Thailand [COLDPLAY] 3/5 : Explore "The Beach" Maya Bay at Phi Phi Island

May 25, 2017

Thailand [COLDPLAY] 3/5 : Explore "The Beach" Maya Bay at Phi Phi Island

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Thursday, 6 April 2017
The agent where we bought the tour package last night (cost 1,100 Baht/person) told us to gather at meeting point 7/11 near the Phi Phi Pier at 6 AM, so we checked out earlier to go there. We put our bag to the agent and had breakfast like coffee or tea and bread. We waited until 6.30 AM then off to our speedboat, there were around 12 persons inside the boat, we were the only Indonesian there. The journey felt bumpy and if you have seasick, hmm maybe this is not a good choice for you. Felt so happy because the speedboat was really nice, heading to our first destination, Loh Maya Bay, on this morning exploring Koh Phi Phi Le, the journey will take about half an hour.

free breakfast in the morning from the tour

early morning

Maya Bay became so special especially since Leonardo Dicaprio "The Beach" filmed here, it was like a must see movie back to 2000. It would be so packed with people so we were lucky because we went here earlier in the morning. So, it's not too crowded yet, the water was too clean with the super pretty white sands, I was so excited when we arrived in the island. There is a National Park fee to be paid on this island, 400 Baht, but it's already included in our package so before you booked your tour, make sure it's already included or you might spend extra cost for it.

welcome to Maya Bay :)

National Park Fee 400 Baht at Maya Bay

many toilet, clean and free

Before it's getting crowded, well, that's what I heard from people there. So once we arrived, we were heading to Loh Samah Bay located in the back side of Maya Bay Island. It's not really far, took about 15-20 minutes by walk. The place was not really big so I felt lucky since not many people there so we can still enjoy the view. After spendind about 15 minutes there, we were back to the front of Maya Bay and enjoying our morning there. We got 1,5 hours to enjoy Maya Bay, so we just sat there, enjoying the breeze, chatted and well, people start coming and make the island getting crowded, haha, we felt lucky to choose early morning and speedboat tour. Our boat came and another person who has same boat with us informed about it.

at Loh Maya Bay

someone get down there to swim

wohoooo!! this view will you get if you go there earlier

people start coming

bye Maya Bay~

I love this Coconut Yoghurt :D

Next destination is snorkeling time, they already prepared the snorkeling gears for free, passing by Loh Maya Bay, but since my right knee was bit hurt I was thinking no snorkeling this time. So, I didn't prepare my swimwear. But the guide persuading me to jump into the water and do snorkeling since you already in Phi Phi Island. It made me think, in addition I kinda curious with that so I decided to do snorkeling. I didn't wear my swimwear so yeah, we were on the island and noone cares so I took off my clothes and swim by wearing my bra only haha, thankfully it looks like bikini lol. The guide asked his friends to accompany me just in case, but well I told him I can do snorkeling so at the end I went by myself and explore the underwater. What's my thoughts? Hmm..I've been to beautiful place better than this one, if I need to compare with Karimun Java Island, this place is far from that. Karimun Java is more beautiful than this one :)

Passing Loh Maya Bay

Snorkeling Gear ready!

Next stop is Pileh Lagoon, this one, looks aweome with the hills on your side and makes this place like your private pool, I am sure you're going to enjoy this spot to swim. The guide took our picture one by one and standing in the front of the boat, he also telling us feel free to jump into the water again. From there we passed by Viking Cave and heading to our last stop, Monkey Beach. Not so many monkeys there, maybe they're hiding and I saw this kind of monkey a lot in my country haha, so for me it's not really special. The seaside of this beach is not too big and when we arrived there it's so crowded.

our nice boat :)

private pool :D

Viking Cave

Monkey Beach

Back to Phi Phi Pier

Back to Phi Phi Island around 10.30 AM and yeah, we love this tour. They gave us mineral water and pineapple for the snack when snorkeling time, they have toilet inside the boat, which quite mini but still okay to use it. The guide also very nice and funny. I will recommend to use speedboat tour if you want to visit Koh Phi Phi Le to avoid the crowd, enjoy the view and save your time :) You can also find another way to go to Phi Phi Island, they have like regular tour which is around 400 Baht/person but I think you still need to pay Maya Bay fee 400 baht/person or you can try to have private tour with long tail boat, try to negotiate with the ones that you meet around the bay or near pier, but we felt lazy to do it and choose speedboat tour instead.

We took our bags and went to public bath nearby, it cost 20 Baht to take shower and 10 Baht to bathroom. Had our lunch there, which is Pad Thai, Thailand food looks like big noodle for 50 Baht, we were starving and it's tasty. Exploring and bit shopping on the island for the last time while waiting for out boat back to Phuket at 2 PM. For your information, it's not a good idea to shop in Phi Phi Island comparing to Bangkok, the price here is more expensive and somehow the products are just same with Bangkok but cheaper.

not far from public shower

Thai Fried Rice

Pad Thai, 50 Baht

explore round around

Heading back to Phuket in 3 hours by Ferry and we were so sleepy along the way. On the boat, there will be some guy approaching the passengers to offer mini van transport to Patong etc. We bought the ticket from that guy to Patong, 200 Baht. We just thought it would be difficult to find taxi or bus on the pier and well that's true haha. We arrived at Pier around 4 PM, it took about 2 hours. Going to Patong Beach where the tourist mostly going here if they go to Phuket. The beach was actually not that nice but the ambience is looks like at Phi Phi Island located in the city. So many tourist, shops, bars etc.

ready onboard to our Ferry back to Phuket

inside the Ferry

bought Mini Van ticket on boat to Patong, 200 Baht

the mini van

write your destination there

passing Old Town Phuket area on the way to Patong

Patong Beach

getting crowded

Explore for a while at the shopping mall named Jungceylon, to catch the airport bus to Phuket Airport but apparently we missed the last airport bus. So, we don't have any choice and feel bit sucks when usually taxi driver doesn't want to use meter for the taxi, especially when you ask them how much taxi from here to airport? they will ask you back are you going now? and if you say yes, they will answer 1,000 Baht immediately and hard to ask them to make it cheaper. So we kept trying to find the one that fit with our budget, at then end we tried to book Grabcar, it's more than 700 Baht but at least they have this meter. And when we waited the driver, another taxi driver came to us and said "OK, 700 Baht" and we said yes immediately. We afraid if we couldn't reach airport on time.

Jungceylon

had dinner at airport, 159 Baht

Flight to Bangkok took about 1,5 hours, and still I need to prepare my ear also hope would be okay. At Don Mueang Airport, we took taxi to our hotel near Rajamanggala Stadium, location for the concert. It cost about 375 Baht, no need to worry taking taxi from airport because they will use meter and the airport officer already manage it. Since you took taxi from airport, you need to pay surcharge driver 50 Baht and toll fees 120 Baht, the meter is about 225 Baht so total is 375 Baht.

We stayed in Nasa Vegas Hotel, looks fancy from the outside with Family Mart across the hotel which is really good for us haha. We need to pay deposit 500 Baht and when we already get inside the hotel, for me personally I don't really like it, the light was dim, no hot water to drink, no wifi in the room. Beside that it was okay, pretty clean and they provided towel etc, bathroom inside, well it's also cheap though, Rp256,738/room/night for Deluxe Double Room (no free breakfast) so Rp128,270/person/night. We were sooo tired after kind of long journey so get rest and ready for tomorrow :)