Hello all. Krista and I have entered the fourth and final country in our jaunt around Southeast Asia. We chose to spend the last week of our journey together in the tropical paradise - the islands of southern Thailand. After a unique night on an overcrowded truly westernized beach on the larger, more popular island of Phuket, Krista and I took a ferry ride over to Co Phi Phi. A tropical paradise indeed. I don't recall ever seeing water so clear and blue, with hints of green, and sand so white and brilliant. The island is well developed for tourism, most of the buildings are beautiful newly constructed bamboo huts, bungalows and small restaurants, bars and guesthouses, Phi Phi was decimated during the tsunami of 2004, but, as I have seen time and time again in Southeast Asian countries, the people have beautifully rebounded, ready to make a dollar from the tourists. Here, Thai massage, buckets of alcohol, sumptuous Thai food, tattoo parlours, and trendy beach bars with flame throwers reign high to entice the very young crowd to indulge during their beach holidays. The developed portion of the isle is small, and (refreshingly) there are no cars or motorbikes allowed on the island! Just carts to lug around goods in, bicycles and feet are at work transporting things here, down the narrow alleys lined with shops and restaurants. Today Krista and I were out on the water by hired boat to snorkel and see some more of the stunning beaches surrounding this group of 6 magnificent limestone cliffed, blue watered islands. (one of the beaches we visited was the set for the film 'The Beach'). They were all beautiful, the water clear, the swimming great, and the fish beautiful. Really a decadent way to end mine and Krista's time together (ahhh! I hate that I have to write end!) It's amazing again how nice the Thai people are that we have encountered (and how well they cook pad Thai, panang curry, and oh, of course you can't forget the sweet sticky rice with mango, maybe with a fruit shake on the side). That seems to be one commonality to the people of Southeast Asia: although they (constantly) want to sell you a sarong, scarf, tuk tuk ride, boat ride, or hotel room, they are generally very welcoming of tourists, quite honest, and very willing to show you their culture.
Tonight, as Krista and I rambled our way along the beach, with the tide a long way out, we saw plenty of people with headlights staring down into the shallow water, we wandered down to see what they were in search of. When we asked the man what he was doing, he proudly held up a small bag of lightly coloured prawns, and let us tag along for a minute or two, as he placed a simple bamboo cylinder around a prawn when he spotted one, and let Krista (attempt) to scoop it up with her fingers and place it in his trusty bag. "Cop coon" we hummed as we slipped away back up to the dry sand "cop coon lai" he loudly replied, happy that we spoke that simple word aloud to him. Sometimes, little words, little actions, can really mean a lot.
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