Beautiful sunrise. The air outside the room is as cool as we are in the room with air-con (with birds singing)
Jeat is having some local fruits for supplement during breakfast. FYI, the restaurant is on the 2nd floor where we can enjoy the view next to the swimming pool while having our food.
After having breakfast at the hotel (buffet style with lots of selection including Asian & Western dishes), we wait at the hall for pickup to our 1st day trip, visit to the islands! It is important to keep the receipt for the trip purchase to avoid mixup with other tour agents. Our pickup truck arrived about 8.00am lead us to our destination, Ao Nang Beach.
Pic taken during the journey to the seaside with a foreign tourist who's doing backpack around Asia countries. FYI, his age is far more younger than me...... Wish I did such act before T.T
Sighting during the journey
The journey toke about 20 minutes but it seems like a glance to reach Ao Nang Beach. The seaside view is so nice where the long beach is covered by soft sand & the sea is like so wide for the 1st time I feel like wanna hug the sky.
Beautiful beach view at Ao Nang. Speed boats stopped by waiting for tourist groups
There are shops all the way along the roadside where you can find all sorts of goodies like swimming & diving gear, sun block (I personally recommend NIVEA), restaurants, cybercafe & even massage centre. There are hotels & resorts which offers various price range, so best is stay at Ao Nang beach where you can enjoy unbeatable seaside view while enjoying your massage & lunch/dinner!
Jeat & I headed to the front of the boat. As expected, the front of the boat is the most rocking seats as when the speed boat accelerating, the front part will get tose up & smack down back to the sea surface when encountering countless of small & big waves :P We shout like 2 mad man while snapping photos.
Some miniature islands along side looks special & some even got funny names like Chicken Island because the shape of the rock looks alike the chicken head......
Our 1st stop is at the beautiful island surrounded by natural bay called Maya Bay. Lots of people gathered at the beach side and the place seems a bit packed. There are even film shooting scene for Bolywood (I guess I'm correct as there are Indian songs playing at the background with Indian actors dancing at the front & many more foreign girls wearing bikinis at the back as supporting dancers......).
Shops all along the roadside next to the beach. You can find McDonalds here too!
FYI, we've joined the Phi Phi Islands tour offered by Barracudas Tour, one of the tourist agency located at Ao Nang beach. You can actually come over to Ao Nang beach & look for your desired tour, like sea tour, river tour or exploration tour, but to play safe it is always prefer to book earlier at least 1 day in advance to secure your seat.
Our tour is not that pack as it is not peak season during October. Once the tour guide confirmed the amount of people, we head to the speed boat. The tour guide reminded us to remember the speed boat number & color as there are so many speed boats conducted by other tour agency.
View at the front of the speed boat. For sure you can't hear us screaming!
Some miniature islands along side looks special & some even got funny names like Chicken Island because the shape of the rock looks alike the chicken head......
The Chicken Island. Seems more like Turkey or Peacock to me from this angle :P
Heading to the 1st pit stop
Our 1st stop is at the beautiful island surrounded by natural bay called Maya Bay. Lots of people gathered at the beach side and the place seems a bit packed. There are even film shooting scene for Bolywood (I guess I'm correct as there are Indian songs playing at the background with Indian actors dancing at the front & many more foreign girls wearing bikinis at the back as supporting dancers......).
Look at the crystal clear water......
The view of the bay from the beach......You don't see the truth yet
I can only show 1/5 of the people on the island......
There are rules where the total number of people on the island needs to be control thus we are only allowed to stay on the island for 30 minutes max to give rooms for next comers. Since no bargain can be made, we managed our time the most efficient manner......10 mins at the beach side, 10 mins explore the island, and remaining time just lay at the white sand and do nothing.
Sign board showing toilet resides within the bushes......Something like crouching human hidden toilet?
The view from a high point
Kampung boy attempting to climb the rocks (kids, don't try this elsewhere)
Natural stones formation creates a cozy place for us to hang around from direct sunlight exposure (ignore the guy in the pic......)
Soon the tour guide is urging his 'sheeps' to go back on the boat once the time is up. We head to next exciting spot where we can do snorkeling.
Photoshot with one of the local girl named Phat (If I'm not mistaken?) Jeat is so happy :P
We reached the place called Pi Leh Bay which is a beautiful spot in the middle of the sea next to some islands. The water is so clear where we managed to see various type of fishes with different shape, size & colors surrounding us when we snorkeling. Too bad I felt dizzy after 15 minutes & I tried my best to get back on the boat. I guessed I can't get used to sea swimming where you need more energy to counter the waves & direct exposure to sunlight causes me de-hydrated. Luckily there are plenty of supplies of mineral water on the boat thus I'm rebirth :P
Pi Leh Bay
My face became so pale. Actually I still feel bit dizzy after consumed some water, but still need to show a happy face in front of the camera (must be professional, right?)
We stayed at Pi Peh Bay for about 30 minutes, then we head to a famous spot which was filmed in "The Beach" starred by Leaonardo. We can't land our foot there as there was no suitable spot to do so thus we snap photos from the boat.
"The Beach" where shooted here
On the way to our next location we passed by some forbidden village build within the rocks.
Small village believed were once stayed by fishermens
Next we head to Phi Phi Don, an island with most of the population where the major source of income is tourism. We had our delicious Thai cuisine meal and we are spared for about half an hour to wonder around before we leave. We managed to bought some small items for souveniour. By the time we leaved, I was told that at least half of the sutface of the island were destroyed during last Tsunami. Due to the hardwork of the villages, the tourist centre were reformed within short period of time.
Without delay, we were brought to another snorkeling spot. This time is the open sea! Jeat hoped in the water without hesitation, not for me :) I stayed on the boat enjoying the watermelon slices and coke offered by the tour guide (can't wait till they come up).
Many small green stripe fishes wondering around
The best part was when I was wondering where should I dispose the watermelon skins after finished, the tour guide instructed me to throw them into the sea to feed the fishes! Wow, that was the first time I heard such act. With some doubt, I throwed the first piece into the sea and guess what, all the fishes rushed to the piece and finished it off within seconds!
All the fishes were fighting for the watermelon skin......You have to see the video clip to believe it!
After about 20 minutes later, the tour guide called all of them back to the boat where we're going to another place called Monkey Bay.......Yeah you're right, this place is really fulled of monkeys and we were not allowed to land on the island for safety precaution (which is different from another group of tourist where they attempted to go near the monkeys). Still I preferred such viewing from the distance.
Monkeys scattering around the shore. Beware as the monkeys are untamed and might harm visitors when they attempt to steal food from human
Finally, our last stop of the day is Bamboo Island......Nope, it is not full of bamboos. It is an island with long white beach and for those who prefer snorkeling so much like Jeat, it is a perfect place where you can see beautiful coral reef . Since we finished previous places beyond schedule, we were allowed to wonder freely on Bamboo Island for one hour plus.
Jeat who can't wait to head to the sea again......
Boats stopping by the beach creates a harmonic scenery
The sky, the sea and the land before heavy rain
FYI, this was the mark where the sea water rises during Tsunami......
The weather changed within short time as the sky turns dark as grey clouds gathered. Luckily we get to finished our time allocated fully before the heavy rain actually hit us. During the journey heading back to the shore, rain started to form and those who sitted outside the boat had no place to go but to get wet. It's ok as I take it as another special experience :)
Another speed boat rushing back to the shore
The time when we reached the shore was about 6.00pm. We managed to meet up with some folks who we met during morning ride and joined different trip. We shared the great experiences during the journey back to the hotel. For dinner, we had instance noodles which we bought from 7 Eleven earlier (Yum yum). It was a stormy night but nothing change our mood as we sat at the balcony and drinking beers. The life is so enjoyable and we can't wait for tomorrow's next trip :)
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