Day 6: 26th April 2013
HAPPY 10TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!
What better way to spend your 10th wedding anniversary than touring the beautiful Phi Phi Islands.
I was very excited to visit Maya Bay, which is where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach' was filmed. I watched the movie before we left, specially because were were going there, I didn't enjoy it... luckily the scenery was beautiful!!
There are 6 islands that make up Phi Phi, you can't explore them all in one day so we booked a tour with Simba Sea trips that took us to the 2 main ones, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh.
We booked the Phi Phi Sunrise Tour, the draw card to this one was that you arrive at "The Beach" (Maya Bay) as the sun is rising and enjoy breakfast on the almost deserted beach (a deserted beach is rare). The bus picked us up from our hotel at 5:30am and took us to the Royal Phuket Marina, an early start so we wouldn't miss the sunrise! HOWEVER... there was a mess up with the buses picking up people and 2 people from Slovakia got left behind... so we ended up sitting at the Marina for an hour waiting for them to arrive. The whole time my dream of sitting on the 'The Beach', eating breakfast and watching the sunrise slipped away. I was disappointed that's for sure. BUT there was nothing anyone could do so I put my sadness behind me, and an hour later we whizzed off to begin our adventure. Gosh, that's a lot of writing with no pictures... I should have taken a pic of us sitting and waiting to leave, or the Marina... oh well :)
Our first stop was Maya Bay. 'The Beach' here we come.
Oh the excitement as we approached the Bay. It really is stunning. We were still about 15 mins ahead of the main tourist crowds... by the time we left all you could see along the beachline was boat after boat after boat... seriously! Am so glad we chose the Simba tour! We could get a photo without boats or people in the background, this is rare! And what a nice photo it is too... it's one of my all time favorite from the trip :)
Our tour boat at Maya Bay
The crew set up breakfast when we arrived, we enjoyed fresh egg or salad rolls, fruit and some amazing banana bread. Here is Jenny, setting up the breakfast table.
After eating our fill we went for a wander up the beach.
I wish we had walked up this little path and had an explore. It didn't even cross my mind while we were there, we didn't venture beyond the beach. I think I was paranoid that the tour would leave us behind!
I told you it got a lot busier before we left. That is me in my bikini below ;)
Goodbye Maya bay, was so nice to see you in real life, you really are as beautiful as you appear in photos. Our next stop was Pileh Lagoon, Pileh meaning room. It's a naturally formed lagoon, with a deep bottom and limestone cliffs surrounding each side. It's like a swimming pool with beautiful warm green, very salty water. It is yet another stunning location. Seriously get to Phuket and visit all of these amazing places!!!!!! This place looks awesome from the air, no i didn't fly over it, but I have seen photos and wow! Google it :)
Here we are entering the lagoon, check out the color of the water. We beat the crowds and had it all to ourselves, apart from the Russians on the tour boat with the loud music ;) It was fantastic.
It was time for a swim in this natural swimming pool! Splash, Todd jumps from the front of the boat. I didn't jump. My noodle and I entered via the steps at the back of the boat.
We all got back onto the boat and went around the corner to Straight Rock for some snorkeling. YAY! Snorkeling in Phi Phi. Been there, done that :)
How about a game: How many monkeys in this tree?? I love that you can see the person taking the photo, it shows how close our boat was to the tree.
NEXT We pulled up to Bamboo island for lunch, and what a lovely little Island it is.
Jenny once again served us up a delicious meal, that we ate on the beach. They gave us each mats that we could sit or lay on.
Food and a relax, perfect after a BIG morning and early start :)
After lunch we went for a walk, we came across a gypsy village and a swing. Of course I had to go on the swing. Who hasn't wanted to sit on a swing on a tropical Island :) This swing went from side to side and man it was hard to balance, it was quite high so my feet couldn't touch the ground to balance me. I didn't fall off, I promise!
A little Gyspy village on the beach
As we were walking along the beach I cut my foot on a boat peg that was sticking out of the sand. It was all rusty and I had a moment of panic, but all was ok. To my relief it didn't get infected.
Bamboo Island was just a lovely place to walk, swim and relax after an early morning and the full on Phang Nga Bay tour the previous day. We swam in the beautiful water, dodging the jellyfish, those little stingers really do sting.
After lunch we had another snorkeling stop. I couldn't be bothered, and good thing because after a few minutes they realised there were jellyfish everywhere and they all go stung heaps! I just sat and watched them all scramble back onto the boat. See sometimes it does pay to be lazy ;) It seems the jellyfish were out in full force that day in a few different locations, so we started on our 1 hours ride back to the Marina. I was so tired the hour seemed to go on forever.
Im so glad I can tick the Phi Phi Islands off my 'to do list'. It was a great day. What a beautiful part of the world. If I ever go back I will make sure I explore Maya Bay and Bamboo Island a bit more beyond the beach. I loved how the tours we chose endeavored to stay away from the crowds, it made the day that much more relaxing. I'd also love to hire a long tail boat and have a little tour around an island. Oh the memories!!!!
When we arrived home we had a cool off in our pool before heading out for tea to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
We found a place to have tea just up the road towards Kata, it was called Baan Siam. It had more atmosphere than some of the other deadly quiet restaurants along the road. If you see people eating there you know it must be ok ;)
I was very excited to visit Maya Bay, which is where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach' was filmed. I watched the movie before we left, specially because were were going there, I didn't enjoy it... luckily the scenery was beautiful!!
There are 6 islands that make up Phi Phi, you can't explore them all in one day so we booked a tour with Simba Sea trips that took us to the 2 main ones, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh.
We booked the Phi Phi Sunrise Tour, the draw card to this one was that you arrive at "The Beach" (Maya Bay) as the sun is rising and enjoy breakfast on the almost deserted beach (a deserted beach is rare). The bus picked us up from our hotel at 5:30am and took us to the Royal Phuket Marina, an early start so we wouldn't miss the sunrise! HOWEVER... there was a mess up with the buses picking up people and 2 people from Slovakia got left behind... so we ended up sitting at the Marina for an hour waiting for them to arrive. The whole time my dream of sitting on the 'The Beach', eating breakfast and watching the sunrise slipped away. I was disappointed that's for sure. BUT there was nothing anyone could do so I put my sadness behind me, and an hour later we whizzed off to begin our adventure. Gosh, that's a lot of writing with no pictures... I should have taken a pic of us sitting and waiting to leave, or the Marina... oh well :)
Our first stop was Maya Bay. 'The Beach' here we come.
Our tour boat at Maya Bay
The crew set up breakfast when we arrived, we enjoyed fresh egg or salad rolls, fruit and some amazing banana bread. Here is Jenny, setting up the breakfast table.
After eating our fill we went for a wander up the beach.
I wish we had walked up this little path and had an explore. It didn't even cross my mind while we were there, we didn't venture beyond the beach. I think I was paranoid that the tour would leave us behind!
I told you it got a lot busier before we left. That is me in my bikini below ;)
Goodbye Maya bay, was so nice to see you in real life, you really are as beautiful as you appear in photos. Our next stop was Pileh Lagoon, Pileh meaning room. It's a naturally formed lagoon, with a deep bottom and limestone cliffs surrounding each side. It's like a swimming pool with beautiful warm green, very salty water. It is yet another stunning location. Seriously get to Phuket and visit all of these amazing places!!!!!! This place looks awesome from the air, no i didn't fly over it, but I have seen photos and wow! Google it :)
Here we are entering the lagoon, check out the color of the water. We beat the crowds and had it all to ourselves, apart from the Russians on the tour boat with the loud music ;) It was fantastic.
It was time for a swim in this natural swimming pool! Splash, Todd jumps from the front of the boat. I didn't jump. My noodle and I entered via the steps at the back of the boat.
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| SOOO Warm! |
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| So easy to float due to all the salt! |
We all got back onto the boat and went around the corner to Straight Rock for some snorkeling. YAY! Snorkeling in Phi Phi. Been there, done that :)
"Next Stop was snorkeling. And I had to wear flippers for the first time- they are heavy little suckers- took me a while to get the hang of it. Once I calmed down and put my head under it was beautiful. There were some gorgeous yellow and black fish. We had the underwater camera and got a few photos, but it's not charging properly and the battery went flat rather quickly."
Yes, I did struggle with the flippers. They were so heavy and made it so hard to stay above the water. Once I got my body horizontal, it was all ok. However, I still cant figure out how Todd went down under the water without dying ;) I definitely stayed on the surface.
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| Our Snorkeling spot |
Everyone saw a little shark, not me, I went on a hunt for it and couldn't find it. Hunting for the shark wore me out, yes i'm unfit! I returned to the boat before most people, I was over putting my
head under water (not a fan) and my feet were starting to cramp up in
the flippers. As I climbed back onto the boat, it started raining. The rain looked great on the water. I was taking a selfie of myself and a girl from New York offered to take one for me, she wasn't snorkeling cos she couldn't really swim. Here it is:
One more stop before lunch, Monkey beach!!! It wasn't really Monkey Beach though as it was a high tide and the beach couldn't be seen. All the Monkeys were in tress and the boat came right up to the tress so we could see them and feed them bananas. We were warned that these monkeys bite and once one even jumped onto the boat. What a story it would have been if one actually did jump onto the boat, bit scary though perhaps ;)
Here is one cheeky Monkey sitting in the tree eating a banana, just above our boat. There were lots of them in the trees.
NEXT We pulled up to Bamboo island for lunch, and what a lovely little Island it is.
Jenny once again served us up a delicious meal, that we ate on the beach. They gave us each mats that we could sit or lay on.
After lunch we went for a walk, we came across a gypsy village and a swing. Of course I had to go on the swing. Who hasn't wanted to sit on a swing on a tropical Island :) This swing went from side to side and man it was hard to balance, it was quite high so my feet couldn't touch the ground to balance me. I didn't fall off, I promise!
A little Gyspy village on the beach
As we were walking along the beach I cut my foot on a boat peg that was sticking out of the sand. It was all rusty and I had a moment of panic, but all was ok. To my relief it didn't get infected.
Bamboo Island was just a lovely place to walk, swim and relax after an early morning and the full on Phang Nga Bay tour the previous day. We swam in the beautiful water, dodging the jellyfish, those little stingers really do sting.
After lunch we had another snorkeling stop. I couldn't be bothered, and good thing because after a few minutes they realised there were jellyfish everywhere and they all go stung heaps! I just sat and watched them all scramble back onto the boat. See sometimes it does pay to be lazy ;) It seems the jellyfish were out in full force that day in a few different locations, so we started on our 1 hours ride back to the Marina. I was so tired the hour seemed to go on forever.
Im so glad I can tick the Phi Phi Islands off my 'to do list'. It was a great day. What a beautiful part of the world. If I ever go back I will make sure I explore Maya Bay and Bamboo Island a bit more beyond the beach. I loved how the tours we chose endeavored to stay away from the crowds, it made the day that much more relaxing. I'd also love to hire a long tail boat and have a little tour around an island. Oh the memories!!!!
When we arrived home we had a cool off in our pool before heading out for tea to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
On our way out that evening we stopped by the Banana Pancake stall. Have I told you about these scrumptious things?? I have no idea if i've already blogged about them but too bad, they are amazing! We had quite a few of them while we were there as the stall was just at the bottom of the hill our resort was on, and we passed it all the time. I liked to have mine with nutella! The perfect takeaway dessert :)
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| Todd enjoying his on Karon Beach |
"I enjoyed my chicken cashew, but Todd asked for extra spicy Pad Thai and it REALLY was extra spicy. He looked terrible!! He was red and had stuff running out of his nose. His lips went numb, apparently it was the hottest thing he had ever eaten."
Haha Happy Anniversary Toddy! My advice, when in Thailand, don't ask for extra spicy :)
Here he is recovering ;)
Our 10th Wedding Anniversary was a great day! Exhausting too!!
I'm thinking we will have to spend our 20th Wedding Anniversary in Europe :)
Thanks for reading my blog. Don't go away because my next post will be on our elephant riding experience!
Love BEC! xx
Nice post! This is a very nice blog that I will definitively come back to more times this year! Thanks for informative post.
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