The past two times that we’ve gone diving, we’ve enjoyed our surface interval in Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh. Maya Bay is most famous for being the backdrop of the movie version of The Beach. It is as picturesque as you’d imagine with turquoise water and pale sandy beach. Speed boats spot the shore line, some circled by snorkelers. It is a major stop on the island hopping tours that depart from Phuket and Phi Phi Don.
Both of our visits were greeted by a beached sail boat which hadn’t been there for long – in fact on our first day, it seemed to be getting a visit from the authorities. This prompted my Facebook posting of “Somebody is having a worst day than you are.” Ignoring for a moment that the guy should not have been anchored in Maya Bay in the first place, it’s gotta suck to lose your anchor and start keeling over. We saw that happen in Bequia and a beaching can happen super fast.
Incidentally, this diving that we’re doing is giving us a good introduction to the different sites. Navigation is a breeze – mostly it’s wall dives, so you either keep the reef on your right or you left. The boat drops you off and picks you up, so there’s not a whole lot to it. In fact, I think I’ve mentioned that Andy’s let us go off on our own a couple of times. He’s mentioned that some of the shops wouldn’t let us do that regardless of our dive history, but he’s perfectly happy to do so. And let’s face it, it’s good for him as well. If he’s booked us and he knows he can let us go off, then he’s still free to book a few more people.
I touched the exact same thing that I touched in the Philippines and now my left thumb has the SARS. I cut myself on some kind of coral and it itches and has made funny blisters and is red and gross and it will last at least a month because that’s how long it lasted after the Philippines. And being hot and sweaty all the time does not help with the itching.
We’ve gone around to most of the shops on the island and given either a CV or a business card or both. Some shops are adamant that they don’t need people, others are happy to take your information and use you as a freelancer if they have work. One guy went so far as to tell us that he wouldn’t need anyone for at least 5 months (that’s December) – I don’t see how people can make claims like that. But it is the low season so we know that work may be slow to come until September. We have one shop to go visit at the complete other end of the beach. They’re attached to a resort.
I’m really not sure how we’re going to occupy two more months on this teeny tiny island if we don’t get calls for work before high season.
A few days ago we finally walked up to the Viewpoint. It’s a good climb up a million steps and when the steps are done, there’s probably still a good mile or so to climb. But the view is breathtaking. It’s from the top of the mountain that you can see down to Tonsai Village, the strip and two beaches. Tonsai is nothing more than a strip of beach connecting two islands. Out of curiosity and because people do talk about it we’ve googled the tsunami and watched some footage on YouTube. Seeing the topography of Phi Phi Don, I just don’t see how Tonsai registered as so much of a bleep on the tsunami radar.
We went back up to the Viewpoint yesterday and walked even further this time to where you can see Krabi (the province to the east on the peninsula), Phuket and a ton of other small islands. Unfortunately, I did not take the camera this time since I thought that we were just going to see the same thing again. I’ll repeat that it is one hell of a climb! I suspect that Ryan will want to go back up there today and I’m thinking that it’s really really hot to be clambering up there.
There are little convenience stores at the various viewpoint stops. They sell water, sodas, ice-cream – and are adamant, all of them, about no beer which leads me to wonder if in the past they’ve been used as party central either disturbing the peace or leading to an accident of some sort. Anyway there was a nice Scandanavian couple up there yesterday enjoying an ice-cream each – the kind that looks like a dove bar - when a bird of prey – probably a hawk – swooped down and tried to steal the guy’s ice-cream, knocking it out of his hands. The guy then tossed him the ice-cream, the hawk picked the chocolate shell off of it and left the rest to melt on the rocks. A few minutes later a white kitty with very large cohones came by lapped up some of the ice-cream. And the girl did not share the rest of her ice-cream with the guy and the guy did not get a new one.
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