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.