Koh Phi Phi

I took a taxi, ferry, bus, then ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Phi Phi - What a beautiful island! I booked a place to stay before hand and had them pick me up in a taxi once I got there....I walk off the ferry to a dirt road, barely wide enough for a car. Turns out their version of a taxi is an over-sized wheelbarrow that you put your bags in and someone pulls it for you! I have been here now for three days and have yet to see a car. Everything is within walking distance, and if you want to get there a little faster, you can get on a bike.
Koh Phi Phi is really two islands connected by an oversized, developed sand bar (which is why there was so much damage when the tsunami hit - there is still tons of evidence). I am staying right in between the islands in the main town. It takes all of 8 minutes to get from one beach to the other.
Its been a relaxing couple days - enjoying the sun, taking pictures (yes, one day I will put them up here), and wandering through the street shops. Today I rented a speed boat for a tour (with some other travellers) of Monkey beach, snorkeling, cliff jumping, and Maya bay (where the beach was filmed). It was teaming rain this morning, but we thought it would clear up by the afternoon when we got on the boat at 2....not the case. We went snorkeling first (yes, I went snorkeling again!!!!!) and the weather was still OK. It started to get rough, so I headed back to the boat early. We didn't see any monkeys on monkey beach, I am assuming because of the weather- I'm pretty sure I will be seeing a bunch of them in Indonesia, so I didn't mind much. Once everyone got back on the boat from snorkeling, we headed out towards Maya bay. That's when the weather turned bad again...super windy and rainy. The water was pretty rough, making for an awesome speed boat ride! Our driver obviously had done it a few times before :) We got to the bay opposite of maya bay (it was too rough to go around) and some of the guys went cliff jumping (obviously I didn't go) and then we walked over to see Maya bay (we had to swim to shore first! You might just call me a water baby here soon! haha). The bay was absolutely stunning - even though it was cloudy, rainy and windy. I can only imagine how it would be in the sun! We got straight in the bay since the water was warmer than the air by far! Maybe that's why I'm swimming...the water feels like bath water. Once we got back on the boat, we floated about in some coves for while to let the wind calm down, and made it back just fine.

Tomorrow morning I am headed to Kuala Lumpur!
lots of love!