From Grads to Nomads

So, yesterday for the final day of low season we (Kirby, Krista and I, as the other guys were all at their scuba lesson) took a day long island hopping/snorkel trip to Phi Phi and other islands. The day started off alright, slightly cloudy, we were walked down the the beach where we had to catch our boat. First we see this huge crowd and there are 2 boats for our tour, and the first one filled up quick, leaving us to get on the second one. Once we finally boarded we had to sit in the boat as it rocked back and forth, waiting for 2 people who were late, for almost 40 minutes, and they NEVER came. What did come was the beginning of my sea sickness. So once we finally get going, enter- the Obnoxious family, as we dubbed them. At 9:30 in the morning, there is this mother and her 12 year old son playing some stupid game that made them both yell and shriek in a very irritating sound. They later found it neccessary to sing loudly in french, in a very obnoxious manner.

When we were almost at the first island, we got to see a bunch of dolphins in the water which was one of the few cool parts of the day!! We then pulled up to our first beach where we had 30 minutes, I had a walk down the beach and the clouds began to roll in for rain that started shortly after. We then toured and saw a old pirates cave, and then a bay where we could have swam, but there were about 10 other full boats there too. Then we went to another bay where we snorkeled, and it was best not to think of whether or not the snorkels were sterilized before we used them. I actually enjoyed the snorkeling due to the lack of big fish and the depth of the water. From here, we went to THE BEACH, where the movie was filmed, and that was a very beautiful bay that looked the exact same as in the movie, however the dozen boats and tons of tourists kind of took the beauty away a bit. Plus when I was walking and one of the anchor ropes spun up, it rubbed my shin raw which hurt a fair bit.

We then got back in the boat (spent about 5 hours in the boat riding) and saw a beach covered in monkey's, but I was too seasick to actually enjoy this, and from there we got to Phi Phi ( pronounced Pee-pee) island for lunch. It turned out all the boats have lunch in the same restaurant and we had to wait in a huge line to get food, and we miraculously spotted one empty table so we left our stuff on it, which as soon as we were in line, some Americans were kind enough to steal our table, put our stuff on the ground, and say " you snooze you lose". Idiots I say.

So while in line, one of the sons in the Obnoxious family was eating his food and it was falling out of his mouth while he was in line and it almost fell back into the main dishes, I was very disgusted, but what more could we expect from this terrible family. We then ate our lunch in the rain, absolutely frozen, and then wandered over to the one nice beach we would have liked to stay at except we had no time there. We walked back to the boat where we had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the people who can't tell time apparantly and then were off to ANOTHER bay, when we only wanted to go back to Ao Nang. Then when we thought the tour was finally over, while our boat was bouncing over huge waves and coming down so hard it hurt every time we hit a wave, we went to yet ONE MORE beach for a half hour, where we stood and stared across the bay at Ao Nang wishing we were back there. Finally, 8 hours after our long long day began, we were back to have a hot shower and go for a cup (or 3) of hot tea. I have declared an end to going on boat tours for now as it was the longest 8 hours one can imagine having in paradise!!!