Phuket, Thailand - page three of four

14 to 30 January 2014

Tracey and I had a winter holiday on the island of Phuket, Thailand, the first visit for both of us to the country. The pictures are a mix from both of us and those took by the photographer on the boat tour.

This is the third page of pictures and only covers a boat trip we had round a few islands, including the one where the beach scenes were taken from the film The Beach.

Thursday 23rd January 2014

Tracey and I were up for an early (and light) breakfast so we were ready for the minibus to pick us up and take us to the pier. Due to stops at other hotels, the bus was quite full when we arrived for tea and biscuits at the pier. Other groups merged with ours to make somewhere between 30 and 40 people boarding the On Tour (the uninspiring name of the boat).

Tracey and I were among the first on the speedboat and we immediately headed for the uncovered area at the front.

This caused worry for the guy in charge who seemed to think Tracey was too fragile for the bumpy journey. We convinced him we could handle it, but the fifty minute sail to the first stop was very bumpy – at one point I was flung so hard and bounced back that my whole spine rattled – I was glad I opted for the light breakfast, and it does appear to have loosened my stiff neck a bit, so can’t complain. Here are some picture of us and out fellow travellers on the boat:

The first stop was Maya Beach on Phi Phi Ley island. This was the beach on which the beach scenes from the film The Beach were shot. We had a swim in the sea and a little look round, before back on to the boat – there were a lot of boats and a lot of people.

We were meant to have stopped at Loh Samah bay on the island, but that was missed for some reason, but we did slow down for photo opportunities as we passed Pileh Lagoon and Viking Cave...

...before saying goodbye to Phi Phi Ley and heading for the larger Phi Phi Don. The first call here was the Monkey Beach. We stayed on the boat watching the monkeys on the beach. Some other boats had let people off to feed them but after our previous experiences with monkeys in Malaysia, we were quite glad to watch from afar.

The boat then moored off the coast and everyone donned life jackets and jumped into the sea. Some had snorkelling gear on to admire the fishes and reefs below our feet, but Tracey and I settled for seeing them from above what was very clear water.

Next we docked on Phi Phi Don for lunch...

...before sailing for about three quarters of an hour to Khai Nok Island – Tracey and I were now in the covered part of the boat. On the island, we swam in the sea and this time Tracey wore her snorkelling stuff to see the very colourful fishes just a metre or so from shore. Lots of people were feeding the fish with bread, but that just made the water a bit manky.

And that was that – back on the boat...

...back to the pier...

...back in the minibus and back to the hotel, tired and happy after a splendid day.

Here is the first page of pictures from Phuket.

Here is the second page of pictures from Phuket.

Here are pictures from the James Bond island tour.

Here is an article I wrote about the Phi Phi Island tours.

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