We set our alarm for 5.30, and our continental breakfasts were due to be delivered at 5.45. They were late, and they were massive. So many pastries, so much fruit, so much tea and coffee. One would have been too much for both of us. We wrapped some up to take with us.
We got our things together, and were outside reception at 6.30, where we picked up some towels. The shuttle was late, and we realised that it was doing the rounds of all the accommodation. We went over the steep approach at the northern end of Patong, and headed north east, and through the busy morning traffic.
We turned in to the Royal Phuket Marina, which I thought was another accommodation pick up, but was in fact our destination. We were shepherded into a reception area, where a man called Lucky found us - he had our names, and knew we were from Kuoni. This was a good sign. He put pieces of orange wool around our wrists, invited us to sign a danger form, and said he'd call us when it was time to board, so we took a seat on bean bags, and had some water/tasty jam biscuits while we waited.
We saw some other orange wristbands go past us, but the man summoning them was speaking Italian. We got up, and started to follow. Lucky caught up with us and confirmed that we were going the right way. At the big shiny boat, we had our shoes confiscated, and were led right to the front of the boat, where we met John and Patti from the Gold Coast - the only two other English speakers on our boat. We had the front of the boat to ourselves (though an Italian couple joined us due to lack of room), and Lucky was to look after us.
We set off after lots of preparation and boat revving, and got out of the marina, and past the buoys on the canal leading to the islands. And then the boat broke down. So we sat and waited for the new boat, getting increasingly hot and sweaty. It arrived eventually, and we clambered from bow to bow, and took our same places. And set off again. This time, after about an hour of increasingly choppy water, we arrived at Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh, where the Leonardo di Caprio film 'The Beach' was filmed. The water was a perfect turquoise, and the beach is surrounded by high limestone cliffs with the rock at the bottom undercut by the water.
There were about half a dozen boats there already, but the beauty of getting on an 'early bird' tour is that there weren't 50 or 100. We disembarked into the shallow water (shady at that stage), and had a wander with Lucky through the wooded area with huts etc behind the beach to a look-out where you can see the water on the other side. The sand was powdery, until we got to the rocky bit. Ouch. It's all very pristine because it's national park and has been protected.
Back on the beach, we went for a nice swim on the now sunny beach, dodging the rocks under foot. Then after a short sit, it was time to get back on the boat. We had a short journey this time to Viking Cave (also on Phi Phi Leh), where we saw paintings on the rocks of viking ships, and also evidence of where swallows make nests which are harvested for 'bird's nest soup'. We didn't get out of the boat for this stop.
Then it was another short journey to Long Beach on Phi Phi Don (the resort/inhabited island) for some snorkelling. We'd brought our own fins/snorkels/masks, so got in quickly and started exploring. It was a busy area, with quite a few boats around, so the sound of their motors was offputting, but the fish and coral were great. Again, there were lots of sergeant major fish, the odd angel, and we'd been told there'd be black tipped reef sharks. The coral didn't look in too bad a shape. Christian was feeling a bit rough, so we got out relatively quickly. And then Patti and John started talking about having seen the reef sharks beyond where we'd swum. We were never going to get back in, but we saw the camera man chasing them with his camera, and saw the video later. I'm not sure how I would have reacted had I come face to face with one.
When all were back on the boat, we had another very short journey to Monkey Beach, which was around the side of Phi Phi Don. We got off for a short visit to see the macaques - Lucky warned us not to get too close or to feed them. They scattered when we arrived, so we walked up the other end of the beach where they were still around. A few of us walked back up to the boat, and sure enough, the first ones came back. Curious creatures. So human in a lot of ways - soft feet, and intelligent faces. They were mostly very tame, and some were carrying babies. Very interesting stop.
Back on the boat again, we headed even further north to Mosquito Island for our second round of snorkelling. There was no one else there, which was great. The boat pulled up on the beach this time, and I got sand in my fins. This was a better session for me. We followed the skipper as he was on a mission to find clown fish - we saw one set, but others saw more. We saw a banded sea snake, which was quite exciting, giant clams, loads of urchins (Diadema setosum), blue coral, and all sorts of interesting things. Possibly a sweet puffer on this one too. This time we were the last ones back on the boat.
Our last stop was at nearby Bamboo Island for lunch. It was a lovely wide beach, and we found shady spots to spread our towels - it was such a relief to get out of the sun for a while. There were only a few boats at this point. The lunch they put on was excellent - rice and noodles, with a few different meat curry dishes - all cold, but delicious. I ate a massive plate - more than Christian did for once. After a bit of a relax, we went for a swim, and Christian took his snorkel and mask (I'd had enough for the day). He says there were interesting things to see, but I was just happy to soak for a moment.
Back on the boat for the last time, and Lucky told us that we could buy a DVD of the day - video footage and stills that crazy camera guy had been taking all day. We decided to do it as it only worked out at about £30. We agreed to share it with Patti and John, as they weren't going to buy one. We started the hour-long journey back to Phuket, which was fine (no break-downs).
Back at the marina, Christian signed up for the DVD and paid for it, while I got Patti's email address, and Lucky showed us to our minibus transfer back to the resort. It was nearly full, so I asked to sit in the front seat for the drive back. The driver agreed. It was an uneventful journey.
Back at the resort, we dropped off our towels, and collapsed in our room. We had showers and rinsed all our gear. I was pretty burnt - I realised that all that sweating must have taken the sun cream off, despite reapplying it once. Between us, we used an entire bottle of resort moisturiser.
We were feeling pretty lazy after a big day, and so decided to eat the St Patrick's Day buffet in Rim Talay for dinner. It was strange eating green food in the middle of Asia, but it was nice enough (though there were way too many ways to cook potatoes on display). We each had a plate of mostly choc-mint dessert items to finish. Tasty.
I suspect we ended the evening watching some TV on the tablet, and had a fairly early night.
We got our things together, and were outside reception at 6.30, where we picked up some towels. The shuttle was late, and we realised that it was doing the rounds of all the accommodation. We went over the steep approach at the northern end of Patong, and headed north east, and through the busy morning traffic.
We turned in to the Royal Phuket Marina, which I thought was another accommodation pick up, but was in fact our destination. We were shepherded into a reception area, where a man called Lucky found us - he had our names, and knew we were from Kuoni. This was a good sign. He put pieces of orange wool around our wrists, invited us to sign a danger form, and said he'd call us when it was time to board, so we took a seat on bean bags, and had some water/tasty jam biscuits while we waited.
We saw some other orange wristbands go past us, but the man summoning them was speaking Italian. We got up, and started to follow. Lucky caught up with us and confirmed that we were going the right way. At the big shiny boat, we had our shoes confiscated, and were led right to the front of the boat, where we met John and Patti from the Gold Coast - the only two other English speakers on our boat. We had the front of the boat to ourselves (though an Italian couple joined us due to lack of room), and Lucky was to look after us.
We set off after lots of preparation and boat revving, and got out of the marina, and past the buoys on the canal leading to the islands. And then the boat broke down. So we sat and waited for the new boat, getting increasingly hot and sweaty. It arrived eventually, and we clambered from bow to bow, and took our same places. And set off again. This time, after about an hour of increasingly choppy water, we arrived at Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh, where the Leonardo di Caprio film 'The Beach' was filmed. The water was a perfect turquoise, and the beach is surrounded by high limestone cliffs with the rock at the bottom undercut by the water.
There were about half a dozen boats there already, but the beauty of getting on an 'early bird' tour is that there weren't 50 or 100. We disembarked into the shallow water (shady at that stage), and had a wander with Lucky through the wooded area with huts etc behind the beach to a look-out where you can see the water on the other side. The sand was powdery, until we got to the rocky bit. Ouch. It's all very pristine because it's national park and has been protected.
Back on the beach, we went for a nice swim on the now sunny beach, dodging the rocks under foot. Then after a short sit, it was time to get back on the boat. We had a short journey this time to Viking Cave (also on Phi Phi Leh), where we saw paintings on the rocks of viking ships, and also evidence of where swallows make nests which are harvested for 'bird's nest soup'. We didn't get out of the boat for this stop.
Then it was another short journey to Long Beach on Phi Phi Don (the resort/inhabited island) for some snorkelling. We'd brought our own fins/snorkels/masks, so got in quickly and started exploring. It was a busy area, with quite a few boats around, so the sound of their motors was offputting, but the fish and coral were great. Again, there were lots of sergeant major fish, the odd angel, and we'd been told there'd be black tipped reef sharks. The coral didn't look in too bad a shape. Christian was feeling a bit rough, so we got out relatively quickly. And then Patti and John started talking about having seen the reef sharks beyond where we'd swum. We were never going to get back in, but we saw the camera man chasing them with his camera, and saw the video later. I'm not sure how I would have reacted had I come face to face with one.
When all were back on the boat, we had another very short journey to Monkey Beach, which was around the side of Phi Phi Don. We got off for a short visit to see the macaques - Lucky warned us not to get too close or to feed them. They scattered when we arrived, so we walked up the other end of the beach where they were still around. A few of us walked back up to the boat, and sure enough, the first ones came back. Curious creatures. So human in a lot of ways - soft feet, and intelligent faces. They were mostly very tame, and some were carrying babies. Very interesting stop.
Back on the boat again, we headed even further north to Mosquito Island for our second round of snorkelling. There was no one else there, which was great. The boat pulled up on the beach this time, and I got sand in my fins. This was a better session for me. We followed the skipper as he was on a mission to find clown fish - we saw one set, but others saw more. We saw a banded sea snake, which was quite exciting, giant clams, loads of urchins (Diadema setosum), blue coral, and all sorts of interesting things. Possibly a sweet puffer on this one too. This time we were the last ones back on the boat.
Back on the boat for the last time, and Lucky told us that we could buy a DVD of the day - video footage and stills that crazy camera guy had been taking all day. We decided to do it as it only worked out at about £30. We agreed to share it with Patti and John, as they weren't going to buy one. We started the hour-long journey back to Phuket, which was fine (no break-downs).
Back at the marina, Christian signed up for the DVD and paid for it, while I got Patti's email address, and Lucky showed us to our minibus transfer back to the resort. It was nearly full, so I asked to sit in the front seat for the drive back. The driver agreed. It was an uneventful journey.
Back at the resort, we dropped off our towels, and collapsed in our room. We had showers and rinsed all our gear. I was pretty burnt - I realised that all that sweating must have taken the sun cream off, despite reapplying it once. Between us, we used an entire bottle of resort moisturiser.
We were feeling pretty lazy after a big day, and so decided to eat the St Patrick's Day buffet in Rim Talay for dinner. It was strange eating green food in the middle of Asia, but it was nice enough (though there were way too many ways to cook potatoes on display). We each had a plate of mostly choc-mint dessert items to finish. Tasty.
I suspect we ended the evening watching some TV on the tablet, and had a fairly early night.
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