Our Asia Trip Diary – Part Twenty Six
Monday was the last day of our Open Water Dive Course. We woke up extra early because the diver’s boat would bring us to Koh Rok. At Koh Rok we had two more dives planned. In the first dive we had to practice two more skills and the second (and last dive!) was just a recreational dive. We even spotted a turtle on our last dive, how magical was that?! The crew was fantastic, and we got lunch on the beach.
Now we can proudly say we are certified divers! From now on, when we plan new travels, we will definitely look for diving spots around the world.
The rest of the afternoon we took our time to rest. Learning how to dive can be pretty exhausting. But we feel so grateful for this course we took. We never even thought about diving and in just a week we discovered scuba diving and completed the Open Water Diving Course!
Before we headed to the port on Tuesday, we took some time to relax at the pool. Then, we got picked up and were brought to the port by taxi. We’re still surprised by the organising skills of the people here. Everything seems so chaotic and still, they manage to pick up and drop off every tourist at the right hotel/port. At the port, people exchange your boat tickets (which all seem to be from a different seller) for a sticker. So they can see which boat you have to board and which island you have to get off. Sometimes they even sticker your luggage!
Our next stop was Koh Phi Phi. This island is known for its parties, but that’s not why we paid a visit to this island. Koh Phi Phi consists of multiple islands and they are GORGEOUS! Phi Phi Don is the “main” island where we stayed. There are no cars or scooters on the island, great!
Wednesday we started our day at the beach. Good to know is that there are only two tides in the daytime in south Thailand. Morning till noon is high tide, while afternoon-evening is low tide. Low tide at some places (including the famous beach at Koh Phi Phi Don) makes beaches enormous. This makes swimming and relaxing not attractive. The best time to relax at the beach is from morning till noon, with high tide. Perfect for us!
After lunch, we had a boat tour planned. This was the best experience we’ve had! The boat brought us to several places in and around the Phi Phi islands. We had time to swim, snorkel and explore some beaches such as Monkey Beach and Maya Bay. The last one has become very famous since Leonardo DiCaprio in the film The Beach was filmed there. The boat tour promised us to be the last one on Maya Bay and that was really nice! But, as you’ve read before, afternoon = low tide! So no dreamy beach, but a lot of splashy puddles. We didn’t mind though!
After watching the sunset on the boat, there was one more activity. Swimming with luminescent plankton! A special experience we missed out on in Cambodia when it was too rainy to visit the islands. But now we saw the luminescent plankton! You have to move inside the water to make the plankton shine. It’s nothing too crazy, but as we heard, there are more spectacular places on earth to see this.
Thursday we had big plans. The alarm went off in the morning but when I looked at Marnick, I already knew it was not for today. We probably ate something wrong the day before… We ended up staying sick in our room for the whole day. Bye bye cool viewpoints.
Before getting sick we already bought our next ferry tickets, so there was no option but to take that ferry and leave Phi Phi behind on Friday. Sad, but we were so sick, we were glad to leave our hot, smelly room! Also, Phi Phi is too expensive to chill or stay sick in the hotel room.
So, we took the ferry to Ao Nang on Friday. To give you some background info, Ao Nang is located in the Andaman Sea but is mainland! That means we finished our island hopping. Mixed feelings since there are so many islands and places to discover in Thailand but we’re also happy to go back home in a few weeks.
Saturday we took the day for ourselves. Got some rest, went to the beach, and replanned our coming days.
Today is Sunday and we decided to spend our day on Railay Beach. This peninsula is surrounded by limestone rocks so it is only accessible by boat. Fortunately, there are lots of longtail boats ready at the harbour of Ao Nang who want to bring you in exchange for a fee. We spend most of the day at this beautiful beach.
In the afternoon we went back to our hotel to refresh and get ready to go to the night market in Krabi. We took a local bus from Ao Nang to Krabi and explored the night market for some good food. We have done TONS of night markets / walking streets in central and north Thailand but it has been a while again now! Good to be back.
See you in our next blog!
