We were never keen on "guided activities". Whether it is a tour, a holiday or a museum visit. We rather do it on our own. Still, a guided speedboat tour is the only way to visit Phi Phi islands when staying in Ao Nang, so we decided to give it a shot. It was about 40EUR, including lunch, snorkeling and boat. They pick you up at around 8.30AM, you are back on time for happy hour at around 5PM.
The first stop is Maya Bay. The dreamy beach, from Leo's movie.
The back side of the island looks a bit more dreamy...
...but the actual bit featured in the movie, is a chaos. Below picture was the best we took - an instagram ready shot of what you would expect
The image below illustrates the sad reality. A stravaganza of Chinese tourists in weird poses, so many boats that you can't even count them, an environmental damage out of control. Luckily, it was recently announced that starting this June, the bay will be shut down to the public for 4 months every year. Similarly, Philippines government plans to lock down Boracay for 6 months starting end of April.
Some consider the Social Credit System being developed in China uber creepy, but hey after all these trips around Asia, it does make a lot of sense to me. Don't get me wrong, I respect China's millenary culture and have excellent Chinese friends. But as a mass, I have consistently observed that middle aged people behavior observed in airports, hotels and tourist sites, is simply unacceptable. The way they spit, shout, jump over queues, touch millenary carvings, disrespect other tourists and locals... The notably large percentage of people who comply to this stereotype, out of the already large volume of tourists is overwhelming. Hence, the simple consequence is that either the destination country blocks them (as seen in Thailand or Boracay) or the home country controls them (as Mr Xi is planning for).
We left Maya Bay quite stressed out, looking forward to the next stop.
During the boat ride, we got a chance for cute pictures as well as to observe the Karst. These rock formations are indeed quite rare. They were created out of limestone - which originated from a living coral reef 100 millions of years ago, which was then dissolved by acidic water (carbon dioxide in the rain). This turned the soluble bedrock into these vertical cliff islets, born out of a chemical process instead of a physical one. There are only 3 places on Earth where you get to see them: Krabi in Thailand, Haolong Bay in Vietnam and the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
We saw many of these from the boat, but I reckon that the most magical experience was to paddle around them from the SUP I rented in Railay - covered in another post.
The boat stopped for pictures at a Karst named Monkey Bay, because of its cute inhabitants. Since the first time I saw monkeys in their real environment, I've been amazed by how humanlike they are.
Then they brought us to this quiet beach for lunch...
...soon after we were back to the boat, for some snorkeling where we got to see more fishes than expected after watching the destruction of Maya Bay...
This beach was our final stop, where I got to spend an hour in the sun. I was shocked to find all the destroyed trees consequence of the 2004 tsunami in the Andaman sea, still thrown around 14 years later!
Again, advice is to go close to the water where there is no shade so you can avoid the tourist mass.
I seemed more or less alone right...
...check the other side of the beach - shade under the palm trees not pictured, but you can imagine.
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