Phuket & Phi Phi

December 24^th 2006 written from Balad, Iraq.

Thailand Phuket & Phi Phi

Well I’m back from Thailand again. Another great trip # 3 or really # 4. All I can say is that Thailand is amazing and it doesn’t matter if you are taking the family, on your honeymoon or single like me. There is something for everyone here. I started in Bangkok for 4 days. Bangkok has it’s own energy and I always like to spend a few days there enjoying the sites and sounds of a busy city. I could go on and on but let’s just say after a great time in Bangkok. I hopped on a plane with Nok Air to fly south to Phuket. Phuket is an Island but a big Island. It’s surrounded by tons of other smaller islands. So it has a lot of places to go and see…and to dive.

I checked into my hotel in Patong Beach waaaay to close to Bangla Road but that’s the party place and I wanted to be close…but I found I couldn’t even try to sleep till 3am because of all the noise from the discos. Next time I’ll stay a little farther from Bangla. Anyway, My 1^st night I stayed in to sleep. Bangkok was tiring. The next day I went out on a big dive boat to the twin islands of Ko Racha Yai (big) and Ko Racha Noi (small) to take a refresher dive class and to get my feet wet again.

It was great and so was my instructor James B. If you want his number, just email me. The Islands are great and the diving is easy with lots of fish to see.

Later in the week, after I recovered from drinking with my new German, Aussie and Welsh friends, oh, and a few Thai gals too, I managed to wake up early for another day of diving.

I hit the water again and concentrated on diving Phi Phi (Pe Pe) Island. With one dive at Shark Point…sadly no sharks, well one little black tip reef shark but I wanted to see big ones. L

I took this map from Offspray Leisure’s website. Look at all the dive sites!! And this is really just one Island!!! If you need to charter a boat, these are the people to do it with. They can take you anywhere w/ great music, lunch onboard, diving, snorkeling or even just site seeing. I’ve included a link to the video on their site so you can see what it’s like. (same tour trip I was on) It’s worth a look and a total blast!!! The monkeys are funny too.

http://www.offsprayleisure.com/day-trips-video.html

So, the Offspray, a speedboat with 2x200hp motors. On my outing there were two young English guys on holiday, a really nice couple on their Honeymoon and me. J We all had great fun and enjoyed our Phi Phi Diving tour with lunch included at a 4 star resort on the Island.

This is the boat. It’s fast and fun.