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Koh Phi Phi
I woke at 7am the next day and was so tired, why do we have to go so early?! I dragged myself down to the dive shop, grabbed my gear and walked with the others to the boat. We hopped onto the boat and set off for the dive site (can't remember the name but its in my log book). I soon realised the advantage of getting up so early - there was no one else there which was great, I was used to Koh Tao where there are always at least 3 or 4 other boats full of people. We geared up and jumped in. My buddy for this dive was the camerman which was cool as he was a Thai guy who had grown up diving in Koh Phi Phi and so he knew the place like the back of his hand and knew where all the really interesting fish hung around. We descended and I couldn't believe how good the visibility was, you could see everything and all the fish I already seen in Koh Tao looked different just because it was so clear. We were swimming along and possibly the best thing happened on this dive of all my dives so far. I looked up to my buddy who had turned around and was pointing the camera at me, just as I was about to prepare some great moves for the shot he started to point just to the side of my head. I could just make out his wide-eyed expression through his goggles and as I turned to look over my shoulder a huge Leopard shark swam within inches of my head! Now I know that i the past I said I was surprised at the fact that I wasn't scared when I saw a shark, but this time I was scared! It is very differet when they are not that close and are swimming away from you, but when one takes you by surprise, is so close you can touch it and is swimming towards you for a split second the film Jaws flashed before me and I had that little doubt in my mind about whether or not this shark was going to munch on me. The scary feeling soon passed as he just swam by, really un-interested in me and I watched him go by. He was beautiful, I could see the spots on his back and his beady eyes having a good look round. Apparently we were really lucky to see him as during the day they are normally resting on the bottom. Once he had gone into the distance we carried on and immediately saw a huge sting ray floating along the bottom, I had a good luck but kept my distance, I am a little wary of sting rays after the whole Steve Irwin incident. We then saw a green Nudie Brae which are quite rare and 2 Ghost pipe worms (I htink they are called) which we were also lucky to see as my buddy told me after 10 years of diving they were the first he had seen. They are a relative of the sea horse, and really weird little things. We swam along and saw whole schools of giant barracuda and snappers, there were that many snappers I couldn't see in front of me, and thats when it happened. My buddy started to point in the distance, great I thought I started to look out and there it was - a sea snake! Oh sweet lord I'm not safe anywhere. My buddy looked very confused when I started to swim in the opposite direction. I explained it to him later and he found it hilarious, Thai people just love a good laugh!
After the whole snake in the sea incident we were nearly out of air and so ascended and headed back to the boat. That was without a doubt the best dive I have done so far. We went round to near where our second dive would be and anchored up for our surface interval. We had stopped just on the other side of Mayer Bay which is the gorgeous beach that Leonardo Di Caprio finds in the film. We swam from the boat, climbed over the rocks, walked through the caves and through the bit of forrest and there it was. It was just like in the film but smaller, it was breath-taking. We swam in the water and chilled on the sand, and because it was so early for about half and hour we were the only ones there which is the best way to enjoy Mayer Bay. It wasn't long before abut 100 Japanese tourists turned up and started snapping away - time to head back? Yes I reckon so. We swam back to the boat and headed for the second dive site. The water wasnt as clear as the first dive but was still clearer that any of the dive on Ko Tao. On this dive we saw 4 turtles, one called Stumpy as he only had 3 fins after getting one caught in a boat motor - ouch! I love swimming with turtles as they are quite happy for you to get quite clsoe and swim at the side of them just as long as you don't swim abve them they are quite happy. We saw lots of really cool fish, most of which I hadn't see before and too mant to list here. Koh Phi Phi really is a great place to dive, I will definately have to come again and check out the other dive sites, sadly I don't have the time or the budget on this trip.
That evening I returned to the dive shop to have a beer, fill in my log book and watch the dive dvd. My face is a picture when the shark is swimming past me, he even managed to catch me do a full 180 and swim away when the sea snake made an appearance. That evening I met up with Jaime and Stacey who arrived that day and went for dinner and cocktails at the Apache bar. They had fire shows on and acrobats swinging around the bar, they put on a very good performance. We had a good old dance and then headed back.
The next couple of days were spent chilling ont he beach. We got a long tail boat over the Long beach (alot of beaches in Thailand are called Long Beach) and hired snorkels. The beach was gorgeous and the snorkelling was very impressive, you could sea so much just swimming off the beach. We spent a couple of lovely evenings at the senset bar watching the sun set whilst enjoying a cocktail and watching the volley ball players and fire twizlers. Whilst I was in Koh Phi I visited the Tsunami memorial garden which is a lovely place that the Thai people have created but it is very sad to read the plaques. All over Koh Phi PHi you can see before, during and after photos of the effects of the Tsunami, and even now, so soon after, it's hard to believe it is the same place. They have done so well to restore t back to a great place to visit. There is til alot of building work going on understandably, but it has got to be the most beautiful island I have been to in Thailand. I will definately be spending more time there in the future, I pobably didn't even see half of what it has to offer.
Lots of love JUles x x x
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