Wow.

If you read my post about yesterday, you saw it was not the best day. But then again, I was on a beach in Thailand and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset, so on a scale of 1-10, despite the disappointing boat excursion, I think I'd still rank it at a 7, or perhaps even an 8 if I focused on the end of the day. That being said, today was a solid 17. Also, I want to be a pirate in my second career. And perhaps own a sugar glider. But I get ahead of myself.

Before we had booked the Phi Phi Island cruise boat, we had seen advertised a sunset cruise that looked pretty amazing, but after our day out yesterday, we were very hesitant to book that tour. We read some reviews online and decided we wanted to do it.

We decided this morning, we would do a brief hike up to a viewpoint and take the boat tomorrow afternoon. Stopping by the booking office after breakfast, the man said that the cruise was booked tomorrow, but was available today, so we adjusted our plans.

Why not rent a couple kayaks to fill our time? My arms will certainly be sore tomorrow as those are not muscles that commonly get a lot of work for me. We headed out from our own little beach, out into the blue water surrounded by large jetting rocks, covered in green at the top and clinging crabs, barnacles and mussels at the bottom.

 

 

 Sneaking through narrow passages, under overhanging stalagmites, and enjoying great views, we made it around to the beach on the other side of our little peninsula. It was there that we joined other travelers who also came to see Princess Cave. Not because it is a deep cave that encourages lots of exploring, but because of the interesting gifts people give to the princess.

 

Look closely. Yes, that's what you think it is. Now, I try to keep this blog clean, so I'm not going to say much here, but I'll put the words of the sign posted there below and let you do your own interpretations:

"Local people, fisherman and navigators believe and hold faith in the Princess of the Pranang Cave that she will preserve and protect their livelihood and fulfill one’s wishes. When their wishes are fulfilled, votive offerings would be made at the shrine. Common gifts are flowers and incense sticks, but usually the spirits of the Goddess are offered a special gift, the lingam, which is carved from wood. The belief of the lingam and holy womb shall create fertility and prosperity to the whole earth and mankind.”

And at the bottom, my favorite part: "Please do not place things of worship that are inappropriate."

 

Back on the kayaks and back toward our own beach, all we could say as we looked around was "wow." My vocabulary is not nearly as extensive as I'd like for it to be, but even if I knew every word in the English language, I believe "wow" would still be the only word appropriate to describe the scenery of our own little home for the week. It is just stunning, and we keep saying "I can't believe we are HERE!"

De-kayaked, re-sunscreened, we set out for the Mangrove side of the peninsula where our sunset cruise was to pick us up. I cannot describe to you how much infinitely better this cruise was than yesterday's! First, when we arrived, the boat, fashioned much more like a pirate ship than a cruise ship, had a variety of seating options. Some, on the floor with cushions that allowed for leaning back, some side benches, some in the shade and some in full sun. While life jackets were nearby, we weren't forced to wear them. And there were only about 20 passengers on board with 6 crew members.

Let me tell you first about the people we met onboard. Somehow the crew initiated conversations between us all, not only coming around and carrying on conversations with us, but by creating a relaxing and fun atmosphere. First is Michael, the Australian leader of the crew. When I asked him how he ended up here, he replied with, "Just lucky I guess." In actuality, his sister married a local and when he came for the wedding, he just never went home. He used to lead a form of rock climbing in the area done over water with no ropes, so if you fall, the water catches you. Then there is Charlotte, first mate I guess we could call her. At 26, she's had more cultural experiences than most of us could ever hope to have. She's half-Italian, half-Argentinian, and grew up in Milan. After college, she worked with Save the Children in Africa for eighteen months, at one point teaching a village how to ride bicycles so they could get to the watering hole quicker. She rescued a kitten a few days ago and brings her pet sugar gliders along for rides on the boat.

 

 

Out there, in the middle of the water, with only about 20 passengers, I met two fellow Alabamians! Both just graduated from Alabama (it's ok, not everyone can get into Auburn), one from Birmingham and one from Huntsville who were both headed to D.C.. There were the brother and sister from southern Texas who had a beautiful, slight Hispanic accent. The girl, had followed her two sisters to Notre Dame and was now in vet school, while her sisters were in med school and translating for the government in Russia. Her brother, 18 and bright-eyed was still unsure of his future plans.  Two girls from LA who had just graduated college were traveling before beginning their next steps. One of whom wants to become a pediatric oncology nurse. She's already got her pug trained as a therapy dog and loves taking him to visit kids in the hospital. Belle, a beautiful Thai girl of about 20 who spoke with a Scottish accent because she moved to Edinburgh at the age of five was a joy to talk with.  There was the bartender from Brooklyn, the couple from Brazil, the Indian family with their 8-year-old son (who had the time of his life), the older couple from Perth who had been living in Vietnam and more that I'm sure I forgot, but I hope you can get a sense that I spent my day with some fascinating people, and that we had fun getting to know one another.

Now, back to the actual adventures of the day. At our first stop, Jessica and I were once again reminded of how infinitely better today was than the day before. The boat anchored just off of a tiny island. Please know that when I say island, I really just mean a large rock. For part of our time, there was one other boat of tourists close by, but otherwise, hardly any evidence of human life could be seen over the expanse of water and lands around us. Here we paddle boarded around the water, spotting jellyfish and trying to do tricks. As this was my first time on a paddle board, my tricks were minimal! We swam, snorkeled and spotted brightly colored fish.

We moved on and stopped again near Chicken Island (look at the photo to see if you can tell why it is called that). Here, once again we played in the water. Some kayaked to the beach, some snorkeled, and we joined in the fun on the roof of the boat.

 

 

Michael took fun photos of everyone underwater that he will be sending to us soon. We waited out a short rain shower and watched a rainbow come out before we moved on to our sunset spot. It was here that we went and sat on the roof of the boat, cocktails in hand and watched, leaning back on our cushions, as the sky changed from gorgeous color to gorgeous color. Once again, our only word that fit was "wow."

 

   

We enjoyed a delicious dinner on board before departing for our one, final stop, the most magical one of them all. The one I have no photos of: bioluminescent plankton. We knew this was part of the tour, in fact, it had been one of the main reasons for our decision in booking this tour, but we had no idea what to expect. It was very dark, thankfully the nearly full moon had not yet risen or was hiding behind a few dense clouds when we got in smaller boats and went close to a cliff. Before jumping in, I saw nothing, I mean really, nothing. I was almost disappointed thinking that like most things, this wouldn't be nearly as interesting as I had made it out to be, but then, I was in the water and it was glowing. The tiny, minuscule plankton glow as a defense mechanism, so when they are disturbed, they glow. Jessica described it well: it was if we were Tinkerbell. The slightest movement made things glow. I felt as if I was magical because anytime I moved I created light. Anything from a slight wriggle of my finger to kicking the water created a glow as if a glow stick had been broken and the liquid inside spilled out. Michael finally had to call the three of us back into the boat as it was time to go, but wow, just wow was all we could say, once again.

 

Should you ever be in this part of the world, and you should, do not miss a Krabi Sunset Tour with the opportunity to become a pirate for the day!