Phi Phi Islands Tour

We headed out to sea on our nifty wee speed boat, very impressed that we had managed to get onto the boat without dunking ourselves. Our first stop on the tour was at Maya Bay, the beach made famous by the movie ‘The Beach’ with Leonardo DiCaprio. This tranquil little spot we had the pleasure of sharing with, oh a good few thousand others that all had the same idea in mind, much to our sheer amusement(!)

In reality, Maya Bay is very different to the movie – in the movie it is an enclosed lagoon, encased in large limestone carsts, whereas in reality, it is not enclosed… thank you CGI! We later found out from a travel agent on Phi Phi Don (the only island of the Phi Phi Islands that is inhabited with humans) that during filming the film makers paid every longtail boat they could find to block off the entrance to the bay, thus keeping visitors away by taking away their transport and by blocking the entrance. The agent told us that at the time (the high season) the tourists and tour operators alike found this practice really unfair…fair enough! She also mentioned that she had had tourists actually cancel tours to the islands because 1) They wouldn’t get to see the massive (highly illegal, particularly in Thailand) Marajuana crop from the movie, and 2) They wouldn’t get to jump off the waterfall that Leonardo does in the film. Which does not exist, at least in Thailand anyway. That kept us giggling all afternoon.

We had a swim in the warm, walk-in water before re-boarding the boat and heading off to our next stop, a snorkling area mingled in with a host of limestone carsts. The boat provided us with snorkling gear, and we all hopped in. In an effort to be ‘lady like’ and to avoid jumping on someone, I hopped off the boat via the stairs they provided at the back. Matt, being Matt, jumped off the side of the boat, and straight onto a rock/coral (we still don’t know which), thus ending his snorkling trip almost instantaneously to get his foot cleaned up. He assured me later that his foot would be fine, and that anyway, we were due to see a Doctor in Phuket, we would just mention it then if it wasn’t looking so hot. (EDIT: I actually swam around for about 10 minutes before realising that my foot was actually bleeding from the knock, I got to see most stuff in the water but decided I better not start attracting sharks! – Matt)

It was a shame, he missed out on what I think was the highlight of Southern Thailand. Below the surface were kina’s, and literally thousands of tropical fish surrounding us. Having learnt from previous trips, we came on the trip armed with bread to attract them and feed them. Matt took to throwing the bread straight at me from the boat, thus attracting copious amounts of fish with great gusto… the results from the water were amazing.

We took off to a lagoon next, allegedly (according to the boat staff) where Leo ‘jumped out of the waterfall, onto the shark and wrestled it to death.’ The only problem with this story was that not one person on the boat had seen that particular part of the movie. Huh. Perhaps the Thai’s had a special edition? We zipped past Viking Cave, a cave now inhabited only by rare birds that were nesting, and onto Monkey Bay on Phi Phi Don Island.

As the boat pulled up to Monkey Bay, there was a flurry of excitement on board as everyone leapt up to take photos of the monkeys in the trees. Within moments a devious wee monkey jumped onboard the side of the boat, clearly looking for food. We pulled back a bit, aware that the monkey could get aggressive if it was intimidated, teased or not given what it was after, and were amazed to see parents pushing their children forward. Michelle, our onboard lady-boy host who had made cake for everyone on the trip and had distributed it earlier, pulled out a few remaining pieces of cake which were fed to the monkey, much to everyone’s delight. A couple of minutes later the monkey reappeared, and one of the guys handed Matt a coke (the top unscrewed) to Matt to hand over to the Monkey. Down it went, much to the amusement of us. Hate to think of what it does to an already hyper monkey! When we went to leave, we noticed the beach they live on strewn with cans and bottles… no wonder they like the boats so much!