We were supposed to catch an 11am snorkel trip to Phi Phi Lay with Andrew and Lara, but we didn't wake up until 11:15 and were feeling a bit woosey from the previous night's festivities. We decided to ask around about hiring a longtail boat to take us cruising around instead. For a while now, we've been planning to camp overnight on a deserted island. When we found out about the possibility of camping overnight in Maya Bay a.k.a "The Beach", we were pretty excited. Unfortunately it was really expensive ($40) , which is a big chunk of change for a traveler. Not wanting to go alone, I instead opted for the much cheaper day trip/ sunset snorkel & dinner tour for $12 aboard a nice boat. With just an hour to go before a 2pm departure, I scoured the streets for everyone, who's all assumed we had more time before departing via longtail. I found Jeff at a cafe, fully absorbed into his artwork. Mike and Matt decided against the last-minute trip, but I got Chris to join up. We made it on the boat just as it was pulling off the dock!
As we cruised slowly out of port on the top deck, listening to some good classic rock tunes, we knew we had made the right decision. After just 5 minutes, we stopped at Monkey Beach to check out some local monkeys who hang out there to get bananas from tourists. Chris and I both did flips off the roof of the boat and swam the 150m to shore. About 50 tourists lined the shore, which was littered with banana peels and husks from Litche fruit. We've heard several rumors about tourists being bitten there, so Chris and I declined to get involved with the monkey business. Paying $300 for a series of 3 rabies shots over 5 days is no fun. We sat on some rocks and watched the stupid tourists tempt fate. Out of nowhere and in mid-sentence, Chris lept off the rock, screaming and flailing around like he was on fire. There was a monkey on his back, riding him like a bronco! After a second or two, the monkey jumped off and wandered away as if nothing had happened. Chris didn't receive any bites or scratches, so he got off easy. We wandered into knee deep water since the monkeys don't like to get wet. The tourists continued to act like idiots, doing everything wrong: Pointing at them, showing teeth, getting too close, and teasing them with empty banana peels. A few got bit, including a girl that got it on her butt. Safely back onboard, we headed for Koh Phi Phi Lay, a 20 minute ride South. As we cruised along the island, there was a huge cave just above the sea. A local native tribe has used the cave for centuries so they were able to live within the National Park. This is a location where people will climb up 10m to the cave's ceiling and take the nests of migratory swallows. It's for a delicacy: Bird's Nest Soup.
Our first stop was at an opening to what I can best describe as a mini fjord. A narrow bay with vertical cliffs on all sides, with beatiful sparkling water going back 900m or so. I instantly knew that this was the bay that James had told me about while I was staying in Railay. You see, James used to visit "The Beach" and camp there before anyone did. There were just 3 rangers living near the beach, so he and some friends befriended the rangers and offered a bottle of scotch. Lucky for them, the rangers were Muslim and therefore don't drink. They got to camp on the beach and share the scotch.
Chris and I hopped in a kayak and paddled full-steam towards the back of the fjord. We found deep water in the back, so we thought it would be fun to free-climb up the vertical wall 20 or 30 feet, then jump off. It's literally vertical, so if you fell while climbing, you'd land in deep water. We didn't have shoes and the rocks were sharp so we scrapped that idea. Chris and I agreed that the fjord reminded us somewhat of Milford Sound in Southern New Zealand, where tall mountains shoot straight up out of deep blue ocean in absolutely stunning fjords along the coast. Back at the boat, snorkeling ended up being a lot better than we expected. We saw eels, lionfish, and all sorts of sea life. It was fun to dive down 20 feet deep and cruise around just over the top of the reef, peeking down into the nooks & crannies for creatures in hiding.
After an hour there, we headed to another fjord and everyone swam to a small cave. The cave took us to the other side of the cliffs, revealing a dense jungle interior. This island was just like a fortress. Huge walls of limestone were like castle walls, protecting the sandy jungle interior. We followed a path through the jungle and soon found ourselves on "The Beach". Unfortunately there were a hundred or more tourists, giving it a cramped feeling. The sand is probably the most powdery, soft, and uniformly white I've ever walked across. There's a pure silica sand beach in the Whitsunday Islands in NE Australia that may be a tie....it's also rated among the top 3 most beautiful in the world for that reason. We found Andrew and Lara, who'd made friends with two cute blonde Americans, so we took some nice photos with them and simply planted our butts in the sand for an hour to take in the scenery. We were so caught up in the moment that we didn't notice our tour group boarding the skiff back to the boat. Luckily, I was able to jump in a kayak and Chris hitchhiked in a longtail with another group. Back on the boat, we cruised back to port while watching the sunset, chatting with other travelers, and snacking on delicious fried rice.
On the way back to the room, I signed up for SCUBA diving the next morning, thus forcing myself into an early night, which was long overdue. That evening, the rest of the group hung out front the guesthouse. We've made friends with the two guys that run the guesthouse in the evenings: Tom & Choklat. Choklat is a real joker and is always laughing. Those two had a lot of fun feeding Thai phrases to Chris and Matt, who would then say those phrases to passing Thai ladies. They didn't know what they meant, but they were obviously pretty racy, judging by Choklat & Tom's laughing and the giggles & looks the ladies gave. After several beers and finally locating Jeff, a perpetual wanderer, we headed to a Thai restaurant that they'd eaten at earlier that week called Papaya Restaurant. This place was a real hole in the wall, just what we like. It's somewhere most people would never imagine experiencing a world-class meal. The owners have pet cats and they have reserved the lower 2 shelfs in the beer refrigerator for the cats to cool off. The cats come and go as they please, simply waiting for customers or staff to open the doors. The portions were massive and the food was amazing, all cooked in a big wok at the front of the restaurant. It was the best meal of our trip and Matt thought it might be one of the better meals of his life. We were all so full! Of course, Mike took the leftovers back with him, even though he didn't have a refrigerator to store it. We treated Tom & Choklat to dinner with us, so they took us to a nice corner bar called Velvet Dojo and bought us all a round. I was in bed by midnight, but the guys had another late night/ early morning.
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