Phi Phi - Day 1

We took the 8:30 a.m. ferry to Phi Phi and arrived around 11:30 after wasting 30 minutes circling Phi Phi Ley Island so tourists could marvel at the site of sand where Leon DiCaprio walked (gagging sounds) in the movie The Beach.  Our bags went on to our hotel rooms, which are are on Long Beach instead of our usual Ton Sai Village bungalows, while we went to the dive shop to get fitted for gear and go out for two dives right away.  Given that the area just had a tropical storm go through on the east coast of Thailand, we had reasonably good conditions of almost no current and good visibility, although the water was slightly choppy.

We left Khao Yai at noon and got to the airport in Bangkok by 4:00, so we were there in plenty of time for our flight to Phuket.  The airport at Bangkok had free wifi.  Can you tell the kids were without electronic connection for three days in Khao Yai?  How pathetic is that?

We're on a Thai Airways 747 for a short flight to Phuket.

We overnighted in Phuket, close to the docks.  Then we got the first ferry to Phi Phi the next morning.

On the dive boat, Andrew Hewett (left) is introducing the instructors who will be leading the students on their dives.  Andrew is the owner and general manager of the Adventure Club in Phi Phi.  We've been working with him for more than 12 years to put on a world-class hands-on coral conservation program.

We broke up into our individual dive groups of 3-4 students each with an instructor.  These small groups ensure that the kids have close, expert supervision during their dives.  Here is Instructor Josh with Jacob, Bryce, and Schmidty.

Instructor Aroja (back to us) is giving a briefing before our first dive to Mackenzie, Dixie, Hannah, and AT.

Instructor Lena brifing Morgan, Addi, Grace, and Lyndi.

Instructor Olli with Ajarn Mark, Lori, Nat, and Kristen.

Hannah, Mackenzie, and Dixie are ready for their first dive.

Schmidty, Jacob and Bryce are geared up an ready to go.

Morgan is ready.

Kristin.

Grace taking her "giant stride" from the back of the dive deck into the  water.

Not sure who this is.

The students are moving toward the wall before they go down.  The next photos are of only one dive group, so the only students in them are Nat and Kristin.  I'll get the others in subsequent posts.

Kristin and Nat are already very comfortable diving.

Nat.

Kristin.

They're just showing off.

Kristin

Again.

Back on the surface after the dive.  The instructors have the orange "safety sausages" which they inflate 3 minutes before surfacing to alert boats that divers are below and coming up.

There was so much to see underwater today.  Here's a school of blue fuseliers.

Moorish idols.  You might recognize this species from "Saving Nemo"

Big-eyed snappers

More snappers.

and more snappers.   Okay, on this one dive are more fish than I've seen in all of my Caribbean diving collectively.

Porcupine fish.

Here's a beauiful gorgonian sea fan with a big starfish in the lower corner.

Sea cucumber.

The students were incredibly lucky to see leopard sharks on their first day of diving.  This species has become quite scarce locally in recent years.

Here's what we all want to see:  black-tip reef sharks.  I saw 20-30 of them while snorkeling while the students did their second dive.  My ears had given me trouble on my first dive and I couldn't equalize the pressure, so I just snorkeled while they dove their second dive, and I'm glad I did.

After the day was over, we were all tired and went to our new accommodations at the Phi Phi Paradise Pearl Resort.