Beaches, Beaches and THE Beach! Koh Phi Phi

Oct 7 Koh Phi Phi

Getting up early to catch our Hotel's breakfast. And what a breakfast it is. Yummy! Andaman Beach Resort really spoils us there. And getting ready for our day on the Longtail Boat. Pretty much a full day tour with many stops for snorkeling, swimming and relaxing. And that all for just 400 Baht, roughly 10 Euros. The meeting point is at 9am just a minute from our Hotel. And as we are to find out we only set out over an hour later, since people there are having their breakfast too. Would have been nice if they told us before. I could have managed a bit more sleep. So we just sit around and wait while the other tourists gorge on the breakfast buffet as if they haven't been fed for 3 days.

The Longtail Boat we get on is full with Chinese tourists, the 3 of us and one European girl traveling by herself. The Chinese are very interesting. One has her boyfriend carry her to the boat since she doesn't want to get wet (why go on a full day boat trip then...) and some other are equally challenging. They barely speak English which is ok as the boat captain doesn't know any English either. With sign language he shows how much we have to pay if we loose any equipment, mask, snorkel or fins. And finally off we go to our first stop. It's only a few minutes drive and we stop by a nearby reef. It takes the Chinese forever to get their gear sorted out and it seems they are afraid of the water. After patiently waiting for a while I just head out and jump in. Come on all, there's fish to be seen. And what a great snorkeling site it is. There are swarms off fishes swimming only millimeters by and you right in the middle. Some are even so cheeky to bite a bit. Luckily it's not the whole swarm, I'd be a goner than. I can't name all the fish but there were aplenty and colorful ones at that.

After some snorkeling it's for a looooong boat ride to Mosquito Island (effing horrible name) but there's amazing snorkeling too and I spot my first Nemo's there. Aaaaaaah. Everyone loves Nemo and I certainly do too.

Next stop is Bamboo island where pristine white sandy beaches and turquoise water awaits. There are a few hiccups getting there. The boat just goes to the very deep end where there is no way of getting out without getting soaked, it's too deep to stand. The Chinese protest so the boat takes forever trying to find its way through to shallower waters. It's still breast deep when we get out but hey, I am wet already. The island looks just as in the advertisements. There is no development on the island despite a small snack stand and bathrooms for the tourists. But maybe the wild would be better. Bathrooms house gigantic spiders, luckily they don't move while we're there. At the snack stand it proves again why Thailand won't be a developed nation anytime soon. They simply don't want to make money. They refuse to sell something to Reija as she doesn't have exact change. It's obvious they have change their (I saw a wad of money when the last person bought something) but just don't want to take bigger bills. No money for you today my friend. That attitude is so often displayed in Thailand that they simply don't care whether you buy something from them or not and it really bugs me. Where is the friendliness everyone's talking about?

I get over that by moving my attention to the turquoise waters and wading through the tubwarm ocean. I think they call that paradise somewhere? After what seems like a way too short time to enjoy there is the dreaded whistle. Come back to the boat everyone. Nooooo! I wanna stay, I wanna soak in the water. Luckily it takes some time for everyone to get back so I just swim around the boat taking in the scenery.

The next boat ride seems to take forever. We go all the way from Bamboo island to Phi Phi Leh to stop at the Viking Caves. There's supposed to be nice snorkeling to, but no one wants to get in the water as garbage is floating everywhere. Yikes. The next stop, same thing. Garbage everywhere, so no dipping for us there. It also seems that our boat has more trouble navigating as it is deeper than other ones, they can't go everywhere.

Now what everyone's been waiting for. Maya Bay – The Beach, meaning Leonardo Dicaprio's beach. Except, we are not going to Maya Bay we are going to Losama Bay. From there we have to swim to swim cliffs, climb up some ropes and staircases and walk over to Maya Bay. Well that wasn't planned but for the xth time today I am thrilled about my Drybag purchase. I safely take all my stuff with me hop in the water and am the first one up and across. There is great snorkeling in Losama Bay too and I see a lot of those black and white fishes from Nemo. Along the ropes and up the steep slippery staircases through the island. On the way we pass the makeshift camp where there are plenty of military tents to accompany the people that book an overnight stay in Maya Bay. Doesn't look very cozy to me but apparently it's all about the booze anyway. Few more minutes through the jungle and then we finally reach it. The famous Maya Bay! It opens up for us the way it must have for Leo. Except today there's a few boats and plenty of tourists there. All taking pictures and taking in the scenery. It isn't hard to imagine why this place was chosen for the movie. It is breathtaking. Less so with all the people but still very, very scenic. Relaxing a bit and it's trekking and swimming back to boat. Watching other people cling to the rope for dear life instead of just swimming is simply hilarious. It takes them two minutes to get 3 meters. Maybe we won't get back today after all.

After Maya Bay there are some more stops planned. On Monkey Beach and some sunset viewing. We all gladly decline to get out. We got breakfast, fruits and lunch all before noon and now had nothing other than water for 6 hours. The sun is exhausting and I really don't want to deal with monkeys at the moment. Back on Phi Phi I really just want to shower and eat.

Another nice evening with dinner and drinks with 4 Finns and me at a Swedish restaurant where we coincidentally run into some other exchange students from Bangkok University. Small world that is! Marcus and I book the dive trip for tomorrow at Adventure Divers. They all have the same prices but this one has a smaller group of divers per instructor going for it. Only 2 divers per instructor/guide is great value as most others do 4 or 6. I have our diving Kiwi diving instructor Chris talk me into taking the refresher course. It's 3200 Baht instead of 2500 for the fun dive but may well be worth it since I haven't been diving in quite a while. Yeah! It's gonna be a very early morning for us since we head out at 7 but it's so gonna be worth it. No drinks for me today! Divers stay sober. So heading home fairly early to be fit in the morning for the undersea adventure!