Saturday - Koh Phi Phi

Was a special day. It was sunny all day. It was so amazing. So we tried to cram as much beach time as possible into the day.

We headed over to Long Beach, a beautiful beach on the island to set up camp for the day. And by set up camp I mean lay out our beach mat and flop ourselves in it where we would lay for the next 5 hours with occasional interruptions for swimming.

Today I was struck by how amazing it is that we have created literally laying down all day as something wonderful to do. I mean the beach is full of grown people, some topless (not me, in case you were wondering), laying around. I guess we can call it enjoying nature so that is how we justify it. Either way, I am glad we do justify it, since it really is a great way to spend the day.

After sufficient sun time, we decided to walk back to our hotel instead of taking a boat, you know for exercise. It was actually pretty cool, because the trail was not very nice, so we got a little jungle experience.

After showering and resting a bit (since sun bathing does not qualify as resting) we headed out to hike the Koh Phi Phi viewpoint. Basically, it is a strait up steep staircase to the top of the island which mercilessly, as is the nature of most islands, wasn't too far. But, it was far enough that I was sweating profusely by the top. Also, just to really stick it to you, they charge you 20 Baht to go up the final few steps to the viewpoint, because they know that at that point you are of course going to pay, because you didn't hike up there for nothing. And let me just remind you that it is really only like 75 cents so it's not the amount, but it's just the principle of the thing. In the end, however, despite my complaining, the viewpoint was very lovely. After sitting for a while we headed back down, right when the old Thai man overseeing the lookout, looked to the sky and predicted rain in the next 30 minutes. He seemed much too wise to be ignored. Prophetically, exactly 30 minutes later as Joseph and I were sitting down for dinner it did start raining, just like he said.

This story is even more amazing because we have been trying, since we got here to find someone or something that can give us a reliable forecast. Such a thing does not exist. Every forecast either says "rain all day" or "no rain all day." These are never right. It always rains for some portion of everyday and then is beautiful for the rest of the day. It is just a matter of getting it right so you're not sitting inside watching a movie when it is sunny or outside on a longtail boat in a driving storm. Both have happened to us. Miraculously this wise old man, like some character in a Disney movie, had it all figured out. He even told us the forecast for the next day - very nice in the morning rain at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Sure enough, it was beautiful all morning, and as our boat was pulling away from the dock at 3:30 to take us back to the mainland a storm rolled in. We thought about paying this guy to come around with us an give us the forecast each day, or telling him he should write his own weather app.

All in all, it was a very successful day on Phi Phi Don. Although I wouldn't recommend going to this island during busy season, it was crowded enough when we were there and the town was obviously not very full.