Ko Phi Phi: We Found Nemo!

We met our fellow divers at 7:15 at the dive shop and walked the short distance to the pier after quick introductions. Our dive masters were from Holland and France, our fellow divers from Brazil and Sweden, and I inadvertently broke the awkward silence characteristic of half sleeping, hungover strangers. While walking down the pier, I slipped and slid on my rear about 15 feet down to the bottom of the ramp due to the exposed moss covered cement at low tide. All I have to show for my miraculously graceful fall is a blood blister under my thumb nail and a small bruise on the top of my foot, and once everyone realized I was fine the ice was broken and the rest of the morning went off without any awkwardness.

Our first dive in Thailand was at Bida Nok, a small island to the south of Ko Phi Phi. The water was a balmy 32 C, and we swam around in our unnecessary shorty wetsuits. The dive was fantastic, and we were both in awe of the soft corals we had never seen before. Not only the soft corals, but the variety of colors, shapes, and textures underwater was unbelievable. There were the soft bulbous corals resembling tiny glass orbs that deformed ever so slightly in the sway of the current; the vibrant purple hollowed out tree trunks with tops that tended to fold in on themselves; the intricate rust colored fans that were only paper thin when viewed from above; the mazes that looked like tiny ant jungle gyms in bold hues of oranges and reds; corals the shape and color of leafless trees in the dead of winter… I could go on and on about the variety of corals we saw on the two dives! And against the backdrop of beautiful coral were butterfly, angel, and batfish the size of dinner plates and hundreds of clown fish. Just like Nemo!

Our surface interval consisted of sandwiches, life stories, the green water of a sandy cove, and a cloudless sky. The only drawback was that the sea was a little too rough for the dive boat to make it into Maya Bay (where The Beach was filmed), so we didn’t get to see that. The second dive was half drift dive, half kick-kick dive from Palong to Malong on the island of Phi Phi Ley, also south of Ko Phi Phi. In addition to the corals and fish, we also saw a big, sleeping leopard shark, a small blue spotted sting ray, countless puffer fish, and a giant lionfish resembling an overstuffed pincushion. The dives were fantastic, and we can only imagine what it would be like when conditions are what the dive masters would call “spectatcular.”

Back on the island, we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch, and then took a nap in the bungalow while we waited out the daily afternoon rain. Then we mustered up the energy to walk up to the viewpoint on the northern side of the island with about 100 other people hoping to catch the sunset from the top. The “walk” is actually about 5000 stairs straight up the side of a cliff. It was hot, humid, and buggy, but totally worth it. The first stop was at a small restaurant overlooking the strip of sand that had a bunch of pictures from before and after the 2004 tsunami. It was crazy to see what the island looked like before, with huge palm trees lining either side of the beach, what it looked like right after, with boats overturned in town and a noticeable lack of trees, and what it looks like today, a younger version of its original self but no more organized or planned than the original. The second stop was at the top of the hill, and from there we watched the sun dip behind the thunderheads on the horizon with spectacular views of the twin bays in the foreground.

When we got back to town, we decided it was time to try a “bucket”: literally a child’s beach bucket with a flask of alcohol, a Red Bull, and a can of soda that the Thais add ice and a few straws to. Let’s just say after an hour on the beach with our bucket, we were no longer sober and in desperate need of dinner. We had Thai green curry and coconut soup with too much lemongrass before heading out to find a bar and try our luck at getting free birthday drinks. Across the street from dinner, we ran into Andre, our Brazilian dive buddy and his friend Anita. Anita was working at the bar, so she got us a few free birthday shots. We were shortly joined by Manu, our dive master, and we all headed to the Apache bar. We danced around barefoot in the true Thai style and took advantage of the free bucket special from 11:30 to 11:40. The bar was a bit empty, but we successfully started a killer dance party before heading back to the beach party scene. Long story short, we had a great time with our diving buddies and partied hard on my birthday. Manu drunkenly told us that we were his favorite couple ever because we were fun to dive with and to party with before we headed back to our bungalow. All in all, I have to say it was a very memorable way to spend my 23rd birthday!