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Published: April 21st 2008
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Phi Phi Islands - Full Day Tour
The full day tour between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm covered some of the same area I had visited on the sunset tour the previous night but I thought it would not hurt to visit Maya Bay again and see what it was like late in the morning - and I also wanted to cruise around the coastline of both of the Phi Phi Islands. A young guide turned up at JJ Bungalow at 8.45 am and I followed him through the small sois to collect the rest of the tourists for today's voyage.
We were on a big boat again today with about eight guides and the skipper of the boat was only about 23 yo with his wife and very young baby by his side in a tiny hummock swinging from the ceiling of the wheelhouse - very cute. What suprised me is we took two big boats and each one was only half full of tourists making it an extra comfortable trip with the Blue Skies Sea Canoe.
First stop was Maya Bay on Phi Phi Lay, this time from the sea side instead of going through the
tricky cave route from the eastern side of the island. It was about 10.00 am and there were hundreds of tourists and about thirty speed boats moored on "The Beach". What a contrast from the sunset tour when we had the beach to ourselves and only one speed boat. There were just too many visitors to make it enjoyable so I suggest you hire a boat and get there early in the morning or take the sunset trip to see Maya Bay at it's best.
Moving a short distance up the east coast of Phi Phi Lay we snorkelled at Loh Samah Bay and Pi Ley Bay before stopping at the Viking Cave (swallow nests are found here for swallow's nest soup) for another pic from the boat.
It was then across to Phi Phi Don for a stop at Monkey Beach 2 where the only monkey to be found was me trying to find some shade from the hot sun. We had to kayak to the beach and I took a big chance by wrapping my camera in some plastic bags as there was no wet bag available on this tour. On the previous night's sunset tour
they collected all our cameras and put them into one large waterproof bag for taking to the shore. I may buy a small wet bag to keep my camera safe in the future. Last time I was in Thailand my camera spent two days in a bag of rice to suck out the moisture after I fell off a kayak - I don't want that to happen again as I missed out on some great pics with my camera out of action.
We had a light lunch and some fruit before cruising past Mosquito Island on our way to Bamboo Island where there is a great coral reef for snorkelling. I forgot my buoyancy vest and got to the beach without any trouble but really struggled to get back to the boat. Make sure your wear a vest if you are not a strong swimmer as I was very close to going under, I just made it back to the boat. I think I had also been frightened when seeing a very overweight european lady sunbathing topless on the beach in complete lack of respect to Thailand's culture and clothing policy - in any case she was not a
very attractive sight.
Last stop was Shark Point for more snorkelling near Long Beach before returning to the pier at Ton Sai Bay after a big day out.
I got back to my room about 4.30 pm and although very tired decided I would make the climb to the Viewpoint at 5.00 pm for sunset - that story is in the next blog entry.
That night I had a great fish and prawn meal for about $A8 at the Tuk BBQ in one of the small sois away from the beach. They have a small table full of seafood ready for your selection and about six plastic tables inside for dining in or you can have take away, highly recommended if you don't mind a very basic restaurant setting.
After dinner I visited the Reggae Bar where tourists can participate in a bout of Thai boxing amongst themselves or with a local Thai boxer. Apparently most of the fights are staged events with the tourist usually beating the Thai guy but tonite two Aussies really went for it in a bout that was well worth watching. They punished each other for three rounds and deserved their
free buckets of liquid refreshment.
It was then onto the Carpe Diem Bar for some more fire dancing and off to bed for some sleep after an exhausting day on the land and sea around the Phi Phi Islands.
Click on the pics if you want a larger view and select next to see all the pictures.
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