This is a party island. Mornings are relatively quiet while bar staff sweep, mop and clean up the remnants of what was no doubt a wild night and party goers sleep away the aftermath of "bucket drinks".
Happy to see there are only 2 others taking the long tailed excursion with us. Our boat driver(I won't call him a guide cuz he was not friendly or helpful in any stretch of the imagination) sauntered over to the boat and tried to start the engine. No go...after changing out a battery we were finally off.
1st stop, monkey island. Big sign on the rocks said please take your garbage with you. Not the case unfortunately as there was broken glass and garbage down this tiny strip of beach. We did spot one monkey in the tree! Floating on the water were lots of what looked like to us brown jelly fish but guide said they were harmless. This little strip of beach was beautiful and quiet. White pure sand. We watched as one monkey walked on the beach to be soon circled by tourists. Someone gave him a drink and others game him bananas. Cameras and selfie sticks were in the monkeys face, but he seemed to be used to the attention.
Upwards and onwards. The scenery was spectacular as was the water. Such an aqua blue. Next stop was the beach where "the Beach" was filmed starring Leonardo Decaprio. This beach was wall to wall people with tour boats, yachts, long tailed boats, diving boats. Craaaazy busy. 200 baht per person to stop here. I guess it is like paying to get into our national parks. .Miraculously we found a square of sand with a bit of shade. We swam and people watched. Oriental people love it here. They made up probably 80% of the tourists.
Time to move on.
Next we ventured to a spot where we were allowed "1/2 hour snorkel". The fish were colourful and plentiful but the water was wavy because of all the boats zipping into this cove. None the less we really enjoyed this time to float around and be entertained by the fish. Fish were yellow with purple stripes, some a brilliant blue and others camouflaged to the coral beneath. Suddenly we saw lots of stuff floating in the water and we felt things hitting us. Our driver was throwing the pineapple peels into the water. A little afternoon snack for the fish and us. Off to another beautiful area to swim.
Our last stop was more of a drive by near a cave with scaffolding infront of it. Our driver said "Vikings"..we assume maybe people live in the cave?
The boat ride around phi phi lay was nice and we made it back to the island by lunch time.
The afternoon was spent on our balcony while Kristen slept.
By five we put on our running shoes and walked to the view point signs.
Signs were sporadic and we asked along they way, but somehow we approached the bottom of the staircase to "heaven".
Kristen and I sweated while we climbed about 500 steps to the first view point. It really was scenic as we could see the island below and enjoyed a nice garden at the first viewpoint. It was full of flowers and plants. We snapped pictures and carried on to the top viewpoint.
At the top was a large cluster of rocks where travellers were already lined up to watch the sunset. It truly was a beautiful view from atop. We could see out into the admen sea As the orange sunset, and noticed both sides of the island as well as vegetation between the hike was well worth it and we soaked in the view.
The tsunami that hit the island was in 2004 and it wiped out the entire lower part of the island. Anyone on the viewpoint would have watched the devastation but would have been safe. a small memorial with a couple posters and pictures were displayed.
The hike down had our muscles tremor ing and we had worked up an appetite.
We chose a restaurant on the shore for supper. Tables set up in the sand, breeze blowing, soft lights and wonderful food. We were all satisfied with our meals Heading back to our bungalow, too early to go to bed,we decided we deserved another massage. We got 3 full body oil massages for 300 baht each. 12$ Canadian. They did not disappoint. Not only did it feel very relaxing but the oil soaked in easily to our flaking/peeling skin.
Now feeling so relaxed we headed back to our hotel.
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