Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Maya Bay
How stunning is this? On the last day of 2006 we went on a trip to the Phi Phi Islands via speedboat with Phuket Adventures. We booked this through the Merlin Beach resort 2 days prior. As we had the New Years Eve Gala Dinner on that night we asked the hotel to recommend the best trip that would get us back to the hotel by 5.00pm. There are so many companies that do these trips and I know we paid the highest price by booking through the hotel but it was much simpler than sorting through the myriad of choices on offer in Patong. I was pleased that I was aware before our trip that it would not look like the brochures otherwise I would have been very disappointed. Perhaps in low season you may get to experience the deserted idyllic scenery they portray but in high season while it may be idyllic it’s very, very crowded. It would be great if there was some limit to how many boats could go out each day but I guess that would be pretty hard to manage.
Greg & Tracy also went with Phuket Adventures a couple of days earlier but they had a very
different itinerary from us so it seems that each boat just does their own thing. We were collected at 7.30 am hence our early night the previous evening. We were impressed with the organisation of the trip and were very lucky to be with a really nice group of people. We were supplied water and various fresh fruit during the course of the day. I was nervous about experiencing seasickness but it was absolutely fine. We were able to get the seats at the front of the boat and they were awesome. Once I realised I was not going to get sick I just relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the trip out to Phi Phi. First stop was Maya Bay, which was stunning. How I’d love to be there with no else or at least only a small percentage of the hundreds there that morning! We made other stops around Phi Phi Ley, which included one bay where the boat actually became stuck on rocks. A few minutes of manoeuvring and they managed to get us free although it was interesting to watch other boats just motoring past. It’s certainly every man for himself out there. We had a snorkel stop
which was really great. There was only our boat at that point, which made it a lot better. They provided the equipment and I was impressed - best mask I’ve ever used!! Terry had a go but he is not into the water like I am so he was back in the boat pretty quickly. The water was so clear and there were a great variety of different fish to look at. I was so absorbed I didn’t realise everyone else was back on the boat and I was the only one left in the water!
We stopped at the main port on Phi Phi Don, which wasn’t as nice. There was a lot of rebuilding from the Tsunami and it all seemed very chaotic and dirty. Our guide recommended walking 5 minutes that way ( she points) to have the best walk. Now we are pretty fast walkers but we went for 15 minutes and then turned around as we didn’t find anything worth looking at. Not quite sure what we missed out on there!
We then went to Monkey Beach which I was really looking forward to. There were no monkey’s, not one!!! They explained that
Maya Bay
So many boats, so many people! as there are so many tourists that once the monkeys have enough to eat off they go and who could blame them! We did anchor and again were able to snorkel. I decided to swim into the beach, I was determined to find a monkey but when I got closer to shore I realised it was rocky all the way in so I changed my mind on that idea. They were throwing bread off the boat for the fish so that was fun when we were in the water with literally hundreds of fish surrounding us.
We had a late lunch at Khai Island where Phuket Adventures had their own restaurant. It was a spectacular place with glorious views. There were quite a few boats but it was not as bad as Maya Bay. After lunch we had free time to explore a little. For some reason most of the people were swimming and congregating down one end of the beach so we decided to have a paddle at the other end, a very good choice as it turned out. We were standing in crystal clear water, waist deep and were surrounded by so many fish. It was just
as good as my earlier snorkelling and it was great that Terry could experience it as well.
We had a wonderful day but if we ever go again I would look at doing a private charter to get more control over the stops we make and perhaps try and avoid some of the crowd.
The Merlin Beach Resort put on a very impressive spread for the Gala Dinner. They had tables laid out on the lawn area in front of the beach so it was a beautiful setting. We were sitting with Carolynn and Tony and some other friends they had made. It was a fun night and even though the prices for drinks was very inflated much alcohol was consumed especially as some was smuggled in! Tony gave a hilarious rendition of YMCA and then proceeded to tip a bottle of red wine over my new white skirt. This inexplicably was followed by glasses of other drinks being thrown on me, as this was the best way of making sure it didn’t stain. For any Aussies reading this, as Rove says - What the….?
As I said though, if you have to have drink spilled on you
make sure it happens when you are only a 5 minute walk from a change of skirt!!
The entertainment was rather cheesy, it reminded me of something you would expect in a British holiday camp but it just didn’t matter as we were celebrating in such a fantastic location. The fireworks were nice but we did miss out not being able to see the masses of them on Patong Beach. We did get to see a lot of the lanterns that were let off in Patong and drifted our way - that was pretty special. A lovely end to a full and enjoyable day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0307s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Carolynn
non-member comment
Great blog! Really enjoying reading what you got up to, and seeing the pics, although I'm not too sure Tony will be impressed with his YMCA pic - Ha, serves him right over the wine!!!!! BTW, in all seriousness, over here in the UK we are told that if you spill red wine on something, immediately por white wine over it to stop it staining. I'm sure that was waht Tony was trying to do, but I think will all the excitement he got carried away with the spirits, beer etc. I have to say, it was one of the funnier moments of the holiday for me, and I just hope you were not just being nice when you said your skirt was not ruined.....