Phi Phi Island was quite lovely...

Rach and I plus three other girls from our hostel set out this morning on our snorkeling trip. The boat held about 300 people and was a bit crowded but it only took about and hour and twenty minutes to make it out to the island (many of the other tours take three hours!). The boat dropped off a bunch of people on the first island, Phi Phi Don, so that they could stay the night.

Afterwards our group went on ahead to Monkey Beach by boat. Apparently there are usually monkeys out playing on the beach but our tour director said that because it was high tide, there sadly were no monkeys today. I theorize that monkeys actually don't live at this beach and the tide just gives them a convenient excuse each day. Oh well. The snorkeling was nice... a lot of the same fishes that we see in Hawaii but the water was a pretty translucent blue-green color. After thirty minutes we went on ahead to another island, Phi Phi Ley. Scenes from "The Beach" were shot there and now I understand why... sooooo beautiful. I mentioned yesterday that Rach and I are somewhat spoiled because we come from such an amazing place, but we both agreed that Phi Phi was pretty unique. The islands themselves are mostly limestone and covered in trees and other vegetation. The snorkeling there was also quite nice. Saw some really pretty wrasses and parrot fish. One thing was kinda weird though - little things started stinging us as we swam around... apparently they have sea lice or something.

When the snorkeling was through, we went back to Phi Phi Don to have lunch at a hotel and look at some of the stores on the beach. Apparently Phi Phi was hit really hard by the tsunami but they are slowly putting things back together. All in all, the islands were some of the prettiest places I've ever seen.

We just got back from dinner... Thai food for 40 baht a piece. That's literally just over a dollar. Insane.

Early tomorrow morning we head out to Cambodia. We have stop over number two of five in the Bangkok airport... haha.

Oh, before I get going, I should write down the running list of ethnicities people in these countries have suggested Rachel belongs to:

-Japanese (correct)
-Korean (wrong, but somewhat justifiable)
-Thai (um... no)
-Chinese (ya, not even close)
-Vietnamese (huh?)

I swear, if we get to Siem Reap and someone says she's Cambodian, I will die laughing.