The islands of Phi Phi

...but not the hangover, especially when you've got to be up for a day
of Island hopping.

Phi Phi Don

- Ton Sai Bay

Otherwise known as monkey bay. Remember the wild monkeys in a previous
post? Well these monkeys are nothing like them. They're so used to
tourists they come and take banana from your hand. The baby monkeys
make you want to put them in your pocket (and carry them around like I
used to with my dwarf rabbit!) but if you go near them the mother
monkeys come screaming at you - best to avoid them.

Phi Phi Lay

Viking caves and sea swing
Pi-leh bay snorkeling
Loh Samah Bay
Maya Bay (The Beach) picnic & snorkeling

Firstly the snorking was amazing - the sea is surprisingly warm, and
when you're free floating at the top of the deep blue and green water
you see all the caves and underwater mountains that go so far below
you they dissapear into cloudy deep blue inky water. The colourful
fish don't compare to the Maldives, although you can still see the
stripey clown fish and parrot fish which have beaks! You might also
have to avoid the occasional sea snake which have such tiny mouths
they don't bother with you - probably a good job since they're amongt
the most poisonous in the world.

Eventually we made our way to Maya Bay where the beach was filmed -
anoher highlight for me! I was expecting to be dissapointed as I'd
been told it would be packed with tourists, but as we sailed between
the two rock formations the bay opened up and it was just what I'd
imagined, only better because it was pretty empty!

We stopped and had a picnic on the beach, some more snorkeling and
went through the little forest - you know the bit in the film where he
goes mad and runs through the forest like a video game? Well it's a
proper path you can follow, and as with most films the place is a lot
smaller than it looks on screen.

The rest of the day was spent snorkeling and subathing around the rest
of the bays and islands:

Monkey beach (more tame monkeys)
Nui Bay
Mosquito Island
Bamboo Island
Runtee Bay
Shark point

We didn't see any sharks but by this time the storms were coming down
from Bangkok and the speedboat was bouncing single storey heights on
the waves so we pretty much wanted to get back to the harbour.