Our adventure continues in Phi Phi Island - one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to!
After we left Krabi we took a boat to Phi Phi Island. You can check my previous post about our adventures in Krabi here: https://steemit.com/travel/@george-topalov/baby-elephant-feeding-kayaking-motorcycling-and-much-more-in-krabi .
The journey to Phi Phi was quite short (about and hour and a half) and quite pleasant. We were on a two floor boat with quite a bit of seats and most of them were empty so we had a full row of seats for the two of us to occupy. Weather was rather nice so people were using the opportunity to get some tan on the deck outside. It was too packed and too small for us to stay there though so we only went outside when we were getting closer to the island to get a peek at the amazing view in front of the boat. I didn't really know what to expect once we got there, Krabi was quite the Urban place surrounded by nature where Phi Phi is a true resort. The whole island is made for tourists with loads of hotels, gifts and clothes shops, restaurants, tattoo artists, so many desks for booking activities and transport and quite a few Thai massage salons. There's even a restaurant with a boxing ring in the middle where you can either watch live muay thai fights or get into the ring yourself and fight with the professional muay thai fighters (sign was literally saying 'come along if you want to get your ass kicked'.. quite the marketing strategy ha?).
The pier was full of boats and it wasn't a swimming area but the water was so inviting. It had this turquoise colour you always see on the photos that looks like it is photoshopped, but believe me it is so worth seeing with your own eyes! All I wanted was to jump out of the boat into the warm sea and swim to the hotel if I can.
Instead good old George had to take on the big suitcases and walk.. oh well.
At the pier we had to pay a small fee to enter the island (20baht/£0.50) for the cleaning after the tourists or at least that's what they explained to us the money is for. Once we did that we had to go and find someone holding a sign like the guys you can see surrounding me on the second photo but with a sign with out hotel on it. They gathered us in a nice shady spot, put our luggage on a cart and lead us towards our hotel. We didn't really know how close we were to the sea, only knew we were somewhat close to it from the pictures on the booking website and we were quite surprised that indeed we were on first line to the coast. And all that was standing between us and the beach was the lazy cat sleeping in front of our door a few stairs and going past the pool and the bar. It was that easy! And the beach was amazing itself!
There were so many cats around Phi Phi. Every hotel had at least 2-3 of them hanging around. So we did have a few of them too and a beach right next to the hotel bar and restaurant. How sweet!
First thing we did after arrival was to take our towels and just run towards the beach and use the small time we had left until night time. It was getting darker around 6, most of the time because clouds were occupying the sky and shortly after I saw what you can call a tropical storm for the first one. Just a mini one nothing too scary but it goes as fast as it arrives. It kept raining on and off when it got completely dark and we did just run to a close restaurant for dinner and booked some activities for the next day on the way. We really wanted to go to the place called Shark Point and go snorkelling there. It is said that very often some of the shark species that rule over the waters surrounding the island are swimming there. I wasn't very keen on getting on one of the full day boat tours but the deal they gave us was so cheap and it had the swimming at Shark Point included so we booked that in the end. Only bad news were that you don't see the sharks 100% because they aren't always there and if you are lucky you get to meet one (well we had to try our luck didn't we?). Next morning a boat driver took us from the gathering point and lead us to the other side of the island from where we took a boat and left for our first stop - Monkey beach. The group we were in contained of maybe 10 people but there was still plenty of room on the boat and everyone got somewhat friends towards the end so it was rather nice.
Monkey beach
Monkey beach is a small coast you can get to with a boat or by kayaking. Pretty close to the core of the island. There are quite a bit of monkeys in there that are not too friendly but quite relaxed next to the people and once we got there they climbed down from the rocks and trees and sat around us on the sand waiting for someone to give them food and water.
We saw a few mothers with their babies hanging on their wastes like that as well.
This little fella took one of the bottle from one of the guys and sadly couldn't figure out how to use the bottle until all the water got poured out of it. Got it in the end though!
And this one was just chilling on a tree so we decided to invade his personal space a bit (sorry Mr. I'm just a tourist desperate to take some cool photos for my steemit blog).
Right after this short stop we took off to our first snorkelling destination. It was a reef next to Loh Moo Dee beach which has its coast on the main Phi Phi island.
Snorkelling near Loh Moo Dee beach
I knew how to use a snorkel and I know how to swim but I never really did snorkelling before so it was quite a new experience for me. I wanted to take the camera with me and catch as many videos as possible so I took a life vest the first time we went into the water (skipped that every other time though.. felt quite comfortable without it).
First thing that we saw once we stopped was quite a few more boats all stopped around us with other groups of tourists and then we looked to the water. One of the boat drivers threw a peace of watermelon in it and look what happened!
This is a photo of the beach itself. We went there the next day with a private boat we rented just for us and it was such a nice place to spend some time under the sun.
These small fishes that were swarming us are called Sergeant Major and were swimming along in all the reefs we visited. There were quite a lot of them everywhere we went to.
The bigger ones with the black dots are called Map Pufferfish and were quite common sight too.
We did swim around for about 20 minutes looking at the amazing colourful world underneath the water and then head off to our next stop - Bamboo island.
Bamboo Island and the National Park
Now to enter Bamboo beach we had to pay an extra fee of 400 baht / ~£10 which was a fee for the National Park. It is a rather small one or at least we didn't explore that much of it if there was more. The weather was starting to get cloudy and waves were getting bigger so the water wasn't that clear. We did stay here for an hour which wasn't too bad. There was a mini bar in the middle of the park area and it wasn't too crowded.
This was probably my least favourite place out of the trip especially after paying that fee. The whole tour for the day costed us 650 baht per person and to enter this island was 400 which is almost as much so I was expecting to see something spectacular. It just wasn't anything even remotely close to some of the places we visited after. Next stop was the place that I was most excited about - The Shark Point!
Shark Point snorkelling
We got there and jumped in the water straight in. I had the camera set to record at all times and was prepared to chase after anything interesting I see around me. Was swimming desperately left and right trying to sight any of the bigger inhabitant of the sea.
There were a lot less of the Sergeant Major fish we saw in the other reefs here but instead we saw large groups of these back and yellow ones called Singjaw Wrasse.
It was getting darker/cloudier outside and the water was deeper than the other places so it wasn't that great for the camera. Maybe because the sea wasn't as calm we couldn't see too much of this reef and didn't get to see any sharks. Quite disappointed we had to leave after 30 minutes of swimming around desperately trying to find something for da steemit blog.. oh well next time I guess.
Anyway next 2 places we visited were my favourite places I went to during my stay in Thailand - Maya Bay and Pileh Lagoon.
Pileh Lagoon and Maya Bay
I knew about Maya Bay because it was one of the most promoted places on the island (the place where the movie 'the beach' with Leonardo DiCaprio was shot). What I didn't know about was the Pileh Lagoon we were about to visit.. Oh my God! That place was overwhelming, that is the only word that comes to mind when I think about it. The weather was getting quite bad so we didn't stay long but boy was it beautiful! Next time I visit I'm definitely going kayaking over there!
I wish I had better photos but it was rather hard to get any in a boat with 10 other people sticking their phones out taking their own pictures. Water looked so nice and clear with that emerald colour, place looked like it it out of this world! I don't even know what else to say about it.. I was at a loss of words!
After we did this little trip to the lagoon we headed to Maya Bay. I've seen boats go to the bay itself but maybe because of the waves or the season we had to stop on the other side and swim trough some rocks then climb on a rope to get to the park that leads to the beach itself. Don't really have any photos before we got to the park because it was pretty hard getting there just by holding the camera in my hands and swimming pushed by the waves then climbing on the ropes. It was hard task for a lot of people though and I saw quite a few get pushed into the rocks by waves and get injured. There was a guy with a kayak going around helping out as much as he can so it was quite the adventure to reach the final destination and I had no idea how worth it is going to be. And boy was it worth it! I could easily go trough the same trouble every day just to spend it over there!
The park itself was very pretty but it was getting quite windy and since we were wet from the trip here.. we were getting pretty cold.
The sign 'Beware Coconuts' sure got my attention and I thought it a good idea to get right next to it and take photos. What a genius! You show them Georgi!
After we went trough the park we ended up in front of this beautiful place. I wish weather was nicer but it still looked astonishing!
It doesn't look as majestic because of the atmosphere I guess but it sure felt like it. Water was so nice and it had its own colour that none of the other places had
Sadly 15-20 minutes after we went there a storm hit us and we just ran back to the boat. Next day we wanted to go again because it was sunny but the waves were pretty bad on this side of the Islands so it didn't happen. I would definitely visit again! The way back was even trickier than the way in since we had to go trough a whole between the rocks into the water and find our way to the boat. Would've been a lot easier if I didn't have a camera in my hands. That was our last stop and after quite the adventurous trip back with loads of massive waves hitting us and the boat swinging about we got back with amazing memories.
On the second day at Phi Phi we had a clear view of what we wanted to do. We wanted to get up early get a kayak and go to a beach we found on the internet. We asked the locals responsible for the kayaking but they advised us not to got there especially not kayaking since the waves that day were quite big and it wouldn't be a good experience even if we get there. Instead they recommended going to the other side of the island where the water was calmer and we agreed on a deal. We met our captain - a fairly dark local fella and jumped on small boat. Waves were massive and boat was going left and right jumping trough them. We had experience from the day before though so just enjoyed it and the guy driving us was quite surprised. We stopped at this beach we didn't know the name of but it was probably my favourite beach out of them all. Water was so clear and nice and except the 2-3 boats that were hanging about there was no one else other than us. A whole beach just for us.
The boat captain was always always singing while operating the wheel with his feet. Was quite a nice experience and after that stop we did we proceed to another snorkelling place. We had some fun there and since it was quite sunny pictures from underwater were a lot better.
We tried going to the shark point again but the waves were too big for any snorkelling . We stayed at Loh Moo Dee beach for the rest of the day.
At night Phi Phi is famous for the fire shows that locals do around the coast. There was one taking part in a bar right next to our hotel. Music was so loud that we just had to see what is going on. I have seen quite a lot of fire shows in my hometown so I knew what it was all about but it was still quite good. After a pretty long warm up the show started and they made the fire dancing began. Was a nice way to finish the night. On the next day we were travelling to Phuket and that will be coming up in the next post.
I can't believe how long this post became and how long it took me to write. I hope everyone enjoys the read and photos. I know a lot of the photos have water marks or are slightly misty but that is simply because we didn't wipe off the GoPro as good and there isn't much to do about it now. Sorry for that and thanks for reading!
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