August 11
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from Railay Bay Resort
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a kind sailing woman,
The skipper
brave and sure.
Thirty passengers set sail that day
For a seven hour tour, a seven hour tour.
The weather, it was hot and clear,
The tiny ship sped along,
Because of the knowledge of the fearless crew
The
“Cuda wouldn’t be lost, the “Cuda wouldn’t be lost.
The ship set ground on the shores of these enchanting desert isles
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The Italian and his wife,
The bikini
gals
The Malaysians and Sue and Steve,
Here on Gilligans Isles.
Holy _______! Today’s experiences weren’t on my bucket list, but they should have been.
Today we spent
over 6 hours on a speedboat. It picked us up on the beach of our resort. We were the last people on and the OLDEST ones at that. You had to see the faces when we waded out to the boat and climbed aboard. The looks were a combination
of amusement and horror. I guess most “older” people don’t do this. There were already about 28 younger people on the boat. Most were in their twenties and bikini clad. Some were in their thirties and a couple were
in their forties. But we outlasted them.
Let’s start after our pick-up. The speedboat headed out toward Bamboo Island. This was a glorious location with a white sand beach and crystal clear water. The
boat anchored and we waded ashore. Steve and I put our belongings on a rock and went in the water. It was so nice to just float along with the gentle waves and swim with the penis-shaped creatures. Yes, you got that right. There were
penis-shaped creatures (almost like slugs) and when you took them out of the water they deflated. After 40 minutes on Bamboo Island we boarded the boat and went to Hin Klang. This location was for open sea snorkeling. That is when I
faced my fears! I put on a life jacket, got my mask and snorkel, put them on and JUMPED OFF THE BACK OF THE BOAT! I still can’t believe I did that. I was petrified to say the least. But I did it. I didn’t enjoy it
at all, but I did it! Maybe if the life jacket fit better and the water wasn’t so deep and I wasn’t scared to death I wouldn’t have started having a panic attack. But as soon as I felt I was no longer in control (after about 20
minutes) I got back onto the boat with the people who either didn’t attempt it or who (by some miracle) I outlasted in the water.
Then I had to sit on a rocking swaying boat and I didn’t feel so well. But once the
boat started up again and took off I started feeling better. However the next stop (Lohsamah Bay) was for another 40 minutes of snorkeling. Because it was a bay instead of open sea the boat didn’t sway and roll so much. I stayed
on board with at least half of the other people, and Steve snorkeled to his heart’s content.
Then it was time to move along. This time we rode over to Mayan Bay where the movie, “The Beach” was filmed. Like
Bamboo Island it was beautiful. We rested on our mat overlooking the beach and had a coke and chips to carry us over until mealtime.
Then the boat took us to two 3 different areas. The first one was Pileh Bay which had great
stalactites. The second was Viking Bay, which has caves that are harvested for birds’ nests. The birds’ nests are used for soup. Viking Bay also has carvings made by who else? – the Vikings!. After Viking Bay
we went to Monkey Beach. We weren’t allowed off the boat because the monkeys that were all along the shore were wild “jungle” monkeys. And as Gilligan told us they have been known to bite people.
Once we finished
taking pictures of the monkeys we headed over to Phi Phi Don Island. This was an island that was hard hit by the tsunami of 2004. Four thousand of the ten thousand people on the island were killed. Once on the island we had our meal and did
some strolling. I ran into Gilligan, and with her help I spoke to a native of the island who survived the tsunami. She was “older” and said that she was on the beach when it happened. She said when she saw the water go out she
knew something was wrong so she headed toward the mountains. When she looked back she saw the first wave hit, but then she said the second wave was bigger and looked like a cobra coming up and over everything. She said most of the people who were
killed were tourists who started taking pictures of the water going out and didn’t realize what was happening.
When we left Phi Phi Don (pronounced P-P Don) we headed back to our resort. Steve and I were two of a handful of
people wide-awake and enjoying the time on board. The younger folk were sleeping! We made it safely back to Railay Bay – thanks to Gilligan and Skipper.