The Most Beautiful Thing

We ended up with a bit of a raw deal regarding the boat journey to Koh Phi Phi. When I booked the tickets, I’d asked the dude how long the trip would take. He paused, just for a millisecond, before telling me it would take one hour. So I wasn’t particularly surprised when the trip ended up taking two, as his ever-so-tiny pause had sewn a seed of doubt in my mind as to whether he was being completely honest with me. However, that wouldn’t have been so bad if the boat had been in the least bit comfortable. No air-conditioning or cushioned seats to be seen! Aren’t we flashpackers now? How could this happen? Check out the life jackets… Anyway, I couldn’t whinge because we were on our way to one of the most beautiful islands ever.

It’s difficult to explain how gorgeous the island is. I can’t even really show you with pictures (although I’ll try) as they just don't do it justice. It certainly is one of those places that needs to be visited in person in order to fully appreciate its natural beauty.

Seeing the sheer size of the surrounding mountains and the way they shoot straight up into the sky from the ocean is a sight that will remain with me forever. When you combine an awe inspiring view like that with beaches lined by jungle, stunning crystal clear bays, great diving and very few vehicles, I reckon it could just about be called paradise (if you shut out the extremely pushy touts, one million speed boats, and over-the-top resorts).
After the ferry trip from hell (I’m exaggerating, but it was pretty bad), being harassed by touts the moment we set foot on the creaky old jetty, and nearly causing an all out brawl between them and our hotel porters (it’s complicated), we finally made it safely to our room. Later that night at Papaya Restaurant (good value tasty food), I couldn't help but photograph this clever little guy. He knows where it's at!On Saturday, we took a two dive trip with Hippo Divers. We had an awesome day and two really enjoyable dives. The scenery all around us was stunning. Hippo Divers provided a great service with yummy food and friendly, professional staff. The visibility on the first dive was better than the second, but we were still lucky enough to see loads of sort after species, including a reasonable sized shark, several turtles, two octopus lovers (they were holding tentacles), sea snakes, scorpion fish and loads of others that I won’t bore you with. It was very cool and some of the best diving we’ve had on the trip so far.

Dive Site #1 - Bida Nok

Dive Site #2 - Palong West

Phi Phi Leh

While all the delightful action packed travel was taking place, other decisions were being made. We're now in Krabi Town, on our way to Bangkok. We’d always planned to include Cambodia in our travels and have decided that now is as good a time as any. Might as well do it before ‘settling down’ in Phuket. Do they have mango sticky rice in Cambo?

So it was a bit of a whirl wind tour to Phi Phi this time round but we've promised to go back soon. I’m still shocked that I was able to leave such a beautiful place.

Word on the street is

that the Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts on September 28th this year. We have to go. How can we not? There's gruesome acts of devotion to be seen and tasty veg food to sample.

A radical roller coaster ride to Haad Rin had me grabbing for a plastic bag on arrival (managed to keep my breaky down but nausea and extreme heat are a bad combo believe me).



We have a few days here before flying to Phuket on Friday. Hopefully the little stingy things in the water have gone now, they were yuck.

We'll have to come back over this way for more diving later in the season. We did a two-dive day yesterday to Sail Rock, a famous dive spot between Tao and Phangan. There were loads of friendly schools of fish and it was pretty cool to drift beside a group of large barracuda (a good metre in length) for a while but unfortunately the visibility was crap (2-3 metres in some spots). I think we'll stick with snorkeling until late October. Anyone wanna join us on a live aboard dive trip?

Go the upgrade!

We crossed seas to a little island off the southeast coast of Bali, Nusa Lembongan. The fast boat gets you there in 30mins which is all good (the swells can be a tad nail biting!).

The main beach on Lembongan has to have one of the more stunning vistas in Bali, especially when Mount Agung can be seen in the distance.


A lot of the locals are seaweed farmers (the weed is exported and used for beauty products among other things). It seems like the work never stops and there is a constant stream of baskets being balanced on heads to and from the ocean. Some carry two baskets, balanced precariously on long bamboo poles. Once dried, it's sold for about US$2-3 per kg.

We were lucky to score an upgrade on our room, moving from a standard to a villa. Yee ha! The 100 or so stairs it took to get there didn't deter me, as the view from our room was well worth the effort!


The living area is shared by two identical rooms.

Our room and view from bed.

We took two dives on Saturday, the second was nicer than the first with loads of schooling fish, massive vase shaped hard corals and lots of colourful soft coral. Just like swimming in a over sized tropical fish tank!

Out and about in Bali

For the last few days, we’ve been staying in a tiny town in northern Bali called Permuteran. The main reason people come here is to snorkel and dive. I think there’s only about seven resort/spas and three warung! We arrived late in the afternoon and hadn’t managed to get through on the phone to book accommodation, so pickings were slim. Samesame has worked out that if we do this more often, she gets to stay in places like this!


Unfortunately, it was NZ$100 a night (which is a little over our budget!) so we moved on the next day.



This gorgeous homestay, Tirta Sari, is half the price and three times as friendly! It’s located between Reef Seen Dive Centre and the main road. The family that run it are so lovely and the garden is beautiful. They are currently in the process of building more rooms, a warung and a spa.

On Saturday we had our first dive of the season! We went to a site called Close Encounters which is part of the local reef. Bighead loved his first dive with new eyes! It was surprisingly pretty with loads of different fish, and gorgeous hard and soft coral. We even saw a large ball of tuna which was really exciting.

We’ve also had a day trip to Pulau Menjangan, where we took another two dives – turtles, large barracuda, frog fish, an eel, and loads and loads of different species. It’s so peaceful down there, a whole different world. The only sound you can hear is the blub, blub, blub, of your bubbles and the quiet munching of coral.

This part of Bali is stunning. Permuteran has black sand beaches and is surrounded by the rugged mountains of the Taman Nasional Bali Barat (West Bali National Park). Gorgeous.

However, at NZ$70 a dive, we won't be staying long!