10-26-19 - Phi Phi Islands
/Day 132. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.
Up early again, as today is the second dive day out to Koh Phi Phi Islands (pronounced “pee pee” islands). As we sit on the dock in the speedboat, Kyle realizes he doesn’t have his cell phone. A minor panic falls over his face. as advertised, “Find my iPhone” app quickly finds it innocently sunning on the bench outside the dive shop where he put it down to complete some paperwork. Volunteer Justin bolts back the 10 minute sprint to retrieve it. Relieved, we set off on our adventure. But not for long. The Phi Phi Islands are too far for a long-tail boat so we are in a speedboat which we are told should take only 45 minutes to reach in this type of boat. However the boat’s outboard motors get stuck in the up position and it takes 30 minutes to fix it. Hmmm?
But given we have come to realize that time isn’t as harried in a world like this, we enjoy just floating amongst the limestone cliffs while the Thai driver cycles through his tools to fix. We are all at such an unbelievable level of inner peace/chill now that no one even utters a word at the delay.
It is great to see our kids so unstressed, relaxed, and just enjoying this tail end of their childhoods. Not Uber caught up with what they are wearing or what someone said or what party they might get invited too. Their only worries are their online classes and getting to mealtimes (and fighting dysentery at times). It’s a bit of a fantasy world really traveling this long, but we are thrilled to give them this gift. They have this long break in life to realize how important it is to seek happy and just enjoy being happy. To be unrushed. To seek knowledge for your own sake, not just for a test. As our Nepali guide Deepak shared, happiness is free.
There is another dive guide Matti and his girlfriend on board for the scuba divers. They are asking us about our trip and when Kyle mentions Magnus and Nicola in Finland, they practically pop off the boat with excitement. “You actually have friends in Finland???” Apparently the concept of an American having friends in Finland is one that Matti never fathomed in the realm of possibility as he shakes his head in disbelief.
As it turns out, they are nomads themselves moving around season to season between diving and trekking jobs. Matti is from a small village of 50 people in the North of Finland. We trade traveling war stories and favorite destinations. After this dive season, he’s headed up to the Himalayas in India for the season to run trekking trips. Kyle and Leanne can’t quite figure out how all these millennials seem so incredibly unworried about their long-term futures as they just focus on the here and now and earning enough money to sustain their travels. But then again, having been nomads for over four months now, we can see the attractiveness that a life of travel holds.
At the first dive cove at one of the Islands at Phi Phi National Park, we notice oodles of bottles and Styrofoam cups floating on the surface. John, Corey, Justin & Kyle submerge with Danae for their dive. The snorkelers Leanne, Ashlynn & Ashley, along with Matti and his girlfriend, dive in to retrieve over 250 plastic bottles and countless pieces of Styrofoam ranging from pea sized to the size of a football. Of course, we have only collected debris floating on top but we did at least something to help the environment. One of the activist groups just put out a report naming Coca Cola, Nestle and Pepsi as the three top company polluters and Coke is woefully behind on its commitment to collect 25 percent of its waste by 2015.
At the second dive site, the water is noticeably calmer and the reef is well protected by the sweeping limestone cliffs that are at least 15 stories high getting out of the ocean as if they just popped up. Both the snorkeling and diving are fantastic ranking as the top site of the four we have done. There we see green, purple and white starfish, an octopus, green moray eels swaying in the current, more lionfish and puffer fish and swarms of yellow fish that envelope the divers in a wall of yellow. There is one huge 40 pound yellow and silver fish that is angrily stalking Kyle darting at him and retreating over and over again. Kyle has no idea what he’s done to elicit this response. Maybe the fish thinks Kyle ate his cousin for dinner last night clearly not knowing that Kyle wouldn’t come within three miles of eating a fish.
After a fun beachside lunch on Phi Phi Island, the dive crew gets in for the third dive. This time it’s Kyle, Justin, Corey and Matti’s girlfriend who are diving with Danae. As they submerge to the bottom, the current immediately starts sweeping them along the underwater base of the cliff. Without having to even kick, we are flying along faster than a ride at Disneyland. Before we know it, Matti’s girlfriend tries to stop and adjust something and is whisked off into the deep blue sea completely gone from view. The rest of us continue to ride the current until it subsides at which point we re-assemble and must ascend to the surface to look for Matti’s girlfriend.
“I have to admit that if one of us was to go missing, I’m glad it was her,” Kyle is thinking. The prospect of Danae having to tell Matti, “sorry dude, I lost your girlfriend,” seems infinitely more palatable to him than having to tell Leanne “sorry honey, I lost two of the kids.” Luckily upon surfacing, we see Matti’s girlfriend a half a football field away – that’s how strong the current was. Six minutes was how long we lasted unwater and with that Danae calls an end to the third dive.
On the way back in the speedboat, we feel we are world’s away from life. John says “I want to take this photo to prove I’m in the middle of the ocean near absolutely nothing.”
After a pool session, we retire to our rooms early and order food for delivery too tired to even venture out and want to save it up for tomorrow which is our last day in paradise.
