THE PHI PHI ISLANDS

Dearest Friends,

One day during our vacation in Phuket, we took a side trip to the Phi Phi Islands. Years later I wrote this little story about our adventures there, which was published in the Wish You Were Here column of the Austin American Statesman:

OBSERVING NATURE TAKES NEW MEANING 

AT ISLAND

We lived in Indonesia when our children were young, and one of our first vacations from there was to Phuket, Thailand. It included a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands (pronounced Pee Pee, much to the delight of our kids). A water bus took us to the main island, where a tropical buffet had been set up beneath the palm trees.

Next we were loaded onto several small boats, and paddled out to an uninhabited island. They first took us to the Viking Cave, where bamboo scaffolding was set up for the harvesting of birds' nests (a valuable delicacy destined for bird's nest soup). We were then dropped off at a private beach.

As we picked out a spot to spread our towels, the kids ran off to try out their new snorkels. Once we were settled, we scanned the water for them. "Uh, dear? Notice anything unusual?" asked my husband. As a matter of fact, I did. At least half the women weren't wearing tops. He then pointed to a few of them who were standing in a circle, chest deep in the water, and had been tossing a volleyball back and forth to one another. "What's that ruckus?"

It appeared that the women had been distracted from their game by the sight of a snorkel that kept circling around them, like a shark around his supper. Several times they called out "Hey, you! What are you doing?" When they got no response, one of them finally reached out and put her thumb over the top of the snorkel, forcing the swimmer up for air. Who popped up, gasping and choking? Our 7-year-old son, Austin!

To this day, he still claims he was merely studying the fish.