It was 5am and my tour guide had come to pick me up from my resort. Surprisingly, I was actually on time and ready to go! I hopped in the car where a few other passengers who were coming on the trip were sitting. We were off for a whole day trip which would last approximately 8 hours to the Six Phi Phi Islands in Thailand.
We were in a bit of a rush because we needed to catch the sunrise which was scheduled to be round 6-630am. We arrived at the port where the boat would be leaving from and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. The sky was dark pink as we boarded the boat, and off we sailed to catch the sunrise at sea.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of the trip or exactly what it entailed, but I knew that I was hungry, so I was looking forward to our first stop where the tour guide had told me we would be having breakfast.
1st stop : Khai Nai Island
Our tour guide gave us a brief description of the Island explaining that it was a small Island where nobody lived, and that the island was shaped like an egg. Getting off the boat was quite a rocky experience (literally, there were sharp rocks everywhere…OUCH!)
I made it onto the island, and began to explore as the guides set up the station for us to eat. I noticed that the Island appeared deserted, with a number of empty stalls, which I presume would usually be occupied by merchants selling their goods to the tourists visiting the Island. However, we were there quite early so were the only people on the Island.
I couldn’t explore the island as much as I wanted to because there were stray cats EVERYWHERE. I’m terrified of cats. Most of my time on this Island was spent running away from the cats who were hoping to be fed breakfast. In the end, I had to abandon my food because the cats were literally chasing me.
I noticed that the cats didn’t really go close to the water so I decided to go near the water, taking pictures and anxiously waiting for everyone to finish their breakfast so that we could shop back on the boat and get going to the next stop.
Stop 2: Bamboo Island
It was another 25-40 minute ride to Bamboo Island. When we arrived we got a quick history lesson on the Island which was called Bamboo Island because it has a lot of Bamboo.
I hopped off the boat and stepped onto the Island which was absolutely dazzling. The sand was white, the Sea was blue, and there was not a cat in sight, so I could relax. I grabbed my towel, shades and decided to sunbathe in my bikini. It was incredibly hot that day so I wasn’t keen on doing too much moving around.
We spent approximately 30 minutes on this Island, sunbathing, taking pictures, and splashing around in the water until we had to head to our next destination.
Stop 3: Maya Bay
After another 30 minutes of hair blowing in the wind as we sailed, we arrived at the most beautiful beach in the world, Maya Bay. The scenery looked like something out of a movie, which in fact was the case.
Maya Bay was the beach that was used to shoot the film starring Leonardo Di Caprio ‘The Beach’, and during the time of filming the beach was closed for six months according to our tour guide who was affected by this closure.
By this time, there were a number of other boats on the shore so there was no space for our boat to get too close. We stopped a few metres away from shore and were instructed to swim to get to the beach. At this point, it was so unbearably hot that I had shamelessly removed my wig and undid my tight cornrows just to let my afro breathe. Needless to say I was not going to get into the water and wet my hair in this condition if I wanted to have a stress-free holiday. The others swam to shore and I stayed on board admiring from afar. Although it would’ve been fantastic to explore the beach, I managed to get some good pictures in Maya Bay which was satisfying enough.
Stop 4: Phi Phi Islands
We stopped off on Phi Phi Island where a buffet lunch was served. This was quite delicious, but unfortunately there were cats and mosquitos everywhere, which kind of ruined it for me, again.
Thankfully, there was a Polish girl who I had made friends with on the boat that had mosquito spray, which helped a little bit, and I was able to enjoy the buffet in peace. I later visited the small shop that was selling a few items, so to support I decided to buy a few shell-charmed bracelets and a waterproof phone cover that I didn’t really need, and then I retired to the boat, where we set asaile for our next destination.
Stop 5: National Park
We arrived at the entrance of the National Park where there were a number of other boats packed with tourists and we spotted monkeys, whilst getting a brief commentary by our tour guide.
He explained that sometimes the monkeys would come inside the boat looking for food when they are hungry, but usually they eat prawns and other sea creatures. I asked the tour guide if we were able to feed the monkeys and he explained that a few years ago we would’ve been able to, however, the monkeys are considered wildlife so the Thai government has banned visitors to the national park from feeding the monkeys for our own safety.
They offered us an opportunity here to snorkel, which I passed up on but it was interesting to see some of the fellow passengers diving into the sea fearlessly, swimming amongst the thousands of fishes.
I didn’t want to be a complete party pooper, so I decided to take a little dip in the water whilst clutching to the side of the boat, and feeding the fishes for about 5 minutes. I wasn’t aware until that day that fishes can eat human food. They seemed to love the Pineapple Jam biscuits that we had as snacks onboard.
Stop 5: Back to Port
It was another 30-45 minute cruise back to port. At this point I was totally exhausted from all of the exploring we had done so I fell asleep in the sun with my shades on and woke up when we got back. Here we were met by the same driver that picked us up and he dropped us back to our various accommodations.
Experience rating : 9/10
To summarise:
Pros :-
- Nice way to see a lot in a short space of time
- Beautiful beaches
- Tour guide would explain in detail the different places we visited
- The tour guide was very helpful and made me feel comfortable
- Buffet lunch was delicious
- Sunrise was amazing
- Really good photo opportunities
Cons:-
- A lot of stray cats on some Islands
- Quite a few mosquitos at the resort serving the buffet lunch
- You had to swim to shore at Maya Bay, because it was very busy.
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