Phuket - Phi Phi Island Hopping

During our Easter break, we took a little trip to Phuket Thailand.  I had to take a picture of this
stewardess because their uniforms were so pretty.  They all had different colored ones and some
 had  the scarf that goes over the shoulders.  Very classy looking.

Our first night we went to see the sunset and its a good thing we did, because we never made
it back to the beach in the evening again!

Beach barbecues.

I of course managed to get a little shopping done at one of the markets!!  Thailand is known for their
 silk and batik.

Blaine trying out his first coconut drink!

And best of all, he found a place that had yummy banana splits!

A restaurant near our hotel where you could buy kabobs or seafood and have them barbecue it.

The prawns are so big!

Entrance to our hotel which was a block and a half from the beach.

Map of the Phi Phi Islands where we spent a day cruising around. There are six islands that
make up the Phi Phi islands( pronounced pee pee) and they are a part of a national park.  They 
lie in the Andaman Sea between Phuket and the mainland of Thailand.

Our first stop of the day was by these two little hunks of rock where people went snorkeling off the boat.
It was rather intimidating for both of us to just jump into the ocean, but we managed to both get in and have a little swim.  Blaine nearly cratered himself swallowing half the ocean!!

Boats lined up at our first stop of island hopping! 

 Kai Nai island. People rent these umbrellas and chairs for the day and that's about
all that's on this little island!!

I found it more relaxing to walk out into the water.  I loved snorkeling and being able to see all the fish!

Coral washed ashore.  There was a lot of pieces of coral mixed into the sand, and our guide said
 when the tsunami  hit it broke the coral reefs and since then the coral gets washed
up onto the beaches.

Our next stop was Kai Yao. This island is larger and has some habitation.

We had a great lunch here of various Thai food.  This young couple were from Malaysia and very
 friendly and fun to visit with.

Our next stop was Bamboo island. 

Now is this the face of a man born for the sea or what! 

He actually was able to finally put his face in for a second or two!!

Wooden boat  called a long tail boat,with car engine on the back.

This is Ko Phi Phi Don (Ko means island) which is the largest of the islands, and is where most of the damage was done by the 2004 tsunami.  This narrow strip of land has a bay on either side 
of it and the wave came from both sides and overran the low lying ground.  Before 2004 the 
word tsunami wasn't even known as it had never occurred before.

 Phi Phi Lae island is made up of these weird and wonderful rock formations that just appear out of the water.  It got kind of cloudy and dark, as we pulled in among all these huge crazy looking rocks, and
it had kind of a foreboding feel about it!!

Another odd shaped rock. 

Again we snorkeled off the boat as there was no beach here.  Just before we left the sun appeared
 and you could see into the water better.

Underwater picture.

The guide used our camera to take some neat shots underwater of this giant clam, and the
sea urchin below.

Our last stop was at Maya Bay which was really beautiful.  The water was so green and the sand was totally unbelievable.  It was so fine and soft.  The movie  The Beach was filmed here.  Apparently they cut down a lot of the trees and the locals were not happy about that!

A very weird looking plant with jelly bean looking seeds.  Have no idea what it is!

We had an fantastic day doing this particular side trip. 

We stopped to look at this cave, called Viking Cave.  This is where they harvest the nests for birds
 nest soup.  The cave swift makes it's nest from saliva and attaches it to the walls of the cave. 
 Hong Kong is one of the biggest importers of these nests as it's a great delicacy all over
 Asia and very expensive.

Last look at one of the Phi Phi islands as we begin the hour trip back to Phuket.  Awesome day!
 So glad we went.