The Beach

Today we are going on a boat tour around Koh Phi Phi. It doesn't start until 11AM, leaving us plenty of time to grab a bakery breakfast. We had donuts. Then we went to wait at the tour agency to get picked up. A woman on a bicycle came to collect us and we followed her all the way back to the beach which our hotel is on. We were given flippers for snorkeling and waited for others to arrive.

We get into a Long boat; the type of boat you'll almost definitely see in a holiday brochure for Thailand. It's a long, thin, wooden boat with an engine on the back. There are ten of us on the tour. Despite being the first people on the beach waiting, we are the last on the boat, meaning we are at the front. It's good for the view. Our first stop is Monkey Beach, but when we get there, we don't see any monkeys; just some Asians taking photographs of each other in the sea. The Long boat driver suggests we move on and we all agree. The second stop is a snorkeling spot. We already have our flippers and grab snorkeling masks from a box. I broke the first pair I picked up before even putting them on, but took another pair without anyone noticing me cause the damage. Rachelle and I jump in, and looking down, we didn't see much. A few Lion fish maybe, nothing more tropical than that. 

On the boat again and on our way to Maya Bay, things didn't feel so good. Both Rachelle and I had begun to feel sea-sick. The waters were very choppy and being at the front of the boat made it worse. We spent the short trip trying not to be ill, but made it to Maya Bay vomit-free. We were glad to have our feet on the ground. Our sea legs simply weren't with us today.

Maya Bay is on Koh Phi Phi Leh; a neighbouring island to Koh Phi Phi. It was the bay used in the film 'The Beach' - based on the Alex Garland novel I've been reading aloud to Rachelle throughout this trip. We take out our towels, I get out The Beach, ready to read, and we receive our included lunch from the boat driver. Then, out of nowhere, the sea struck. It came rushing towards us and caused ruin. My book was soaked, the dry towels were soaked and had sand washed upon them, Rachelle's lunch had been swallowed up, and the bag, with all our cameras and other belongings was wet too. How awfully inconvenient. I don't imagine Leonardo Dicaprio had to deal with this nonsense when filming. 

Maya Bay doesn't really look like it does in the film. It would be pretty if it wasn't for the tourist boats, tourists, rubbish floating around in the water and all our things being wet through. However, The Beach is one of my favourite films and it's nice to see the bay. We recovered from our incident and I read some of the book to Rachelle.

An hour at Maya Bay and we set off to another snorkeling spot. Again there wasn't a great array of fish, but there were lots and lots of Lion fish that came to swim around us. Tourism had them thinking we would bring bread to feed them, but we had none. After twenty minutes we set off for Pilah Lagoon. It's a lagoon surrounded by mountains and is filled with clear blue waters for swimming. I took the opportunity to dive from the Long boat. Rachelle captured it on camera. 

Next stop was Shark Point for more snorkeling. After about fifteen minutes, we had not seen any sharks and gave up - we still felt a little shaky from the sea and swimming wasn't helping. Some of the others did see sharks. Good for them. 

Our final stop was an hour on Mosquito Island. Despite it's name, it's a gorgeous island to relax on. Not many tourists either. Maybe its name scared them away. We sat on the sand (making sure the sea couldn't touch us this time) and I read more of The Beach to Rachelle. The small island gets thumbs up from both of us. When our time there was over, the boat took us back as the sun was setting.

We were going to go out to try some more bars, but decided the day had taken it out of us; all the swimming and feeling sick. Instead, we bought takeaway pizza and ate it whilst watching My Sister's Keeper, because Rachelle suggested the film. But even though she was the reason we watched it, she fell asleep and I watched it on my own. I woke her up to read The Beach some more. I finished it. It's the first book I've read in years. How proud I am of myself. I should read more books.