hundreds and hundreds of huge fruit bats started coming out of a cave on the island and flying over top of us. These bats were seriously the size of small dogs, and I'm not talking about Chiwawas. We had dinner on the boat and then came the really cool part...they turned all the lights off on the boat and we went for a night swim to see all the phosphorescent plankton. Basically, the plankton absorb light from the sun all day and then at night, if they are moved at all , they light up. It was amazing! It was like having sparks coming off your whole body...I've never experienced anything like that before.

We met a really cool couple from Chile (Franz and Francisca) on the jungle train who we ended up travelling with to Ton Sai and then Ko Phi Phi. We had a lot of fun with them and even taught them how to country dance:o)

Ko Phi Phi was a great place to visit. It's a beautiful little island that was basically wiped out by the Tsunami. They have already done alot of rebuilding but you can still see the effects...barely any trees in the town, some of them snapped off. Pretty crazy. The town is built on a bridge between two islands with beaches on both sides so it was an easy target.
We decided to do another snorkelling trip from Phi Phi as we heard that is is one of the best places in the world to do so. I've seriously never seen such beautiful water, beaches and fish. We made about five stops (one of which was the place where the filmed "The Beach") when you could either snorkel, swim or take a sea kayak onto the beach. We snorkelled most of the time...at one spot it was really shallow and we were just hovering about 2 1/2-3 feet above the coral and all the sealife...so cool! We also saw another black tipped reef shark and got to chase him for a bit this time before he disappeared.

Phi Phi had a variety of great food from cheap food stalls to beachside seafood bbqs. One night we were able to partake of a Mexican feast complete with guacamole and sour cream...such a treat! But my favourite was this little singing lady who ran one of the food stalls where we liked to stop and get samosas. Here's how a typical converation with her would go...

Me: Excuse me
Her: Yes
Me: umm, what is in the...
her: 10 baht, 10baht, 10 baht, 10 baht (done in a very musical fashion...kind of like a hockey chant)
Me: Ok, but can you tell me...
Her: 10 baht, 10 baht, 10 baht , 10 baht
Me: Yes, that's good, but...
Her: 10 baht , 10 baht, 10 baht, 10 baht
Me: Ok, I'll take two:o)

We did not get to see any of the Olympics besides getting updates from the internet; so you can imagine that David was quite bitter when he found out that they actually showed the final hockey game between Finland and Sweden somewhere on the island...we only found out because later that night our Swedish neighbour was passed out on the stairs of our hotel with his friends trying to drag him up one slow step at a time. That's how we found out that Sweden won the game.

So now we're back in Bangkok again...we rode the bus all night (5pm-6am) to get here and get some business done (Indian visas, laundry, Mcdonalds and plane tickets) before we leave,in two more sleeps, for Nepal:o)...more to come from there.