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Published: November 12th 2013
This was our last morning staying in Koh Phi phi so we wanted to make the most of our accommodation by having a swim the moment we woke up. It's so convenient having the direct entry into the pool! Because we were going to spend the night on a boat (called the maya bay sleep aboard- see later), it took some coordination to pack because we just wanted our little bags. After we checked out, we only had a few hours so we decided to go for a walk to the tsunami village, which we couldn't find and we didn't really know what we would find there anyways. Then we found a nice Thai place for lunch right on the beach (actually right across from) overlooking the beach where the water taxis and ferries go in and out of (Ton Sai Bay). It was great to see all the action with the beautiful backdrop. Of course the Thai food we were served was amazing as usual.
After lunch we headed to the pier to board the boat for the maya bay sleep aboard. The trip was going to take us to Koh Phi Phi Ley, which is a little island
about a 30 minute boat ride away. It's a rocky little island that only has a small tent village for the locals, and embedded within the island is the "famous" Maya Bay... Which is actually only famous with people who have seen the movie, The Beach. This is because the beautiful spot where it was filmed. Rightfully so, it is an extremely busy spot usually littered with tourists. This tour we were on, however, went beyond the usual tourist experience. We were basically going to wait until all the other boats went home for the night and we were going to inhabit the island for dinner and drinks and watch the sunset. Then we'd retire to the boat to sleep (they used to camp on the island but now the government doesn't allow it), and come back in the morning to enjoy the beach before the first tourists arrive and then we'd go. A great alternative to joining the hordes of tourist boats, and we'd be the only boat doing this.
We expected that there wouldn't be many people, and we were a little surprised that there were maybe 20 people on the boat, but fortunately only about 10
were staying the night with us so we were happy to have such a small group (you feel less like a tourist that way). The others not staying would be dropped off while we were on the island for dinner.
Once the boat got underway, it took us to a beach on Phi Phi Ley that was on the opposite side of the island, where we put in the anchor into the deeper water and we could do some snorkelling. Unfortunately because of the problems that Elysia has had with her eye (which actually is a lot better now and her vision is no longer blurry and no reddness), she still can't wear her contacts for a bit longer. So it was tough trying to figure out a way to put glasses or sunglasses under a snorkel mask. In the end she elected not to go snorkelling that instant because it require going without glasses and it was too deep for her to want to do that (you get confidence in being able to see). So mike went in but then we realized that we could just take the life jackets and she could keep her sunglasses on and
not snorkel, so at least she got to have fun too!
After a bit of snorkelling (there actually wasn't anything all that interesting to see), we moved on to maya bay. Maya Bay really is beautiful but not with hordes of tourists. Fortunately by this time they were getting back on their boats and getting out of there. The boat let us off into a smaller boat that took us to the beach so we could go and explore. We just spent a bit of time admiring the crazy beautiful scenery. There was another couple on our trip from England (Dan) and Germany (Saskia) who we got to know and hung around with, which was nice.
Finally when the other half of the group was picked up by the boat (around 7; they were going to do a plankton snorkel and then go back to phi phi), we were alone on Koh Phi Phi Ley. We watched the sunset from the Maya Bay Beach and it was really cool just being around 10 of us. It was a huge beach just to ourselves!!! As the sun set, we began to feel a bit like in the TV show
"lost". The shadows that the limestone cliffs cast over the island and then the eventual darkness gave the same eeriness that the island did in Lost. It was actually a cool feeling to know that it was just us there in paradise.
After the sun set, they called us for dinner in a little wooded area on the beach. They had set up a tent, mats and some tables there to serve us dinner under the stars. It was delicious; green curry and vegetables.
When we were finished our dinner, we got right into the drinks. Part of our package, we got a free bucket (we talked about that in an earlier blog- you basically get a bucket of a mixed drink), which was to make for an interesting night with 10 of our favourite strangers. Elysia had a vodka and sprite bucket and mike had a few Thai rum and sprite buckets. We're going to have to start serving our friends in buckets the next time we have people over!!
While we were drinking our buckets and socializing, the crew of the boat (who were almost all also drinking with us- except for one) got us
playing drinking games. The first game was kings cup, a game played all over the world apparently! Funny how these traditions travel. If you know this game, you can appreciate that it is a bit difficult to play with strangers and even more difficult to play when most people are ESL (others were from Germany, Spain and Brazil). It was still possible to play, but making categories, truth or dare and making silly rules in the game lost a bit of its humor.
After we finished all the cards and most people had finished their buckets, we played a few competition games, where the prize was another bucket! Alas, neither of us were winners. The first game was in pure Mario cart style, where you had a balloon around your ankle and had to pop other people's balloons without getting yours popped. The second game (which we will bring back with us to Canada to play at the beach), was called Thai Cricket. In the game, you have a stick that's tied to a string that goes around your waist. The stick hangs below, between your legs and the objective is to use your pelvis to move the stick
and hit a ball from the starting line to the finish line. Of course the boys were pretty good at it, however, it was a girl who won the game and put the men in their place!
After the games, we had a snack of barbecue chicken wings (sooo good) and then headed back to the beach while the crew cleaned up. We sat in the darkness on the beach and watched the silhouettes of the mountains and the waves crashing into the beach. After this, we headed through the jungle (which has been pretty clear cut for the tourists here) to the bay on the opposite side of the island (water is safer and more sheltered for the boat to anchor in) and got back into the boat for bed.
We all got a choice of where we wanted to sleep on the boat. One group took the top covered area, that had the best breeze. We would have liked to have been there, but what can you do? Since it's the rainy season, we thought it would be silly to tempt the rain by sleeping outside (even though it hadn't rained all day). We just didn't
want to be woken up in the middle of the night and have to move out of the rain. Our other couple friends took the challenge but ended up having to move as the storm came in. So we slept inside the boat, which was close to unbearable. But we were laughing when there was a mass panic around 1am where Elysia opened her eyes (mike's were never closed) to the crew running around yelling shit because of the incoming storm. That's comforting...
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