Phi Phi Island (pronouced pee-pee)

Once we told Adayla we were going to Phi Phi Island, she asked if there is a Poo Poo Island too?? So we started pronouncing it fee-fee island, but you can't use this change with Phuket....

Anyways we woke up way too early and a van picked us up at our hotel. He drove to where the speed boat was waiting. Eventually all the other people showed up and the boat was ready. We boarded, people were smiling and happy....everyone was excited about the adventurous day that was awaiting them. Ten minutes into the boat ride, the story was completely different.

The winds were quite strong and since we were going against the waves, the ride was quite bouncy. It wasn't just bouncy, the boat was rocking pretty good, and there we were with our 3 or 4 local 20-year-olds commanding the boat. We were at the back of the boat and just getting soaked! Soon, many of those same smiling people were grabbing those barf bags and looking quite pale. Tally was loving every minute of it, we bounced and bounced, and she giggled and giggled. I was actually quite scared, this boat could have flipped and there we would have been in the middle of the ocean. Tim was trying to comfort everyone with the song from Gilligans Island....not helpful!

We thought Tally was tired and the bouncing made her sleepy. After about 45 minutes or so, Tally put her head down and started to snuggle. About 10 minutes later, I look down at her, and she had barfed all over. I guess she was just a little sea sick. We cleaned it up and then both girls took a short little nap. What was supposed to take us 45 minutes, took twice as long, and we were ready to get off the boat. Where we arrived, however, was absolutely worth it!

This beach is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We haven't seen the movie, but it's obviously a beautiful place to film a movie.

We swam and snorkeled. Well Tim and Josie snorkeled, I tried, but couldn't figure it out. I know, it's not complicated - I just felt uncomfortable with having my face in the water and trying to breathe through the snorkel - oh well. We island hopped for the next couple of hours, passing by some ancient Chinese paintings in a cave and stopped at Monkey Island. There are wild monkeys just hanging out in some trees just feet away from the water. Our guide warned us as we got off the boat to not touch them, as they will bite. Some dumb lady thought a monkey was quite cute so she let one jump on her back. Then the thing hopped off and bit her 3 year little girl who let out a scream. The girl was ok after they washed the blood out of her hair in the nice sea water. Dumb lady!

This next picture is from the tsunami in 2004 at one of areas of Phi Phi Island where we stopped. On the right you can see the tsunami waves that are just arriving, while the beach on the left is still calm and blue.

We ate lunch at another little island and picked up some more fruit drinks. We again loaded the boat for the last island where we were supposed to spend a few hours relaxing. About 30 minutes into the ride, one of the three engines quit, and the genius design of the boat didn't allow the boat to run on two engines, so we were "stranded". Thankfully the guy was able to radio another company boat who was already at the island waiting for their group. This boat arrived 20 minutes later and we had to hop onto the other boat. We arrived and we able to hang out for awhile. Again, it was worth the trouble because it was quite a view! The water was so amazingly clear. Who needed to snorkel anyway, you could just stand and look down to see lots of fish! Unfortunately all the places we went were amazingly beautiful, because we would go on another such boat ride to see some of the Earth's most beautiful scenery!

Fun day, but I was happy to make it back to our hotel!