Life in the fast lane

So another day has come, to which I am thrilled is here, a full day of island hopping.  Taking off from one island to another in search of the best beaches in Thailand.  One of my dream days.  They pick us up at our hotel and we head to the Royal Marina to catch our three engine speed boat to the islands.

This is a big operation, it’s three boats, all have at least 30 people on them.  And as my Pa would have said “we’re away”. Start the first spot is a cave in which they filmed some air shots for Jurassic Park 2 in, and let’s just say it’s as remote as the movie.  To get in this inlet you have to go over a sandbar (and do to this we could only be in this area for 30mins before the tide was too low for us to get out!).  The water is amazing, so salty you are already floating, so blue it looks unreal, and warm as a bath (without feeling like someone peed in it).  To get in the water, we all jump off the front of the boat, going so deep down, though no one comes close to touching the bottom.  Paradise?  I think so.  Tony and I could float here all day, but sadly we need to leave to get out of the inlet so we can see a few more beaches.

Next spot- Maya Beach.  This is definitely one of the most famous beaches in Thailand, since it was used in Leonardo Dicaprio’s movie The Beach.  The water is nice, the views of the limestone rocks all around are beautiful, but best beach, not yet. 

Then we are off to Monkey Beach (for some reason tourists are all about the monkeys here- we don’t really understand this but are a little more intreagued when we find out that these monkeys can swim and enjoy their seafood.)  The beach is tiny, filled with trees and of course monkey’s!  The lime stone has lots of growth in this area so it seams much larger then the beach area is.  The sand is much harder then we thought, almost made of coral and shells.  Oh well I guess the monkeys don’t mind! 

After feeding this monkeys it’s lunch time for us!  We hop back on the boat and speed off to another island, Phi Phi Island.  Ok before I go farther I am going to say that I had very high hopes for this island as when we looked into staying in Thailand I wanted to stay on this island but the prices weren’t right- they were American standards at about 90$ a night (compared to our 18$ it felt like a rip off!).  So as we pull up I am thinking this beach is going to be worth tons but sure enough it just seems like another beach.  Definitely not the best of the day, but still worthy of the trip.  We hop off and follow our tour guide (who by the way is called Joker and has decided that wherever we go we are not the Joker team, and he needs to repeat everything 3 times before we do anything.  It’s very amusing for us and with his accent we actually appreciate it.)  Lunch is a giant buffet, definitely not the best food we have had in Thailand, but it’s a buffet and they are feeding like 200 people, so it’s decent.  We also don’t really mind too much because we are starving, we have been swimming all day and not had anything since our breakfast at the hotel at 7am.  We enjoy it.  After that we have lots of time to relax on the beach, we find some free chairs and sit and enjoy the area.  It’s absolutely stunning from the beach to look out over the water and see the lime stone islands, inlets and rock formations, boats scattered over the area, with the sun beaming down.  Just perfect. 

Joker Team, Joker Team, Joker Team- time to go!  We are off to snorkeling.  Tony has never done it and is a bit hesitant about it seeing as he is completely blind without his glasses and we are about to put him underwater without them.  Me I have done snorkeling before, but anyone who was with me in Mexico, knows I could possible be the worst snorkler out there.  Yep it’s possible to be bad at it.  Either way we decided to try it.  Turns out was definitely one of the highlights of our day.  Beautiful fish, swimming all around, coral in all colours and clear waters.  Fabulous.  Tony can even see!  We love it.  Turns out it’s something we would like to do again, and soon if possible! 

Now it’s time to relax on the beach, we have had a hard day you know, on and off the boat, swimming, eating, just soo hard.  We definitely need to relax, on the beach with a drink in a coconut, and each other.  What else do we need?  Oh yeah to run into the water when we heat up too much from the sun. Yep, it’s a great end to a perfect day on the water, hopping from beach to beach in search of the best one.  Have we found it?  Not sure we can say we have, but we can say we are keen to keep looking!

again this is not my picture and i dont take any credit for it, and mine will come eventually!
MAYA BEACH