Hey y’all!

So last entry I shared with you all my favourite things to go (and eat!) in Koh Phi Phi, but today I’m gonna go a little more in depth and share with you our day spent exploring the ocean and neighbouring islands! There’s like endless trips you can choose from out of Koh Phi Phi, since there’s soooooo many different islands surrounding it and all sorts of activities depending on what your interests are. Depending on what you choose for yourself, you can go snorkelling, scuba, hiking, kayaking, sightseeing, and more!

For our particular trip, we chose to take a half day afternoon tour to Bamboo Island and the local Monkey Beach, with activities that included snorkelling and kayaking. However, if you go on longer trips you’d likely have more options of places to go see, such as Phang Nga Bay (which has a certain likeness to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam) or possibly even non-beach access to Maya Bay (I’m really not too sure about this one, as I know the beach has been closed off until 2021 to recover from tourists. However, I got the chance to go back in 2014 and it was really spectacular, so if you get the chance to go I’d really recommend it — just be sure to be very respectful and don’t go anywhere you shouldn’t or do anything that may cause more damage to the natural habitat. Anyways, sorry for the rant. Let’s continue!)

Stop #1: Bamboo Island!

For our first stop, we travelled out to Bamboo Island and spent an hour just offshore. We were offered options to both snorkel and kayak; you could also kayak to shore and check out the beach or kayak to other nearby reefs, so long as you didn’t go too far. Not only were the reefs stunning, but the beach was lovely and getting the chance to just leisurely paddle around the waters was incredibly relaxing.

Stop #2: To The Reef!

After that, we hopped back on the boat and headed off to another reef. Me and Nylah both opted to stay on the boat for this one and take some time to just chill, however the others were also given the chance to snorkel out to some rocks and reefs over the course of another hour.

Stop #3: To The Monkey Beach!

The third stop of our trip was easily my favourite. We stopped just offshore of some very isolated beaches out on a point from Phi Phi, and kayaked ashore to see monkeys in their natural habitat. This was in no way a zoo or an attraction, so the number of monkeys (if any) that you got to see just depended on the days and your luck. So luckily for us, two monkeys came down to eat the watermelon we had to offer them — and they hung out for a bit afterwards as well! When we all went a bit further down the beach to explore, we saw another beach, which you could kayak to but not land on, just a short ways away with even more monkeys. We pulled up just in time to witness not only a whole bunch of monkeys in their natural habitat, but also baby monkeys with their moms as well!

After this, we headed back to the dock and finished up our journey. For those looking for lots of adventure, you can take whole day trips from Phi Phi as well. Our trip ended just around sunset, allowing us to get a lovely view just as we pulled into the bay and went to dock. For anyone looking to visit the Phi Phi Islands, I’d highly recommend taking a boat tour — there’s so much available to see and do and endless islands to chose from and visit.

And that’s all for Koh Phi Phi! Stay tuned to hear all about my (tragically) last stop on my South East Asia trip — Bangkok part 2! I’ll be sure to cover way more and go way more in depth the second time around as we actually have a plan and time to explore.

Love,

Meredith