Koh Phi Phi

So James and I have stayed on Koh Phi Phi Don for two nights and are leaving in about 2 hours to head back to Ton Sai. Since being here we have done some more climbing (of course)...I attempted my first lead climb, but got really scared, and after trying three times to clip the 4th draw I had to come down. I'll give it another try in Ton Sai, and hopefully will be successful on a lead climb. During our climb a Thai climbing guide came running around the corner asking if anyone knew first aid. I grabbed my bag and ran over there thinking the worst, that someone had fallen off the wall. Even when i got there I feared the guy had a head injury as everyone was crowded around his head. When I got there I immediately realized he was having a seizure, and to my shock they were holding his head still with a stick in his mouth!!! I ended up taking charge of the situation, 'cause nobody seemed to know what was going on, and the guy ended up being alright. He had a seizure while he was on the wall and his belayer had to lower him quickly as he was hanging upside down in his harness....a little scary, but worked out alright.

The next day James and I hiked up to the viewpoint were you can see both main Phi Phi Don beaches, then continued across the hill to Hat Rantee, a beautiful secluded beach (secluded because most are too lazy to hike over there). We stayed for a couple of hours then hiked back so I could go out for my afternoon dives.

I signed up for a couple of fun dives with Barakuda diveshop. We left at around 2:30 and headed out to Koh Phi Phi Ley, the southern island that is a national park. During the first dive, at Bida Nok, i saw about 3-5 black tipped sharks (1.5 metters in length) puffer fish, oriental sweetlips, an undulated moray eel, a huge baracuda of about 1-1.5 meters long, huge starfish and sea fans and a tiny little nemo (anenome fish). We stayed under during both dives for almost an hour which was great. It's surprising how cold you get in 28 degree water when you're down there for so long. For lunch our boat docked in a bay right next door to Maya Bay (where the movie the Beach was filmed). I snorkelled over to a little bay with a few other guys and we hiked to Maya Bay....just another beach really. Our second dive was at Maya Bay. Visibility wasn't quite as good, but we were fortunate enough to see a little turtle of about 1.5 foot diameter. We also saw pipefish (relatives of the seahorse), common lionfish, painted spiny lobsters and banded boxer shrimp to name a few. All in all it was a fantastic afternoon and I look forward to doing a local dive or two back in TonSai.

When I returned from diving we went for dinner then checked out a bit of the 'scene.' This place is full of young party-goers, so most of the bars give out free drinks. We cashed in on one, but always find ourselves way too tired to stay out much past 10 (are we getting old?) It's also not worth ruining the next day from a Samsung hangover.

This morning I woke up early to get another early morning beach run in...what a great way to start the day! After my run a few of the locals that own a stand on the beach invited me for coffee so I sat and BS'ed with them for a while. I also got to try some of the banana sticky rice that they usually eat for breakfast. We were going to maybe climb again this morning, but instead decided to walk through the streets a bit more and play on the beach. We threw the frisbee around in beatifully warm and shallow water and are now waiting for our ferry in the shade.

Pictures still to come...having a little trouble with the uploading here...