Koh Phi Phi

At this point, the major biking is pretty much finished and our bikes are resting outside the bungalow. We biked from our guesthouse in Krabi to the passenger ferry terminal (all of about 5km) on Wednesday morning and arrived here on Koh Phi Phi around noon. The island has no cars or trucks and only a few motorized bikes. Biking the streets is fairly pointless because they are narrow and filled with people. The main town is a maze of passageways through little shops of various kinds – food, clothes, souvenirs, diving places, lodgings, internet  places, and travel agencies. The other tourists seem to be mostly European with some Australians. There don’t seem to be many Americans here. All of the menus and signs are in English, which almost everyone seems to speak somewhat. The town is set between two bays. That and the lack of traffic make it a very unique place.

Our bungalows are just up the hill a little way. The place is called Tropical Garden Bungalows and the name provides a very apt description of the setting. Here is my bungalow and the view of the pool from my porch. I’m writing this on the hammock in the picture. The pool has fountains around it, so the sound of water surrounds me. It’s quite a peaceful setting.

On Thursday morning, Caroline and I climbed to three viewpoints above the town. The flower garden pictures are from the first viewpoint. This viewpoint also had a picture of the devastation from the tsunami. They are still rebuilding some of the area. Only the more substantial buildings remained standing. All of the little shops, which are bamboo mostly, were washed away. The highest point in the main town is probably no more than 10 feet or so.  

Chris arrived from Toronto around noon on Thursday after six days of travel. His first plane got rerouted from Heathrow to Shannon, where he was stuck for a couple days. Then he managed to get to London, and stayed with his aunt, but getting on a flight to Bangkok took a couple days. The airport was closed long enough to strand lots of people and back up all of the travelers. Once he got on the plane, the journey here via plane, bus, and ferry took 26 hours. He was a bit wiped out when he arrived.

We saw a great beachside fire show last night. I’ll see if I can add some of those pictures. There were about 10 performers, who had a variety of devices that they lit and twirled.

Today (Friday), Caroline and Chris went scuba diving and I finally finished grading my last set of papers, sending feedback, and posting grades. Only a few late arrivals for another class remain to be graded. The rest of my day was spent floating on the water or sitting in partial shade on the beach – quite relaxing!