Poda Island: Our first stop ended up being a private island. (Check out the beautiful rock formations! They're all over the place .. enchanting!) With these tours you really don't have enough time to take off and go exploring to any degree because they give you a time limit, so we explored the beach a bit (but a beach is a beach isn't it?), and then discovered the monkeys. The tour guide warned us that these were not the "nice" monkeys and to stay away from them and under no circumstances feed them.
Here you can see one eating a Palm Seed Fruit, proudly showing off his manlihood!
Chicken Island:
Then we got back onto the boat and stopped somewhere off of Chicken Island to go snorkelling (It's called Chicken Island cause it looks like a chicken when you approach it from a particular angle). It was my first time snorkelling and it was incredible! They told us that if we offered the fish some food they would actually come right to us to eat. Luckily we had brought some leftover pizza so we ripped off the crusts to give to them. I had to jump into the water so my clever idea was to put the crust inside my bikini top so I wouldn't lose it. Once in the water I panicked thinking they might try to get at the crust in my top, or worse, chomp on my boobs. So I quickly took it out and was surrounding by these yellow striped fish. Again I panicked so I threw the crust into the water where it was brutally devoured. I was encouraged to try again, but this time not let go of the crust, and let the fish eat it while I hold it - one of them bit me!Back to snorkelling .. it was great! There is blue and purple coral reef, big fish, little fish, colourful fish ... It wasn't as spectacular as I've seen on TV but I loved it. I didn't need a life jacket cause I float, which was a plus! And I stayed so long I was one of the last people to get back on the boat. I could've stayed all afternoon - It's so calming!
Tup Island: We stopped at this little island to have lunch. Don and I fed the fish our stubby little chicken legs, and there wasn't anything really exciting except one moment when people started screaming. I went to see what was going on and saw a baby komono dragon scurrying off up into the forest. I got a couple of photos but you can't make out the dragon unfortunately.
They brought us here because at low tide a sand bar connecting it to two other islands appears, so anyone interested could easily walk over to the other islands. Once I realized that this was the idea it was too late and we had to board the boat.
Phra Nang Beach in Railay: Luckily we handn't been here the day before, but it was something on my list of things I wanted to see. Here you can find "Princess Cave" named after a local legend. From phuket.com - "Phra Nang (Princess) Cave has been where fishermen, before going out to sea, have made offerings to the symbolic Phallus of Shiva (known as the Siwaleung or Palad Khik in Thai). The fishermen, who say the cave is the home of a mythical sea princess, believe their offerings will bring them success in their fishing and protect them from danger, but what is more remarkable is that the cave contains a large collection of carved wooden phallic symbols, offerings and other objects believed to help with fertility."
We were informed, this was the place that had the "nice" monkeys and you could actually feed them, but the highlight for me was this baby monkey dressed in a little t-shirt which was tied to a tree (owner no where to be seen). Almost everyone on the boat spent quite a bit of time just watching, or playing, with this baby monkey. The only thing that made me nervous was this "look" which was almost always followed by this crazy shriek. I couldn't tell if he was getting pissed off or if he was just playing. I know he wasn't happy that he didn't get my sunglasses though. Maybe next time little guy.
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