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Published: February 15th 2006
Maya Bay
Where's Leo and the crew from "The Beach"? I want to be a beach hippie too if this is where I'd live!The two islands Phi Phi Leh and Phi Phi Don are collectively known as Koh Phi Phi. They are located in the centre of the Sea of Phuket,. Oh, it’s pronounced ‘Pee Pee’ by the way! It was a 34 km boat ride from Phuket on very choppy waters, but we ended up in a tropical paradise!
Powdery sand, coral reefs, and warm, crystal-clear, aquamarine water….who could ask for more!
Our first stop was Maya Bay, on the western shore of Phi Phi Leh. It has been named one of the most beautiful bays in the world….and they get no argument from me! Some of you will recognize it from the movie “The Beach”. Maya Bay played host to the filming of the Leonardo Di Caprio movie a few years ago. If you’ve seen the move, then you’ll probably agree with me that Leo and his beach bum hippie friends were lucky people to have this place as their home! I would give up all forms of civilization too if I could live here for a while!
A little further in our speedboat, and we stopped in another bay for some snorkeling. I forgot my waterproof camera in
the boat, so I didn’t get any underwater shots…but we saw some great rainbow coloured fish. The guide was throwing bread into the water around us to attract tons of fish our way.
Boat some more, and have a pit-stop at Monkey Beach. This time (unlike Monkey Cave in Phang Nga Bay) we actually saw a few monkeys! The sand on this beach was like no other I’ve ever touched. It was like cake mix between your toes…almost too good to be true!
We had lunch on Phi Phi Don, and had a bit of time to explore. This area was hit particularly hard by the tsunami one year ago. On December 26th many family members and friends of those were killed returned to the site for a memorial service. There is a small and lovely memorial garden near beach that was lined with photos, cards, letters and candles. It was very moving. The evidence that the tsunami hit here was still very apparent even after an entire year.
Our final stop of the day was a remote island that was only big enough to accommodate a bunch of beach goers and a small shelter. We snorkeled
absolutely picture perfect
this is the beach with the unbelievably soft sand some more, but our time here was cut short because of the incoming dark clouds.
For our entire holiday in Thailand we had fantastic weather, stayed in descent and reasonably priced accommodations, ate fabulous food, met great people, and saw so many fascinating things. I highly recommend going there to anyone with the travel bug. I know I will definitely be returning!
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Roothie
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Amazing!
What a beautiful colour the sea is! And to think something so beautiful could turn into such a destructive force when the tsunami struck. Neat that you saw the wreckage almost exactly a year later.