A week in Koh Jum with Aunt MJ and Uncle Randy was just what we needed after our 3 exhausting days of travel to get there. We all quickly settled into a nice routine: get up and head down to breakfast around 8am (usually pinapple pancakes, mushroom omelettes and banana shakes), spend the morning between our bungalow's veranda, the beach or the little shaded beach huts under the big tree. For lunch, we'd either wander up to the restaurant at Ting Rai, or we'd walk over to the neighbouring bungalows, Old Lamp. The afternoon routine would be a repetition of our morning ventures, occasionally throwing in a thai massage by the beach, a frisbee toss or a swim in the Andaman Sea. We'd sit on the beach and watch the sun set over Ko Phi Phi, wait for the last of the pink to fade from the sky and then head for happy hour and dinner at our restaurant or one of the nearby resorts. There were 4 resorts on our beach, so we also had dinner at the Koh Jum Resort or OonLee Resort. OonLee had a great beach front bar with comfy seats and great music (as well as a great Irish bartender) so it quickly became one of our fave spots to head, either before or after dinner.

On Wednesday, the 1st of February, we headed out for a self-guided tour of the island. We walked along the muddy, bumpy red dirt road that ran behind Ting Rai Bay and cut through another resort to get to the next beach, seperated from our beach by a rocky cliff. We wandered down this long beach to where all the other resorts on the island were found. Although it was a nice, sandy beach, the bungalows in this area were on pretty flat ground. It was a nice place to go for a walk, but we were very happy with our mountainous Ting Rai Bay bungalows. After a nice swim, we walked back along the road through a small Muslim village. Here, we stopped for lunch at a small, local bakery and the extremely friendly baker made us fresh pizzas and for dessert, pulled a fresh chocolate cake out of the oven! That cake smelled so good and reminded me so much of home! It was still warm when we enjoyed our pieces.

On Friday, the 3rd, we booked a trip to visit Ko Phi Phi. The four of us headed out in the morning on our own longtail boat and cruised for about a hour to a small, sheltered harbour on Phi Phi Lay where we set anchor and snorkelled around. After our reef experiences in Australia, this was a bit of culture shock for us. For starters, there were probably about 20 boats bobbing in the harbour and another 25 or more anchored at the beach - and this meant we were snorkelling shoulder to shoulder with a ton of other people. For another thing, all these boats seem to drop anchor haphazardly, so the reef and coral were severely damaged. There were lots of colourful fish swimming around, but none of the bright, colourful coral we were hoping for. The bay was surrounded by impressing limestone cliffs, so it did make for some fun snorkelling into little caves and through little tunnels. That is, until we saw a HUGE 3-tiered snorkel boat backing into the harbour, with what had to be hundreds of people on it. Seriously, it was alarming to see the decks so overcrowded with people, and once they set anchor, they all began jumping in to water around us. We had to get out of there!

We fought through the incoming wave of people and found our tiny longtail boat, with MJ and Randy already on board. The captain asked if we would like to stop at the beach before heading out, but as there were hundreds more people at the beach, we told him just to get us out of there!

We then cruised around the rest of Phi Phi Lay and Phi Phi Don to our second stop of the day at Bamboo Island. It was wild cruising through the open sea in our small boat, while huge dive boats, tour boats, and yachts sped by. We were all quite happy to be on board our uncrowded ship. At Bamboo Island, it was much less crowded and we had a nice picnic lunch before wandering around the island and checking out the beach. We headed back to the boat and our captain motored us out a ways off the island and dropped anchor. He had found us another snorkelling spot, and this time, we were the only boat there! The coral was a bit more alive here and the fish still abundant. We saw a ton of giant clams (with bright blue lips!) and small armies of sea urchins (crazy-looking black spikey things). The wind had picked up in the afternoon so this area was very choppy and the swimming not easy. We didn't stick around too long before hopping back into the boat and heading back to Koh Jum.

If we didn't fully appreciate the calm, relaxing vibe of Koh Jum before, we certainly did after a day at Ko Phi Phi. Ting Rai Bay is more consistent with the old Thailand - from a time before huge resorts and developments turned Thailand into a frantic backpackers haven. It was a quiet piece of paradise and truly let us appreciate this part of the country.

A solid week of thai curries, pad thai, thai rices and seafood has left us content and maybe a bit spoiled. It was so nice to spend the week relaxing and talking with MaryJo and Randy and we were sad to leave them on the island this morning as we head back to Krabi. It was great swapping travel stories with them and can't wait to hear more about their continued adventures!