Even though food and accommodation are relatively more expensive here day trips are quite reasonable. We paid 400baht for a 2-7pm tour on a long tail boat which started us off at Monkey Island. Even though we are used to macaques back at home it doesn’t stop us getting excited about the native monkeys here which climb down the steep rock sides to steal drinks and food from tourists when they see the boats birth at shore. The stop here is fairly quick but you get enough time to take photos and just watch them ‘monkeying’ around. Our tour didn’t have a guide so Yasmin (having also done this trip before like myself) acted as a guide, telling the rest of the group about Viking Cave and the fact that there are still about 7 locals that reside in this cave who climb insanely tall bamboo scaffoldings to collect birds eggs. Snorkelling at Leh Pileh Bay was not that different to Koh Tao and we saw similar fish here. The highlight of the trip was Maya Bay, regardless of it being so touristic it is still a divine place with crystal clear water and a white sandy beach, with a row of long tail boats birthed at shore (I always find long tail boats with their bright coloured ribbons so pretty). It was picture perfect
We walked through the mountainous rocks where “The Beach” was filmed, luckily there were not that many tourists at the time we went which was a bonus as you can appreciate it’s natural beauty much more.
After watching the sunset sat on the boat we waited until dark to see the plankton. Max swam next to the boat and we could see the tiny blue illuminated plankton swim around him.