Shane's Trip Journal

Right now in the south of Thailand there is unusually wet weather. This is not their typical rainy season and it has not stopped raining day and night for the last several days (I have lost count). There was not much to do on Phi Phi with all the rain so I decided to head back for Krabi (because of the rain and my guesthouse put me in a tiny room, even for the standards of my budget plus overall the people of Phi Phi seem a bit tourist weary). Apparently I got on one of the last boats out of Phi Phi if not the last boat until the weather settles down. The ride on the boat will be hard to imagine unless you have been on a small boat in high winds/swells. It was nothing as extreme as the the movie "A Perfect Storm", but from what I have experienced it was pretty awesome. Near the land areas it was not too bad but once we were out in the middle, the wave heights picked up quite a bit. I was sitting next to a window and at one point my window seemed to facing straight down to the bottom of the ocean. There were a few screams, roughly 20% of the people getting sick, and one person faint. I should have known something was up when the attendant came around at the beginning of the boat ride and handed out plastic baggies to everyone. I'm not sure how, but I didn't get too worked up during the 2.5 hours in the boat (scheduled for 1.5 hours, apparently add 1 hour for bad weather), maybe it was because I kept an eye on the boat staff and they were as calm as can be the whole time. What bothered me more than the waves was the people getting sick all around me, but thankfully I made it without getting sick. The news that I am hearing is that Phi Phi is now experiencing 3-4 m or 9-12 ft swells hitting the beaches and no boats are running in either direction. Here in Aonang the rain is causing a different kind of problem, i.e. mudslides. So far all I have seen here are minor, no damage. However, the reports are to the east and south that there is extreme flooding and some more significant mudslides. I was scheduled to go east to a island called Koh Tao but I think I will talk to my travel agent and see what the options are because at this point I don't think it's possible to get there even if I wanted to. Will report back soon with which direction I'm headed.