Our alarm went off at 7am. We struggled out of bed and ate some of the food we had bought at the 7 Eleven the night before. The mini-bus collected us and two other groups from Patong, then drove to the boat at Chalong Bay. This photo is Greg waiting for the bus taken with my phone. Our room was the balcony on the left below the top floor bay window.

The mini-bus drove us past a number of other beaches which had resorts, but seemed much less frenetic. The roads between the beaches over the headlands were steep. We arrived at a cafe and waited a short time for for others to arrive. We were given free coffee, but it was instant. We also had to pay an extra 100B each to hire flippers, only mask and snorkel was included. I notice someone has a NSW drivers license in his wallet. We took the opportunity to buy a disposable underwater camera that the cafe was conveniently selling.

Down to the beach and to the boat. Monica,our guide, introduced herself as we started out. On top of a hill I noticed a structure covered in scaffold which appeared to be a large Buddha. It was the 45m high Mingmongkol Buddha was about 80% complete. The bay was dotted with resorts.

On the way to Ao Maya (Maya Bay) on Koh Phi Phi Leh (the southern of the two islands) we passed a few steep sided islands, fishing boats and other speed boats. The ride was fast with 3 powerful outboards driving us. The pilot and crew appeared to be three brothers, the two older ones taking turns steering. We could see Phuket Town with tall buildings and TV antennae in the distance.

Arriving at Maya Bay we entered a lagoon surrounded by high cliffs with a beautiful white beach at one end and water that tropical blue. The beach was already full of boats and tourists. This is where The Beach was filmed. Our boat edged its way between the other speed boats to get us close to the shore. The long tail boats clustered at the other end of the beach. The sand was fine and white and soft. Up close the cliffs were covered in mud with cigarette butts stuffed into the crevices. The rocks were covered in tiny shells. There was a track leading to a toilet surrounded by lush vegetation. We just wandered around the beach ant took photos for a while until it was time to leave.

Next stop was snorkeling. We stopped in a shallow bay, Loh Samah Bay, with an island guarding part of the entrance and again surrounded by cliffs. We dropped anchor with a few other boats and were invited to look at the coral. From the boat it didn't look as if there was much there, but once we got into the water it was all revealed. I identified Parrot Fish, Wrasse, Butterfly fish, black and yellow Zebra fish which swam around in schools, soft corals, a large sea slug. Another fish I call the fashion fish which had checks on the top half and stripes on the bottom half in two shades of brown. We floated around for a while enjoying the sights. Greg had the camera and tried to dive down to take close-ups.

After the snorkelling we headed further around the island and into Pileh Bay, another lagoon almost closed to the sea. There were a few long-tail boats anchored around the entrance. Beautiful clear water and steep limestone cliffs. We motored slowly around the bay and then continued on our tour.



Next we went past Viking Cave which is now closed to the public, so we only saw it from a distance. It is famous for ancient paintings that resemble Viking boats, and as the place where the nests are harvested for bird's nest soup. Because of over-harvesting the swiftlets who build the nests are now a protected species. We could see some of the bamboo used as scaffolding, but not much more.

We then crossed to Koh Phi Phi Don where we stopped to visit the monkeys. There was a narrow beach with a few trees backed by the ubiquitous cliffs. A number of boats were pulled up at various places. We disembarked to find monkeys in the trees and ambling along the ground. One of the crew started feeding them bananas cut in half which they grabbed and ran a short distance to eat. They peeled the skin back with their hands, so like our own. Sometimes a larger monkey would snatch a banana away from a tourist or another monkey.

Then they started giving the monkeys drinks. Someone held out a bottle of water and the monkey would grab the mouth of the bottle with their hands and drink. I saw one monkey snatch a bottle and scurry away with it. As the bottle was upside down all the water was gone before the monkey tried drinking again. This explained why there were so many empty bottles littering the beach.

We stopped a bit further around Ton Sai Bay and did a bit more snorkelling before lunch. The coral was a bit broken here, but one section in particular had a lot more colour, especially blue tips. Here the schools of zebra fish swam around you allowing you to almost touch them. Saw a puffer fish and an algae encrusted bottle.

We had a buffet lunch at a hotel on Koh Phi Phi Don overlooking Ton Sai Bay. There was a large sailing ship furling its sails in the bay. We ended up on a table of Australians, three Sydney North Shore boys (it was their drivers license I had spotted earlier) and a couple from Melbourne. There was also a guy from the US, most recently Texas. They served chicken and cashews, sweet and sour chicken, fish cocktails and a fish curry, all of which was ordinary, spaghetti bolognase, which we didn't try, and a nice Tom Yum soup.

After lunch we went to walk to the other side of the island. We were on the sandy isthmus between the mountainous parts of the island and Loh Dalum Bay was only a couple of hundred meters. On the way we stopped at a market stall where Greg bought a t-shirt and I bought fisherman's pants. The clothes were a bit more diverse than at Patong Beach, where everything was Diesel and Billabong.

We didn't have long left before we had to be back on the boat, so we hurried through the rest of the markets to Loh Dalum beach. The beach was again full of chairs and umbrellas. The view, however, was spectacular. We still had about 10 minutes so we started back. There was a large vacant area that was starting to be built on again. We assumed that this was all destroyed by the tsunami. One one side they appeared to be building an outdoor restaurant. On the other side were less permanent structures and vegetable gardens.

We went back through to where we were meeting the boat with just enough time for Greg to buy some beads. When we got there the boat was still anchored out in the bay. We wandered around the immediate area which was much more developed and lush for another 5 or 10 minutes until we could board.

Time to start towards home. Next stop was Koh Khai or Egg Island, but there was lots of scenery on the way there as we went between the two islands.



Koh Khai Nok is a smaller island with one end rocky and the other two thirds beach. Again chairs were lined up, but there was a market here also, many stalls selling drinks and a few selling souvenirs and jewellery. Greg went snorkelling while I used up one of the batteries on the camera. The coral was damaged near the shore, probably from too many people, but was better further out. Lots of beautiful fish.



After our exertions we relaxed in the shade while Greg had a beer and I had a coconut. Then it was time to head back to Phuket. Photographers had taken photos of us both when we started out in the morning and when we arrived at Koh Phi Phi for lunch. The photos from lunch were printed on some cheap bit of plastic. The ones from the morning were framed and actually not bad. They were selling them from a table set up on the beach and we bought one of each of us.

The mini-bus dropped off the Australian couple at a very flash hotel before delivering us to the entrance of the soi. Outside the flash hotel there was a sign that said Drunks Crossing with a silhouette of someone crawling. "We must come back and get a photo of that." We never did get back there even though we were headed that way on Saturday, but, hey, that's what the Internet's for!


After we showered it was too early for dinner so we went up to Jungceylon where there was advertised an arts and crafts expo. Jungceylon was a brand new shopping centre that had opened in January. (I discovered as I was writing this over Easter that the grand opening was on that weekend.) The forecourt had palm trees swathed in lights. But the downstairs was barricaded off. We went inside the ground floor where there were shops more like we were used to with some more interesting clothes and other things. We discovered another entrance to downstairs and went down to find jewellery, art, furniture, dolls and all sorts of other things. Greg fell in love with an elephant inlaid with Swarovski crystal for only 38,000B, but settled for buying a postcard.

Upstairs was an exhibition of artist Nukoon Panyadee. We both liked his work. I thought it had a an Impressionist feel, but seen through rain smeared glass. I particularly liked a series called After The Rain.

On the way back to the hotel we discovered a clothing shop Wiwat Wis with lots of stuff I liked. We planned to go back, the shop was closed when we tried. There was also a jewellery shop nearby that Greg wanted to go back to. Same story.

We got back to Connect at about 8pm, when the buffet was intended to start. We were the only ones there. There were about ten dishes of OK food. We stayed for drinks after dinner and slowly the bar filled up, some people eating, others only drinking. We moved closer to the soi so we could watch the action. The Spartacus boys were wearing white singlets and blue jeans tonight.

At the next table was a skinny boy in a green t-shirt and short curly hair with a mobile phone glued to his ear. Boy, one of the staff, sort of offered to massage me again rather timidly. Green t-shirt's friends started arriving. Eventually we got into conversation, particularly with a guy with an open shirt and a catholic cross.

Meanwhile the fire eater from Apache bar did his trick, and the staff of Tangmo Club did their routine. This consisted of the boys lining up and doing a few steps then turning round and doing it again. Some of them the looked rather bored doing this. Then some kathoey (ladyboys) and male dancers did a bit of a show.

Eventually a couple of the boys from the next table dragged us up to My Way to watch the show there. The kathoey and male dancers did a few numbers. After that the gogo boys/hosts all got up on stage in white shorts. Each had a number so you could easily select your favourite.