Ao Nang

The last stop on our tour is a touristy city on the main land. It has lots of shops and restaurants along a long beach. It’s pretty busy compared to the other spots we’ve been. 

I took the optional tour to go out to the Phi Phi Islands for the day. They are absolutely beautiful, but I wouldn’t recommend going. It feels like every tour boat does the same couple stops at the same time. It was very crowded- and again apparently this is nothing compared to pre Covid numbers. 

First off was a speed bot ride to Maya Bay. Made famous and heavily damaged by filming The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, it has slowly recovered. During the lock down the park staff noticed the return of black tipped sharks so they decided to ban swimming in the water. The bay is a gorgeous colour with high limestone walls around it. And we saw a baby shark swim close to shore!!

The next stop was another lagoon for a short swim, then we cruised past Monkey Beach and the Viking Cave. We saw the monkeys but not the wall art of an apparent Viking ship. The cave isn’t hope to tourists, though people do harvest birds nests from that cave. 

We had a quick snorkel stop before going to Phi Phi Don for lunch. It’s the largest of the Phi Phi islands and has some hotels and shops there. Another lovely beach but it was cheek to jowl with speedboats. 

Finally we went to Bamboo Island for another swim and snorkel spot. We parked on the beach for an hour and it was really a lovely spot to sit in the warm waters and chat. 

We are back on the boat now, racing back to Ao Nang. This will be our last night of the tour. And I’ve made an impulsive appointment for tonight- I’m getting a bamboo tattoo!!