Sleepaboard in Maya Bay

 

The Beach. It’s a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio about...well I’m not quite sure because I haven’t watched the movie to be honest. However that is beside the point. The beach features one of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand, Maya Bay. This of course attracts heaps of tourists every day, almost to the point of not being able to even see the beach. It used to be possible to avoid the crowd by camping there overnight, but that has since been made illegal. Many people opt to hire an early morning boat to get there for the sunrise and beat the mass of tourists. That is the third best option for visiting this slice of paradise. The first and second are hosted by Maya Bay Tours. The second best option is their Plankton Tour where you arrive at the end of the tourist rush, stay for dinner and have a swim with the bioluminescent plankton. That tours big brother is the best option for experiencing all that Maya Bay has to offer. The Maya Bay Sleepaboard was one of the major highlights of my month in Thailand.

 

We left Koh Phi Phi at around 3pm. We didn’t go straight to Maya Bay though. They took us to a snorkel spot and set us on our way for a good while. The water was a tad bit cloudy, but the underwater life was beautiful as always.

 

From there they drove us around the back of the bay where there was a lookout that looked quite like a pirate’s nest. When we did reach the beach there were still a good amount of tourists around. The leaders told us to take a look around the island for some time while the day trippers cleared out. There is actually much more to the island than the beach. The walk to the other side of the island to the pirate’s look out nest is through tropical forest landscape. Granted it wasn’t as dense as some of the other walks I’ve been on in the forest, but it was beautiful none the less.

 

The lookout point was nice. Nothing to write home about, but

interesting and worth the look. On the way back I took a different path to the beach and was rewarded with interesting looking plant life that had descriptions on boards nearby.

 

The sunset was one of the most beautiful ones I saw while I was in Thailand. A group of us ended up working our way through the water to a small cave of sorts to get the best view. We all got

so many beautiful pictures as we stood there and watched as day turned slowly into night. While we enjoyed this time, our feet did not. The waves were rolling up rocks that occasionally ran into our feet.

 

 

First dinner was delicious! We had a decently spicy curry with rice. Most of the group decided to get the one free bucket that is included in the trip. I stuck with water since I can’t handle spicy to save my life. Though after dinner I joined in the fun. We all walked around talking. Getting to know each other.

 

Not long after dinner our leader gathered us around in a rather

large circle to play King’s Cup. Most interesting game of King’s I’ve ever played. Note to self, 22 people is too many for a round of King’s. It was still a blast though! Waterfalls were very confusing, but that just meant we got to drink more. After this one of the girls brought out her hula hoop and another a set of poi. The two of them gave quite the show. What was even better though were the people who gave poi a try for the first time. There are few things funnier than people flailing their arms and then whacking themselves in the head with poi balls. As I mentioned before, one free bucket was included in the tour. Each bucket after was 250 baht. I was running low on cash, but luckily they didn’t skimp on the alcohol so I managed to get by.

 

While we were all being entertained our hosts had been preparing dinner number two. For me this was the better of the two simply because it wasn’t spicy so I could thoroughly enjoy it. We feasted of BBQ meat, garlic bread and a vegetable mix. We returned to our mats and continued socializing. The entertainment resumed not long after.

 

If you have seen Life of Pi I’m sure you have an image in your head about what these bioluminescent plankton are going to look like. Every movement of your hand is going to light up the water in a beautiful neon color. Just as the rest of his story was a tall tale, so is the depiction of that experience. This is not to say that the plankton aren’t cool, especially when you use a mask to look under the water. A better description of what you will see with the plankton is that they look like shooting stars in the water. If you make fast movements you will see little glowing sparks.

 

The rest of our nighttime, that turned into morning hours was spent doing anything we liked. Some continued playing with the poi. Others picked up new drinking games. One of which was Animals, one of the easiest drinking games I have played. One by one, and couple by couple the group slowly dwindled as everyone took their mats, pillows and blankets to find a place on the beach to sleep. Usually the tour doesn’t get to sleep on the beach, but occasionally when the water is rough the coast guard allows the company to have its guest sleep in the shore.

 

6am wakeup call was far from pleasant. The rising sun however was quite nice to wake up to. We all packed up our stuff and spent the rest of our time relaxing on the still empty beach. Most of us dozing off, although one guy got in a swim. Before we left we took their token jumping picture. Well, we took about 12 jumping pictures so everyone could get one on their cameras and phones.

 

Breakfast was served on the boat; scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. Simply, delicious and perfect for a morning after drinking. We arrived back at the dock right on time and said our farewells.

 

It was such an amazing experience! Having a beach all to ourselves with just 20 people is not something you find often in such a touristy area. The people were great. The food was delicious. Our guides were a ton of fun. Overall one of the best experiences I have had in my travels thus far!