Phi Phi Island + hotel review

This is my 2nd time to Phi Phi Island. Everyhing looks the same except that there are going to be a few more resorts sprouting up. Stayed n Phi Phi Hotel and this time there were no more nasty arguments with the hotel staff (which happen during out 1st visit tog wif sis & gang). Phi Phi Hotel, to me is a good choice. It's slightly more than 1500 baht, though it's not exactly that cheap but it's near the pier. which means you don't haf to lug your luggage around and check in to the other resort/chalet which some are located at Ton Sai bay. Furthermore, this hotel is the evacuation center incase (touchwood) another tsunami happen again. Well, better be safe than sorry.

Decided to do some leisure dive to Hin Muang & Hin Daeng. Not an easy decision cos it cost 4800 baht per pax and it's only 2 dives. To me that bloody expensive. Supposedly we are able to see mantas and whale shark in Hin Daeng but in the end i saw none of that. Bad luck, sigh....only manage to see a 2.5m long bamboo shark. I did not manage to do my safety stop in the 1st dive cos i had problem wif my buoyancy. I've never remain underwater with my tank consisting of 60 bar. Most of the time in my previous dives we ascended when my tank contain a minimum of 100bar. i can't blame anyone except myself. Divemaster wants to make our $$ worth it by utilising the air to the max. KT and another swedish guy were ask to hold on to the bouy line to do their safety stop while I was made to buddy the swedish guy's gf. However, i don't think she even care cos most of the time she sticks herself as close as possible to the divemaster while leaving me struggling behind. Mind you the max depth we went down was more than 30m. We went another round around the reefs and when it was time to do our safety stop, i was already panting hard cos the current were strong and i do not have strength to push myself to go down to 5m. The dive master and the gal were about 7m infront of me w/o even looking back. i was already 2.5m below surface while they were hanging by the bouy line. i came out with a slight headache.

2nd dive was in Hin Muang. In thai, it meant purple rock. Visibility was bad. Only bout 3m. KT's fins broke when he hit the water and there were no spare fins available on the boat. So the divemaster tied a knot. Some rather i knew it's not gonna last but hoping that it would. True enough, it broke again while we were 27m underwater water. i can tell you it was a scary experience for me especially. i was trying to fix his fins while trying hard to maintain both our bouyancy. It doesn't help when again the divemaster were like 5m ahead of us. I was exhausted by the time the divemaster saw my frantic wave at her to come to our side. Luckily she managed to fix it but the fins broke again when we were about 7m away from the bouy line to do our safety stop. The divemaster this time turn back in time to see both of us struggling to fix the fins. The last i check my dive comp, i was still 4.9m. I was above KT to push him down and the next minute i know i was beyond 'rescue' again. i tried as hard as i could to push myself lower but still unable to keep my bouyancy and ended up draggin KT along. Was cursing myself i was out of the water. Had a terrible headache on the journey back. Not a very good dive experience. Didn't see anything at all..........

Will talk about my koh lanta trip in the next blog.....