Monthly:September 2012
This overhang in the limestone rack face was a significant swift nesting site. Out of harvesting season, there was no one working on this day. Bird’s nest harvesting is a regulated industry and there were signs above the jetty here warning trespassers off. All the bamboo poles you can see here are used by the harvesters to reach the rock ceiling where the swifts build their nests.
The ferry also stops by some of the local attractions on it’s way into the islands. Here it’s pulling up to the limestone cliffs so the passengers can see some caves where locals gather swift nests for birds nest soup. Quite why a soup made from bird spit is so sought after I don’t know. I’ve never tasted it myself. But I’m left wondering…
Back in the late 80’s when I made this trip, I couldn’t swim. It would be another couple of months before I learned – spurred on in part by not being able to go snorkeling or diving in these waters. It seemed everyone was having so much fun! As a toddler, I almost drowned and had to be rescued by me father. If it hadn’t been for my brother who was three at the time who ran off to tell my father that I’d fallen into the water tank, I’d probably have drowned.
I’m going to go out on a limb with the name of this photo. I’m about 80% sure it’s somewhere on Koh Phi Phi Ley and not Koh Phi Phi Don. I didn’t note the distinction on the notes on my slide label on this one. I’m also going to guess that I took this from a boat, by virtue of the deeper blue at the bottom of the frame. The shallow water is that lovely aqua color while the deeper water is a colder blue.
I can’t actually place where I took this photo but I’m thinking it’s more likely Koh Phi Phi Ley than Koh Phi Phi Don, largely because the photos around it in my collection show all the hallmarks of having been taken from a moving small boat – horizons far from level! I think this image shows the vertical scale of the limestone outcrops that form these islands.
Here’s another ‘street’ image I took on Koh Phi Phi Don. I was most likely wandering around the isthmus in search or food, or beer, or both. There use to be lots of shacks where you could get a good, cheap meal pretty much any time of day. Two locals walk along a trail in the early afternoon hours.
