Under the Sea

It's been a while since we blogged.

October 24-29 ?

We are certified. For scuba diving, that is. We spent six days on Koh Phi Phi where we decided to try out scuba diving for a day. Turns out - it's amazing - we're addicted. Hence, the certification, which took 3 days. We ended up going on four incredible dives in different areas around Phi Phi. Morray eels, Nemo clown fish, turtles, Morrish Idols, box fish, pufferfish, so much beautiful coral! Sebastian was right: "darling it's better, down where it's wetter, under the sea!" Our low season luck continued, as we enjoyed the privacy of a huge dive boat with just the two of us and instructor Vicki. For the course, we were just 3 + instructor. We ate lunch at Maya Bay, which is where the movie The Beach was filmed (The actual beach was swarmed by tourists, but we got to see it from our dive boat). The moral is, try scuba please.

Koh Phi Phi is possibly one of the most beautiful - and touristy - places on earth. White sand beaches, limestone karst formations jutting out of the emerald water, and islands of lush (yes mosquito, spider & lizard infested jungle) rainforest. We'd seen slides of Phi Phi of our friend Skip from 16 years ago. The island then wasn't developed and the difference is dramatic. Skip also visited prior to a tsunami a couple years ago, from which the island is still recovering.

Katie and Lauren, friends from Juneau, met up with us for a couple of days. After a quiet week on Phi Phi's sister island, Koh Lanta, this was our time to get a fix of the backpacker social scene, bargain at the markets... There's quite a party scene and tons of drunken westerners roaming the streets - they actually sell alcohol in buckets, that's the big thing there apparently. Don't worry, we only shared a couple and managed to avoid joining the drunken parade of farangs (we hope).