the color of its countries

The driver was a dashing young man named Lai. His English was about as good as my Thai, which is to say that between us, we got on like very charming cavemen. Luckily for us, one of the main underwater attractions -- namely, the clownfish -- has already seared its place into the vocabulary of the global media and can now transcend language barriers. He very helpfully pointed out all the spots where we could expect to find "fish Nemo," and the rest flowed from there, with even my rudimentary Thai kicking into gear: anemone became "house-fish-Nemo," for instance -- baan-plah-Nemo in Thai. I was even able to articulate our excitement at discovering several little Nemo families, complete with paired adults and smaller juveniles living in the same host anemone. "Look! Have mother-Nemo, father-Nemo, child-child-Nemo!"

In short, Koh Phi Phi was a delight.