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           Our second stop was at the mythical Maya Bay, which embodied the dual nature of Phi Phi: beautiful beyond belief and so crowded with tourists the place itself is barely visible. Made famous as the filming location of “The Beach,†hordes of people have since descended on it, kind of like in the book and film. It’s a pale green bay almost completely enclosed by limestone cliffs. Speedboats waited for daytrippers on the left end of the beach, with longtails at the right end, and all manner of pink and sun-burnt people covering the beach. Despite the crowds, I’d still say it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Here’s some photos, you can judge for yourself.
           Following Maya Bay, we saw a couple other bays, stopped for some snorkeling at an offshore reef, and stopped for lunch at Phi Phi Don. There was nothing really to note about the overbuilt Phi Phi Don, except to remember the thousands of people that died there in the Boxing Day Tsunami. Geographically, it was one of the worst hit areas and the casualties were worsened by the fact that tons of Christmas partiers had slept on the beach the night before. The highlight of our afternoon though, was our final stop at Bamboo Island. It was another white sand beach, which curved around the perimeter of the small island. We contented ourselves at one of the far ends of the beach, near a black rocky outcrop of volcanic rock. Coral was more prominent than sand in some places, but the water was warm and clear. It was a peaceful and uncrowded beach, which was the perfect way to wind down our excellent day.
Monkey Beach- not a bad way to start our day…clear water and white powdery sand
Maya Bay, a surreal place
Oh yea, all these people came to see Maya Bay too…
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this is what happens when you drop a banana in the ocean
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and this is what happens when you drop a piece of bread in the ocean…
Bamboo Beach to end our day…