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13 December
Koh Phi Phi (Long Beach)
MARK: This morning we had pre-decided that we would wake up early (7am) and head to the viewpoints that overlook Phi Phi Don Island. Phi Phi Don is actually two islands joined together by a narrow strip of sand separating the two beaches of Ao Ton Sai and Ao Lo Dalam. It's over this narrow stretch of land that the tsunami wreaked its havoc, destroying everything. What an amazing view it was. The sun had just risen so the light was excellent and I whipped out my trusty Canon and snapped a few postcard pics. We were getting picked up at 10am for our free transfer to Phi Phi Hill Resort so we couldn't stay too long at the viewpoints. Time to descend the hundreds of steps back to the town... what a workout!
After arriving and packing a bag that we would need for our half day island trip we headed down to Long Beach to swim and catch a tan. I am glad that we have moved accommodation as long beach is way more laid back and beachy. Welcome to the real Phi Phi. Not the 'Brits-abroad' vibe that is going on in Ton Sai.
Our tour boat arrived soon after 1.30pm to pick us up and clearly we were the only people from Long Beach going on this tour, as the boat was packed with about 15 people already... only just space for the 2 of us in the front (the bow I think?). There were a few Italians on board with us, a Dutch couple, some Chinese / Korean girls (who didn't have any clue how to swim) and a weird Austrian guy.
Phi Phi Leh is slightly smaller than Phi Phi Don and completely protected on all sides by soaring cliffs. The cliffs actually looked 2-dimensional when looking at them face on. Surrounding the island are coral reefs crawling with marine life and crystal clear blue waters. Two lagoons are hidden within the island and surrounded by cliffs - Pilah on the east and Ao Maya on the west. Ao Maya is where the movie The Beach was controversially filmed.
Our tour consisted of a few stops to snorkel and to view the islands beaches. Our first stop was on the way to the island and we anchored on an awesome coral reef. We jumped in the water and began snorkeling around. The waters were a little shallow and when Kim took her flipper off to adjust it she banged the top of it against some coral and unluckily scraped the top layer of her skin. So she jumped back on the boat to rest. I carried on for a while and got awesome pics of a huge jellyfish swimming around. The Chinese girls honestly looked like they were drowning, but hats off to them for attempting to snorkel! Back on the boat we headed off in the direction of Monkey Beach on the east side of Phi Phi Leh. On the way we went past Viking Cave which is a huge collection point for swiftlet nests. Bamboo scaffolding reaches all the way up to the roof of the cave and nest collectors can pay to climb up and collect some nests - weird hobby is you ask me! The cave gets its name from the 400-year-old graffiti made by crews of passing Chinese fishing boats. We arrived at Monkey Beach whilst there were other tourist longtail boats also beached on the shore. Monkey Beach gets its name because of the many monkeys that live on the beach - doh! It's become a popular tourist destination and as we could see there were many tourists already on the beach walking amongst the monkeys and feeding them bananas and giving them drinking water from bottles. The monkeys would sit and hold the bottle neck and drink whilst you hold the bottom end of the bottle. As is always the case there's always one dickhead in every group and we arrived just in time to see the idiot from the group ahead of us, get bitten on the knee as he tried to be funny and macho with the monkeys. He wasn't very macho after that and he was clearly in shock and shaking, as the realization set in that he would have to hurry back to the mainland for some rabies shots!!! As it turns out the dickhead in our group was the Austrian. He also managed to aggravate the monkeys and 2 of them started to get very aggressive with him, hissing and baring their fangs and trying to bite him. He kicked one monkey and then managed to get into the water and they left him alone. Not sure what he did to stir them up though... A little while later back on the boat, it was time to leave and Mr Austrian was still on the beach... throwing stones at the monkeys with another Australian dude. They were literally chasing monkeys on the beach with rocks and trying to hit them. What kind are these okes! In that instance he separated himself from the rest of the boat and you could feel the animosity towards him when he got back on the boat.
Next stop was Loh Samah Bay where Pilah Lagoon is hidden in the western interior. For me this lagoon was more impressive than Maya Bay. Hidden behind the side of the cliff the sea enters the interior of the island and runs inwards forming a blue lagoon behind the western cliffs. Schools of parrot fish swim here amongst the many sea urchins in the shallow waters before the lagoon starts. The lagoon itself drops off forming a very deep pool of water in which you can swim. We anchored here for an hour and swam around eating some pineapple fruit provided on the longtail. The sun soon disappeared on the eastern side of the cliffs and we set off for the famous Maya Bay.
When we rounded the corner and entered Maya Bay I was expecting pristine blue waters and a beautiful white long sandy beach, all hidden between soaring cliffs with only a small entrance point between them... as seen in the movie. Instead the entrance is actually about 150m wide and the water is covered in diesel slick and the white sandy beach was lined with tourists & boats... Not the idyllic scene we were expecting. But I suppose this is to be expected from the world's number 1 destination spot. Once we anchored on the shore and Kim & I stood on the beach looking back at the entrance headlands, you could see that the angle from which the movie was shot is everything. Standing on the beach it looks like the entrance to the lagoon is very narrow when in reality it's not. Not put off by the diesel slick, we donned our snorkels and went for a swim. All in all it was pretty cool to be swimming and chilling on The Beach and the moment wasn't lost on us. Back on the boat we headed out to sea and around the northern tips of Phi Phi Leh to watch the beautiful sunset taking place on the horizon - the best we've seen the entire trip! There's something strangely mesmerizing watching the sun sink slowly into the ocean whilst you are floating on the ocean yourself.
Back on Long Beach, tired, hungry and in need of a beer we made our way back our bungalow. We grabbed a bite to eat in the restaurant - Kim had seafood stir-fry (which would give her food poisoning again!) and I had chicken stir-fry and then we watched Tropic of Thunder on the big screen TV.
Bed!
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