#2183 Phi Phi Islands

Here we are at the last day of March already. This will also be my last regular post about our trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I may post other little stories or photos if I can't come up with other things to write about in the days and months to come, but I think I've pretty much covered all the main parts and some little side things too. This post is about our excursion to the Phi Phi Islands (the "h" is silent, remember) which was the last thing we did before we left. It made for a long ass day, but man, was it ever spectacular!

A driver picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the Royal Phuket Marina where we waited for quite awhile. We were super early. There were gobs of people going on this excursion. I think this tour company sent out three boats with at least 30 people/boat. And that was just one tour company. Many tour companies operate out of the marina.

Our guide was called Jun. He was friendly and kind, spoke English very well and was extremely helpful and nice to me personally late in the day. More on that later.

This excursion was all about being in the water, unlike the Phang Nga Bay excursion which was more sight-seeing. We had three stops today: Bamboo Island for swimming and snorkeling; Phi Phi Don, the largest of the Phi Phi islands for lunch and looking at monkeys; and Phi Phi Leh for snorkeling and swimming.

It took about an hour to get out to Bamboo Island from the marina. We were on a speedboat and it was hauling ass through the water. It was a little breezy on the way out and though the waves were not big, it was a pretty bumpy ride. There were a lot of time the boat hit a wave pretty hard and it was jarring. Lots of "woo" noises were made as we cut through the water.

When we got to Bamboo Island, though, it was all worth it because this little island is gorgeous! White, white sand. Tall pine trees. Crystal clear, bright blue, bathtub warm water. I would have stayed there all day. MT took both of these photos.

The top photo is a panoramic shot of the little bay we hung out in. MT went out snorkeling a bit. I stayed close to the shore but I was in the water quite a lot. I could see little fishes swimming about and I tried my best to stay away from them, of course, but I didn't let them scare me out of the water.

This next photo is just a couple of longtail boats. I think they are pretty and I love how clear the water is.

We stayed on Bamboo Island for about an hour but it felt like no time at all. Like I said, I would have stayed there all day. There was a snack shop. I would have been fine. However, since I was with this tour, I had to get back on the boat which took us over to Phi Phi Don. It is the only one of the Phi Phi islands that has hotels and people living on it. It is a good sized island. I don't think I would like to stay out there because it is far away from Phuket island, so it's pretty isolated. The small part I saw wasn't that appealing anyway. Of course, we were just there to have lunch, which was served at a huge restaurant, like on Panyee Island, but a lot less scenic. I didn't even bother taking a photo. The food was meh.

The most interesting thing about lunch at Phi Phi Don was the amount of boats that were pulled up to the beach and how extremely close together they all were.

The boats were literally rubbing up against each other. Kinda crazy.

After lunch we sailed over to a place called Monkey Bay. During low tide there is a beach and they call that Monkey Beach, but we were there during high tide, so we just looked at some monkeys on a rock.

Do you see the three monkeys? Jun said sometimes they jump on the boats. Gah! Our boat was far enough away that these three didn't even try. They just looked at us. I'm not a fan of the monkeys.

The next stop was at Phi Phi Leh, a small island. We didn't go on a beach at all. We just dropped anchor and people jumped off the boat to snorkel. I didn't jump off or snorkel and I can assure you it got hot as hell on the boat. I was sweating so hard I did consider putting on a life jacket and getting wet. What stopped me was that the water was quite deep and there were fish everywhere.

I took the photo above from on board the boat. I do not want to be by the fishes. Also there were jellyfish, but I guess they weren't the scary kind because Jun jumped in and got the jellyfish and proceeded to bring it right on the boat for anyone to touch.

I didn't touch it. I don't know what he did with it after show and tell. He said they were delicious and that Thai people liked to eat them on Sunday. Why Sunday? I don't know. This was on a Friday, so I don't know if they keep well over a couple of days. It looked kind of pink in the water, but it looks clear and jelly-like there in his hand, doesn't it?

MT loved the snorkeling there. He was the last guy back on the boat.

From the snorkel spot sailed over to a lovely lagoon. This was the approach. It's low tide, so you can see all the rocks on the bottom. The water of course was deep enough for our boat, but it looks shallow.

 We sailed through the passage and the lagoon opened up a little.

 Can you believe that water?! We eventually got over to where those boats were and dropped anchor. It looked like this:

Yeah, I know. Totally, amazingly gorgeous. The best part: shallow enough for me to get out of the boat and stand there. Yeah, I put on a life jacket because I'm a big chicken and yes, it freaked me out a bit lot, but Jun and MT were very nice and calming and helped me, even when I nearly fell out of the boat while I was getting in the water. It was absolutely my fault; I don't have a lot of experience getting out of boats and I was trying to come down forward-facing instead of backwards and I slipped, landing on my ass and bending my right knee to an angle it has not achieved in years. The knee, my right, was swollen and painful for a day or so, but it's fine now. I mostly just felt really stupid.

When I got over my embarrassment, I did enjoy being in the water. The bottom was a little rocky, but I managed to pick my feet up and float a little since I had the life jacket on. I was really glad to get wet because I was hot!

Jun and the crew brought out fresh fruit - watermelon, pineapple and mango - and we all enjoyed the delicious treat while we hung out in the lagoon. It was pretty wonderful.

We got back on the boat after about 30 minutes or so. The next stop was just a photo opportunity to see the beach at Maya Bay. It's claim to fame is that it is the location featured in the Leonardo Di Caprio movie The Beach.

After the movie came out, so many people flocked to this gorgeous spot that the coral was getting ruined and the overall pristine-ness of the beach was getting loved to death. The Thai government has blocked access to the beach and the reef as it is rehabilitating itself.

After everyone took their photos, it was time to head back to Phuket. The sea was much more calm on the way back and almost everyone took a little snooze. Me, I just stared out the back of the boat at the magic of the Phi Phi Islands. I really felt like we saved the best for last. It was all awesome.

Click here for just a little more info about the Phi Phi Islands.

So that's it!  I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing about them and sharing our photos. Please feel free to leave a comment if you'd like, or if you have questions, I will be glad to answer them in a subsequent post.

I hope you all had a wonderful March and have something to look forward to in April (I know I do!) Since April is an even month, I will be writing on even numbered days, so I'll talk to you again on Tuesday 4/2!