh? We admired the sunset and then hiked back down for another delicious Thai dinner.

Koh Phi Phi is pretty crazy at night. We had the most fun at the Reggae Bar, which has a boxing ring set up in the center where tourists can put on gloves and fight each other for fun. Zack was almost convinced to "give it a go," but he was only willing to do it if he could fight a girl (and they wouldn't let him!). They also had some "professional" boxers, but the fights seemed staged.

The drink of choice on the island (and many places in Thailand) is a bucket. This is exactly what it sounds like. You get a bucket filled with a mixture of several kinds of alcohol combined with juice, soda, and/or Red Bull. You basically have no idea what's in it, and they shove five or six straws in the bucket, perhaps because you're supposed to share. We didn't! Zack and I each got our own bucket. If that sounds dangerous, it is. There are incredibly impressive fire dancers who perform on the beach at night. In the picture below, you can see Zack (post-bucket) doing his own version of a fire dance. And yes, we are sweaty messes in the picture to the right. That's because it is so hot and humid on Koh Phi Phi, you literally never stop sweating. But I didn't complain, because it was so nice to leave the winter weather of Melbourne behind for awhile! More to come from Koh Phi Phi...