Phi Phi Islands tour

We spent Day 2 on a full day tour of the Phi Phi Island, which are about 40km off the east coast of Phuket. We woke up early to catch the 7:30am ferry over to the mainland. The resort staff had packed us a sweet little breakfast package because weren't going to be having the normal buffet breakfast which included some pastries, yoghurt and fruits.

We met at Royal Marina at 9am to begin our tour. The crew consisted of a tour guide, who was a real good character, a captain, and two deck hands, then the 38 guests aboard. The tour guide was really funny throughout the day.

Our first destination was an hour's boat ride away. The water was so calm that many people slept on the ride out, including me and Franks. Bamboo Island was the first stop, where we had an hour of free time at a lovely beach. We could snorkel on the rocky side of the beach, or we could swim on the sandy side of the beach - we did both!

Next, we travelled to Ko Phi Phi Don which was just a short distance away. Here we stopped for lunch which was buffet style and had a mixture of western foods and Thai foods. This was the hottest part of the day, so it was nice to sit in the shade with a cocktail for a while.

Next, we travelled to Ko Phi Phi Le. It was amazing to see the natural rock formations. We stopped in a large C-shaped bay, although the water was 5-30m deep in this area so it wasn't any good for snorkelling. But it was perfect for doing bombs off the front of the boat! A plunge into the 29°C water was perrrrfect. We chose to wear life jackets this time as it made it so much easier to relax afloat on the water.

Next we moved to another bay on the same island which was between 2-3m deep and had a rocky bottom. We snorkeled and saw lots of fish and kina (they call it sea urchin, although these ones had really long spines), and we saw some of the tropical fish from the Finding Nemo movies. The fish were so relaxed and would come right up to you!

After this, we did a quick drive by Monkey Bay. Our tour group didn't allow us to get off the boat here as the monkeys are too dangerous, but we saw enough from the drive by anyway. There were probably 10 boats all parked up next to each other in Monkey Bay all watching the monkeys in the trees. One tour group did get off the boat and approach the monkey, and one unlucky guy got hit by a monkey!

Next, we went to our final spot called Maya Bay. This bay had previously been closed to the public due to the extensive damage that tourists had indirectly done to the bay. But it recently opened up, and we paid an additional 400 THB each to go to this bay. There was strictly no swimming allowed, so we could just walk through the forest and walk on the beach. The beach was incredible though. A perfect C-shaped bay with white sand and electric blue water, surrounded by massive rock formations that look like they're out of an Avatar movie. Apparently this place was the setting for a famous movie called The Beach. That's another movie for the "to watch" list.

After that, we began our 1 hour ride back to the marina and the end of the tour. It was really fun! The water was so warm you could stay in for hours, and the snorkelling and swimming was really good too.

Edit: we both got sunburned after the Phi Phi Island tour. Lesson learned! Re-apply!Leggi altro