Krabi Day 2 - Phi-phi Island tour

In Krabi, the more common one day island excursions are The Hong islands, 4 islands and Phi phi island. 

The islands closest to Aonang would be the 4 islands which includes the chicken island, poda island, koh tup and koh Mawr whereas The Hong Islands is part of National Marine Park, can be reached within 20 minutes by speedboat or 40 minutes by longtail. Since it's a rather short trip, we have decided to only go for one island tour in Krabi - the Phi Phi island (also named as the jewel of Andaman Sea) given the good reviews on tripadvisor.

We managed to secure a tour at 1200baht/pax with Aonang Orchid Tour from one of the tour operators at the Aonang main street. Given that we were assured it is with licensed speedboats, we settled with that price without much bargain despite some other tours offering cheaper rates (cheapest at 900baht/d).

The Phi-phi islands lie around 45 kilometer from Aonang and would take about 45 minutes to 1 hour journey by speedboat. Given the distance of travel into the occasionally rather rowdy waves of Andaman sea, it can only be reached by speedboat/ferry. We were picked up at 830 am from our hotel into a truck to the pier before allocated to our speedboat. We were on a 4-engine speedboat with 30 odd other passengers.

me and bro on the truck ferrying us to the pier!

 before departing off the Andaman Sea

The 45 minutes journey was a mixture of exhilaration and relaxation with occasional splashes of sea water, smacked right onto our faces when the waves were rough. It was a whole lot of fun even on the boat, you'll never know when the bumpy ride will come and when the water will start splashing in!

Our first stop was bamboo island, however due to strong waves deterring the boat to stop at the shore, our guide decided to detour to next stop instead at Monkey bay where we were given 45 minutes for snorkeling session in open water. Being a rather beginner in swimming, i was rather worried to go down alone (my dad, the only swimmer in the family, was down with cold and chose not to snorkel instead), so there i was, standing with the snorkeling gears at the edge of the boat until one of the crew on the boat dragged me down with assurance that he would bring me around. It was indeed a good experience swimming/floating along with colorful fishes although it was a rather disappointing view of limited live corals (mostly destroyed due to tsunami years ago).

After the 45 minutes of snorkel, our second stop was the stunningly beautiful Maya bay which was made famous by The Beach (Leonardo Dicaprio! :D) filmed in 1999. It is sheltered by tall cliffs on the sides leading to rather calm sea in turquoise with clear white sands. Beautiful but definitely not secluded with more than 100 tourists crowding the 200-300 meters beach and 20-30 other speedboats parked at the beach, it was... not a good experience.

that's Maya bay for you; views that is always obstructed by boats!

After a 40 minute stop at Maya bay, we proceed to another round of snorkeling at the open sea.

Lunch was at Phi Phi Don, the only inhabited island for a disappointing canteen styled lunch which was stated as an unlimited buffet spread. We had a quick lunch and then off to the beach for a short round of swimming.

phi phi don

After lunch, we were bought around for sightseeing around the viking cave which is now no longer open for tourist visits and is protected by Thai government for swallows breeding.

Our tour then attempted to turn back to Bamboo island which we gave a miss in the morning due to rough waves but with the rather poor weather forecast, our tour guide decided to change the itinerary to Poda Island (which is usually part of the 4 island excursion). It was nice beach for relaxation but the waves were too strong for any proper swimming

Poda island from afar

 We were then led back to the pier upon the end of the tour. It was a tour with fantastic crew, friendly and helpful; however phi-phi island on the whole wa disappointing with ridiculously overcrowded at most of the visit spots. Would I ever revisit the islands, i'd say probably not! Scenic but the crowd was a big turn off, so if you are planning for a trip over, i'd definitely suggest to go on off peak season, probably you'd enjoy better than i do.

till then, cheers!