From here we had another lengthy trip to North Pileh. During our trip out in the open waters it was entertaining sometimes to see some lone longboat way out in the middle of the sea just cruising along with these massive waves. Such a small, simplistic, and low tech vessel venturing out that far with those waves seemed a bit risky in my opinion. We got to North Pileh’s artificial reef which was composed of a network of hollowed out concrete cube frames. Right when I descended into some shallow waters Kerry had me do a few exercises right off the bat so we could get to explore the reef. As I was doing a buoyancy test hovering a few inches off the sandy bottom, I felt a sudden sharp pinch on my leg. I turned around to see a Damsel fish attacking me! It was significantly smaller than the trigger fish from the day before, and I casually kicked at it to shoo it away, and it left me alone. From then on out we explored the reef which was crawling with life. Hermit crabs, shrimp, colorful anemones, and even a few nasty scorpion fish. There was even two trigger fish chilling in one of the deeper cubes, but it didn’t seem as aggressive as the others, yet I wasn’t going to get close.
We ascended and boarded the boat again, and feasted upon fresh pineapple and other fruit during our recovery period to allow the nitrogen escape our blood. While we waited around entertainment came in form of watching monkeys at the appropriately named Monkey Beach. We watched three teenagers approach in a small boat to take pictures of or with the monkeys. Some large male monkey charged one of the kids and chased him off the beach. This game of primate male dominance was hysterical and I tried to get some of it on film but we were pretty far away.
As the sun descended lower we prepared for our next dive near Tonsai Cave. Kerry and I descended alongside the vertical cliff walls down near the bottom. I had a flashlight with me and we spotted a few seahorses hiding in various holes and branches. We briefly explored a shallow cave alongside the cliff wall. I enjoyed seeing the puddles of air on the rock ceiling. We continued moving along the bottom of the cliff wall using flashlights to illuminate various nooks and crannies. I even saw some weird looking sea slug that was about 1”-2” in diameter and about 15 feet long! Weird. We then ascended and boarded the ship as late twilight set in. I took photos of the awesome cliff walls, the crescent moon, and other ships docking outside of Koh Phi Phi.
Since the tide was so low, our ship had to dock at the main marina instead of close to our hotel. This just involved a walk through town which was nice. It was touristy, but it wasn’t as aggressive as other places. Wonderful smells of food, colorful lights, and lots of people in the streets. Several cats were wandering around the streets too. We made it to our hotel and got cleaned up. I then met up with the rest of the group at a local restaurant/bar where there was loud music playing and fire dancers. Kelsey and I split some delicious curry dish that had a great blend of spices. Later we ended up doing a little impromptu swing dance while they were in the process of switching fire dancers. It was a nice night and I was able to goof off a bit playing with my camera and such. Everyone headed back to their rooms and I followed shortly thereafter and left a hefty tip for our occupation outside of suspected hours of operation. As I went to sleep, I could begin to feel my sunburn.
In the morning we packed up and headed on out to grab some breakfast. There was a vast assortment of food buffet style with yummy fruit juices. The rain starting coming down in varying levels of monsoon. As we departed towards the marina, another wave of rain doused us all head to toe, so by the time we got to the boat we were just as saturated as if we had just gone diving. We departed Koh Phi Phi and sailed to Koh Bida Nai
On this particular dive there was a bit more direct sunlight and varying topography on the floor. Currents were pretty strong in places, and required some effort to remain in place. Huge swells would carry us to and fro. I had to reach out and grab some coral to prevent myself from doing a faceplant into a reef and cut my hand slightly. Coral cuts take FOREVER to heal. I got to see a cuttlefish swim on past which was interesting to see in the wild. There were also enormous schools of fish in this area. While hovering over a huge bed of twisted coral moving extra slow, a massive school of fish surrounded us, and got close enough to brush up against every now and then. There were thousands of them, it was incredible. Later on I even saw a few pairs of barracuda swimming around eyeing me, as well as disturbing a large moray eel. Here on this dive we could feel the thud-like “OOOMPH” of waves crashing into the cliffs overhead which only added to the dynamic of the dive. We ascended, boarded the boat and headed out to the King Cruiser shipwreck.
I was pretty excited about the King Cruiser wreck. Apparently this ferry crashed into the only rock in the entire stretch of its commute, which generates some suspicion as to it being an accident or insurance scam/diver tourist revenue. This dive I would probably be going deeper than ever before. It got dark down there, and we had to hold onto the buoy line simply because the current was very strong. Almost like swimming in a deep steady river. Kerry and I explored around the wreck and sought shelter from the current on the trailing edge of the sunken ferry. There were many fish everywhere and quite a bit of aquatic life over the wreckage. I was told that the tsunami had taken its toll on the wreck and had done some damage to it as well. Still looked like a wreck to me. I was told to keep an eye out for scorpion fish since they are known to be common on that sort of thing, but I didn’t actually spot any that dive. Soon enough we headed on upwards just as another dive party was descending. At a point in time there were at least 2-3 dozen divers going up or down the buoy line like a swarm of ants on a single blade of grass. Soon we surfaced, boarded the boat and made our way to our last dive at Koh Dok Mai. This dive I would be joining the other group. I was pretty stoked because I hadn’t had a chance to dive with Kelsey or Mike much for the trip. Though having 5 people in one group was a bit excessive I found out when we were in the water. Things got pretty crowded so I absentmindedly defaulted to moving deeper using more oxygen than the rest of the party. We were able to go inside a small cave and check things out. I was excited to see a large lion fish outside the entrance of the cave! I hadn’t seen one this trip whereas everyone else had seen a handful of them. We moved along outside the cliff walls and made our way around this little island. There were some impressive wildlife hanging onto the walls, large sponges, plants, anemones, and plenty of fish. In one hole I spotted another trigger fish suddenly, and got an impulse of adrenaline but moments after realizing that it was not going to attack, I relaxed. Just under 40 minutes we went to the surface because I had buzzed through my O2 faster than the rest, and I felt pretty bad about it. When we were at the surface we waited around for a while for the boat to circle the island and find us. We boarded, and made our way back. I finished and passed my exam for PADI certification, and got that taken care of. On the way back we were able to see some dolphins that played in the boat’s rising wake.
After docking, we unloaded our stuff, and got things put in the truck and were soon headed off back to Kata. We checked back in to the same hotel as before for just a night so we could get transportation to Krabi situated. Spent some time sending out some emails and to our delight the passkey for internet use still worked. We ended up getting dinner up at a fancy looking restaurant up on the hill in an interesting garden. The food was pricey as predicted, but wasn’t as tasty as I expected. Oh well, it was nice, even though my legs got eaten up by mosquitoes all throughout dinner. When we made it back to the streets, we visited various travel agencies to get bus tickets to Krabi. After some selective haggling we got tickets for the three of us into Krabi.
We walked through town looking for a place to get a massage, but the further down we walked in town, things got a bit more sketchy. Lots of scantily clad Thai women calling out to give massages, indicating the type of massage parlor one ought to avoid. We went back to the place where the fish cleaned our feet, and it had two older ladies working there. Kelsey got her Aloe Vera Massage for her sunburn, and my nasty feet got a pedicure. Right as we were getting situated, several more tourists arrived, and they had to call in for reinforcements. Soon a moped arrived with THREE women on it! An older woman helped me out with my feet. The soaking pan was too small for my big ugly American feet but we managed. I also dulled most of her instruments with the thickness of my toenails, and I must say I was entertained watching this lady move throughout the assortment of tools to get the job done. The Thai ladies would chatter back and forth, occasionally making some joke or comment about some big American man getting a pedicure. They enjoyed threatening me to paint my nails too. Though after I was done, the lady was kind enough to give my legs, arms, and back a massage. It was pretty awesome. I really struggled to stay awake, and I was nodding off several times. When Kelsey came out from her massage, I was like a pile of warm butter, and somehow I slithered back up to our hotel. Got back and crashed for the night.
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