The One and Only Phi Phi Island -- P.1

Phi Phi Island's resorts (pronounced "Pee Pee") were just voted by Frommers as one of the top 10 beach fronts of the world.

...and there are so many reasons why I wholeheartedly agree.  Phi Phi Island is truly a special place.

"The Mighty Three," as I now refer to Amanda, Tyler 1 and myself, made a trip down to the beautiful islands over a 4-day Buddhist holiday a few weeks ago.  From Bangkok, Phi Phi is about a 12-hour bus ride.  The bus will take you to Phuket and from there you take a 2-hour ferry ride to the main island of Phi Phi.

Sadly, the morning we arrived, it was overcast and raining, but the islands and their inherit beauty did not disappoint.  As you get close to the main island of Phi Phi, you begin to see the surrounding smaller islands as they majestically rise from the ocean.

We arrived on the island with the whole day ahead of us.  We intended to pack as much into our days there as possible.  After leaving our bags at the hotel, we headed straight to the beach.

Within seconds of stepping on the beach, we found our feet surrounded by these small, rectangular shaped jelly fish.  They were EVERYWHERE.

We had no idea what they were at first.  It took some gusto to finally pick them up.  And when we did, we could feel them pulsating in our hands.  They were completely clear, so you could see their brains and whatever other internal organs they had inside.  Pretty trippy.

The highlight, however, of the day was our little snorkeling excursion to what appeared to be an abandoned beach.  Just before the beach, however, we hit a large patch of sea urchins, where I was summarily pricked in the foot.  I panicked slightly (being that they're poisonous), but overall it wasn't too bad so we soldiered on.

We saw a large group of wild monkeys hanging around the beach; looking for food, carrying their young, etc.  Not thinking much of "primate territorialism," we walked on the beach closer and closer to them.  It wasn't before long when the three of us actually found ourselves surrounded by 5 wild monkeys.  And these guys weren't coming to say hello.

Before we knew it, they began chasing us.  Amanda and I split without thinking twice, while Tyler swung his snorkel gear at one that almost jumped him.  We all gunned it back to the ocean and they stopped.  Phew!  That definitely got our adrenaline going.  Let me tell you, if you're looking for a rush, go get chased by wild monkeys off an abandoned beach :)

Now, If you've ever been to Thailand, and specifically the islands located a ways from the mainland, you'll know that no one gives much credence to the weather reports.  The natives' method is simply to look up in the sky and see what's around.  If you see clouds coming, that means rain.  Pretty simple.

So within just a few minutes of returning to our hotel a large storm came.  This is a little clip from our balcony that afternoon.  Commentary courtesy Tyler Capp (Tyler 1).

We found some good photo opportunities during the trip.  Here are some shots we thought were funny and had to capture.

Want a tuna burgur?  How about a ham burgur?

Many Thai people have the habit of dropping the sound of the last letter of English words, as in the Thai language where many endings of words are not aspirated.  The humor in this is that "James Bond" becomes "Jame Bond."  We just had to get this shot.

That's all for Part 1.  The other days were just as adventurous.  I'll be putting up Part 2 in the next few days so keep a lookout!  I'll leave you with some nice photos of the main island we took before leaving.