Asia

Luck was with us today in terms of the weather. We had an early pick up again because it was about an hour and a half ride to the coast for our boat trip. The clouds were light and we saw a great deal more of the sun. Before the day was over we were all wishing we’d seen a little less of it.

We met our guide, Cooper, at the Boat Lagoon Marina. This looked like a brand new facility. We are always wondering exactly what areas were destroyed by the tsunami and if what we are seeing is brand new since that happened. We had about 21 tourists on our speedboat and most didn’t speak English. We are noticing we haven’t come across a lot of Americans. A large group of these visitors were Russian. There were also a couple French and a couple Spanish.


"The Beach" was filmed here	We were here!!	C;heck out those motors

Our speed boat traveled out about an hour to our first stop which was Kho Phi Phi Ley. This is where “The Beach” was filmed with Leonardo DeCaprio. It was a beautiful bay but there were way too many tourists for us!! The boats lined up and gave you about 30 minutes and then loaded you back up. It was high tide so there wasn’t that much beach exposed. We rode along side “Monkey Beach” but weren’t able to spot any monkeys… again perhaps because the beach was underwater.

Next we visited Ton Sai Bay where we were served a buffet lunch. The views all day were wonderful. The islands here have such distinctive shapes and are lush and green.


a little beach time	Our "Princess"	Angel Fish

We snorkeled at three different locations during the day and were amazed at the number of fish we saw. At Egg Island there was a lot of coral reef to snorkel around and beautifully colored fish and corals. We had our longest stretch of free time there to enjoy it all. Gary has been a little under the weather today and missed out on that round of snorkeling. He rented a chair on the beach and tried to nap a bit. This last stop was what gave us all a little sunburn. We had slathered up with sunscreen of 50 twice but we should have done it one more time!!! Perhaps we’re glad we’ve had as much cloud cover as we’ve had so far!!


Shoreline	Egg Island	Blue Clam

The boat ride was quite nice. The waters were not rough at all and no one had any seasick issues. Cooper served up pineapple and watermelon and an assortment of drinks all day long.

Once in the van for our transit back to the hotel there was very little talking and a lot of nodding going on. The sun and water got us all!! After a light supper on the beach at the hotel restaurant Ernie, Rusty, Jane and Sherry headed back to the massage spa. Rusty and Ernie both got Aloe Vera massages. Jane chose to let them work on her back again and Sherry napped in the chair!!! It didn’t take us long to hit the hay when we finally got back to the hotel about 10:00.!!