Taste of Thailand

Although we usually avoid plannned excursions, lethargy and lack of public transport led us to book a day trip to the famous Phi Phi islands with a company called Phuket Island Hopper. The islands are about 30 miles offshore. We take a mini van for an hour to the east side of Phuket, a speedboat for an hour to meet up with a bigger group who left earlier for a longer day trip, then a final speedboat to arrive at Ko Phi Phi Don just after lunchtime.

Wow is it busy! There must be 30 boats lined up on the shore and dozens of others moored in the harbour. It is quite a feat but our captain manages to find a ’parking’ space. Tourists mill around and a bar beckons us for a cold drink. Because most of the boats only stop for a short time I’m sure on a longer trip it would be easy to get away from the crowds. But we don’t have the time today.

Soon we are on our way to Monkey Beach, a couple of minutes ride away. A group of wild monkeys live on the beach and are fed by tourists on boats hence they have learnt to swim out to grab food. Cute but not natural. Our guide has quite some fun feeding bananas to the monkeys and they are quick to jump in the water and get their fill. They are cheeky looking things but we are warned that they bite and best for them not to get too close.

En route to Ko Phi Phi Lee we are taken past a few other caves and bays. The Viking Cave is a unique sight and one of Ko Phi Phi’s main tourist attractions. The cave was so named, due to the prehistoric drawings that were found on the cave walls that resemble ancient viking ships.
Within the cave there are lots of ledges which are inhabited by thousands of birds called swifts. These birds make their nests out of their own saliva, the nests are harvested and later sold to make birds nest soup, a Chinese delicacy.

We arrive at Maya Beach after about 15 mins passing some beautiful scenery and again this bay is another tourist day trip highlight mainly for its location for the film ‘The Beach’. We snorkel and take a walk on the beach - disappointed not to find Leonardo but loads of tourists instead.

Leaving the island and heading home you get a spectacular view of the island and it takes around 1 hr to get back to Phuket. We sat the back of the boat and unsurprisingly we are wetter than when we started off given the splash back from the waves. That said it was a great day.Les mer