Finally, after years of waiting, we sailed to the Phi Phi Islands, just off the coast of Phuket.  We had a hairy drive over to their pier this afternoon, as the transfer should only have taken 30 minutes, but traffic was unusually bad, and the drive was over an hour.  Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 1:30pm and we were still driving at 1:40! And our driver did not speak one word of English, so we had no idea if the ferry would wait for us.

Thankfully, the concierge at our hotel, the Dusit Thani in Phuket, was just lovely.  Ryan contacted her just before 1:30, (yes, we were slightly panicked) and she was able to contact the ferry.  They said they would wait until 2pm for us but would then leave.  Ah…deep sigh of relief.  Had we not made it, we would have had to wait until the next day!

Since we are staying at the Holiday Inn Phi Phi, we sailed to Tonsai and then on to Laemtong, arriving just after 4:30pm.  We were then immediately loaded into a longtail boat (see above) and shuttled directly to our hotel, while staff took care of our bags.

Our biggest surprise?  The sweet, pint-sized child who steered our boat the whole way to our hotel!  No joke.  I even took several photos to prove it.  It was pretty impressive.  Look at that intense expression on his face.  He surely took his job seriously.

And here’s his big brother, helping him navigate.  Working together with a little help from Dad, they guided us in safely and now we’re settling in for the next three nights.  It is seriously beautiful here, and I imagine my hard drive will soon be too full.  More to come later.

His Navigator