Day 37: "The Beach" & the Sea Urchin

My internal clock is clearly confused, wake up at 8:15am, my alarm was set for 9, I had gone to bed after 2. We are expected downstairs at 9:30am, ready to move our bags into the dorms and dressed for our snorkeling adventure. We pack, transport our stuff, climb down and back up what seems like a thousand steps (Santa Monica 4th street Stairs got nothing on us), and join a growing caravan to the U-Rip Long Boats dock a mile away.   

It's a day trip, from 10am until sunset, around all of Phi Phi Leh and Phi Phi Don for 500 baht.  We hit the beach where the boats are docked and follow the throngs of people. There looks to be 5 or 6 that will be taking off, though 2 different sizes, both are of the same style, long and lean, small covering in the middle made of plastic. The difference lies in that the larger ones have in-bound motors and smaller ones have a funny outboard motor contraption on the back. Two long poles, a car engine resting on a platform between them. Attached to the engine is a pole stretching into the water with a single rotary blade, and the driver holding the rudder to steer. But those are 10 times louder than the inbound motors, so though it looks cool and holds a more intimate group, it would seem a bit bothersome. As our group was getting corralled to one of the larger boats, phew, we see 5 cases of beer being loaded on a smaller one with about 12 Aussies, calling us to join. Yeah, a bunch of drunk Aussies, rough open water, 120 beers with no concept of limits ... eh, I'll pass on the spewfest. All the seats are taken so the 5 of us sit up on the stern, with our bags secured below our feet. As the boat starts up, I realize, oh crap, I don't have my motion sickness bands. Not enough time to go back, no one has Dramamine in their bags ... Uh oh, this might be a long day.

Breakfast is served on the boat as we cross the Andaman Sea on our way to Phi Phi Leh. A little two layer sandwich of egg, tomato & cucumber between three tiny slices of bread, obviously made for the small idigenous thai people, not healthy growing American and Swedish boys. I can tell I'll be losing weight on this day. We pass the Viking Cave, where I assume Vikings hid their spoils and themselves from the Brits. Our first actual stop is at Peleh Bay, where the mountains shoot up from sea and the sandy bottom begs for a swim. We launch off the longtail, find a hanging rope near the cliffs and the fun ensues. 20 minutes later, they whistle our return and it's off to Loh Samah Bay for our first snorkel. We drop into the 30 foot deep crystal clear blue water. In the shade of the boat, it teems with fish, and the first real test of my underwater camera begins. (Wish I could load a video for you guys immediately, but you will have to wait on both pics and vids for a decent internet connection). 

30 minutes in the water and the whistle blows again. Off this time to Maya Bay otherwise known as "The Beach"! We turn the corner to enter the bay, and find shockingly, we will not be the only boat to drop by here today. Literally about 50 boats docked up on The Beach with hundreds if not a thousand people speckled across it. It's beautiful, but barely resembles the movie in the sense of isolation and mystique.

Here we are given lunch, a small portion of fried rice with chicken in a styrofoam container. Yep, I'm losing weight today. We hang there for a good 30 minutes and who would you presume we meet in the water? No, not Leonard DiCaprio, but the 3 no-name Aussie girls. I'm convinced they're stalking us.                  

The whistle blows, and off we go, away from the island of Phi Phi Leh, back to Phi Phi Don (main island) and Monkey Bay. This bay boasts of aggressive wild monkeys, and good snorkeling. So we watch ballsy tourists try to hand feed the primates, some being chased into the surf, much to our enjoyment. I'm now going to fast forward through the rest of the day and bring you to Shark Point. We snorkel Mosquito Island, rest on Bamboo island but not before getting chewed up by the coral on our way to and from shore. 

Last stop as the sun sets is Shark Point just off the Southern most point of Phi Phi Don. The top of my right big toe (still healing from the motorbike accident) is sore from the fins, so I decided to go finless ... brilliant idea with sharp coral in shallow water. The water is maybe 6 feet deep where we lauch off the boat, but we're instructed to swim towards the rock outcropping and towards shore, where it's can get as shallow as 3 feet. I see two black tip reef sharks and head back to the boat as the visibility is almost non-existent because the sun has set. On my way back, a fellow snorkler, Maddie, has not seen one yet and asks me to stay in the water with her on her search. I comply and after about 10 minutes, I stand up to ask her if she's had any luck. At that moment, pain enters my toes and foot and shoots up my leg, what the heck was that. I immediately lift my feet and plant my face in the water and recognize the culprit. I had jut stepped on a black Sea Urchin ... Imagine a porcupine under water with fragile quills that snap when you touch, so cannot be dislodged from your foot. Yeah, some were a few inches long sticking out, others provided perhaps a quarter of an inch to retrieve. Either way, you basically crush the exposed parts, put neosporin to stave off infection, and hope your body dissolves it in time. Blurgh, The nerve of that sea urchin to protect itself on it's home territory while I'm invading it's personal space. Ridiculous. 

We get back to the U-Rip boat dock after 7 with the night completely upon us. I am shocked and impressed that I did not take to motion sickness once. I believe it has to do in part with the boat being near ocean level as well as a constant breeze of fresh air and ocean spray upon my body and face. Head back to the hostel for a clean up and then hit Pirate Bay for grub. Joseph is starving, nothing new there, so garlic bread, order of Pad Thai, a cheeseburger with french fries, and 300 baht later, he's satisfied. 

I head to D's Books and run into the 3 Aussies again while checking the internet and enjoying an early evening mocha frappé. After seeing them probably a good 10 times in the last 48 hours, I finally drop the question, "Uh, I feel like I should already know this, but have we introduced ourelves yet? Y'all have names?" They burst into laughter, they literally had just been talking about the same thing with regards to my crew not 30 minutes before. Pru, Belle, and Madde ... but still in my heart they will be known as the 3 Aussies.

After a few hours and another blog posting, I head to eat one more time and then in for a restful and early night.

Nite nite blogland via the iPhone blogger.