The minivan arrived and sent us to the pier where we boarded the “friendship” ferry. This ferry will be our main mode of transport for the day, bringing us to the various islands around phuket. Pardon us if we were laughing at the way our tour guide spoke english with a thai accent, cos it is very cute. First stop: ton sai bay. We transferred to a smaller boat which took us to the pier. We could swim around the beach and we did not know that we can snorkel until much later. We thought we needed to foot a deposit and we did not bring any money down with us, so we just had our own fun swimming with the fishes. The waters were turqoise blue and so clear that we can see when a school of fishes approached from a distance. The beach was very touristy, there were many beach chairs and a man walked up to us to ask for money when we decided to sit on one. In the end we just placed our stuff on the sand, within sight and headed to the beach for a swim.

After one hour, we had to return to the ferry and we had a sumptuous lunch of thai food. We shared the same table as a spanish couple. I eavesdropped on their conversation and could understand most of what they said. The next stop was maya bay where our ferry anchored in the middle of the sea and we jumped off the platform into the deep blue ocean for some snorkelling. This time there were more fishes, more variety and we brought our packet of stale bread to feed the fishes. We lured the fishes by dangling the bread, then the fishes came in shoals and we managed to snap a few pictures with the fishes using the underwater camera. I swam all the way to the beach for a suntan. It was really a private beach because except for the passengers from a speedboat docked at the beach, there was no one else. It really looked like a beach scene from a movie such as lost or hawaii-5-o.

The last stop was phi phi island. We had to pay a 20 baht entrance fee for the maintenance of the island. We managed to do some shopping there within the one hour allocated. I bought a pair of haviannas, most probably fake but then it was cheap. van and vicki bought shades, wh bought a necklace. The island was packed with sunkissed tourists and many dive shops organising dive tours, available in a myriad of european languages. It really had a european feel and I liked the friendly shopkeepers who will attempt to speak to us in mandarin, thinking we are from china. Then my friends will insist on speaking in english to them.

“Friendship” brought us back to phuket harbour where we ended our fun-filled day out at sea. The minivan took us back to our hotel. I was feeling feverish, so I ate some medicine. We had dinner at jeffer’s, a western restaurant in a shopping centre, followed by some serious shopping at the night market near the shopping centre. The girls were really good at bargaining and I saw them purchase their wanted items at good prices. I only bought a red bull singlet, because we wanted to be uniform for our activity the next day. 

I didn’t join them for massage nor the chilling at the pub at night because I was too sick. I rested in the hotel alone, hoping to recover as soon as possible.