Maya Bay, AKA “The Beach”

Its easy to get to Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta from Krabi, but I was warned they are completely dead now because of the low season. So instead I opted for another island tour which included somewhere I really wanted to visit, Maya Bay.

The first stop on the Phi Phi Islands tour was randomly on the water, and I wondered why we were stopping. “OK, everyone into the water!”, awesome. This was a really cool spot for snorkling, large coral, loads of fish, and they threw bread into the water to attract them. It was funny as I was the only foreigner on the boat, and, as all the locals were getting into the water, the guide gave them all life jackets. He then looked at me and just said he lets go, he himself without a jacket, knowing I didn’t really want or need one haha. It’s interesting too that many Thai people cannot swim, even many of those whose livelyhood is based around the water! Crazy.

I got talking to a Thai couple on the boat, and they had a waterproof camera so he took a photo of me from the water too – its not a crazy hat I’m wearing by the way, its just the odd positioning of the boat! I think they and most of the boat were on a tour from Bangkok and it wasn’t that cheap by the sounds of it, so foreigners don’t get it that bad

Next stop, Maya Bay!! Why am I so excited about this place? Because it was the location for the film “The Beach” with Leonardo De Caprio. For a traveler and film buff this movie obviously appeals to me. In the film, the beach is suggested to be completely surrounded by the mountains (and I would guess the theory is it does connect to the ocean underwater via caves, else there wouldn’t be sharks and waves and it wouldn”t really be a beach!) and so no one knows about it. That is until a few backpackers find it and start their own secret lives there, until trouble starts with locals who are running a large scale marijuana plantation on the isalnd! But that isn’t the case with Maya Bay, the cliffs do largely circle the bay, but there is a break in the mountains where all the boats come through, along with the rest of the ocean, and no, there are no hash plants that we saw. This location is also the spot of a Thai Tourism poster that the girl at our awesome guesthouse PK Mansions worked at! This was an international campaign and she is on the center of it right on this location We were lucky enough to watch the film on the bus back to Bangkok and I noted the angles etc they used when framing the bay so it does look closed off, no doubt with a little help from post!

After the beach we went to Phi Phi Don (Ko Phi Phi is actually a group of small islands) for a great buffet lunch and they had prepared some extra veggie options just for me! So thats all I actually saw of Phi Phi, then to Ko Pai Beach for more snorkling swimming. I saw one larger and fatter fish than I had earlier or the day before and tried to follow it but he was camoflaged well and I lost him. No idea what type of fish it was.

For our last night in Krabi we started in style, with street buckets! He wanted us to buy the bucket itself and we said no we’ll just drink it right here on the kerb and give the bucket back to you. We said bye to the bar we’d been hitting a few nights and played some pool, and then stopped by the Traveler’s Bar. This is a cheap bar run by an English guy, and he has….. an N64 for Goldeneye with 2 controlers and a plasma! Awesome! Greatest multi-player game ever. PS: I’ll never be beaten on proximity mines haha

Then walking back there were loads and loads of wannabe Bogong Moths floating around. Must have been the weather change or something but they were everywhere! But yeah, they’re no Bogongs

Bangkok, Round 2 »« Hong Island, Thailand