Maya Bay aka “THE Beach”

After we had checked out of our lovely rattan huts on top of the big hill we went for breakfast and the girls went on a mission to find a better place to stay, it had to be good and cheap… which on Ko Phi Phi is pretty damn easy! After about an hour they came back with slim pickings so we thought we would try the place near where we had breakfast (sacha’s guesthouse) and as luck would have it they had 2 rooms left, lovely, clean, cheap and with balconies, we snapped them up and dumped our bags. The walking about with our bags on had made us all gag for the salty sea to cool us off so as soon as we were changed we popped off to the beach, we headed along to a deserted stretch so we had a slice of beach to ourselves and just splashed about in the clear warm sea for a few hours. The beach is in a large bay almost completely surrounded by massive high cliffs covered in trees and bushes and the water is so still and emerald green. We left just enough time for food before the girls had to be at “work” at the Tiger Bar as agreed the night before… They headed off and Toby and I headed for some beers, we popped along to see how they were doing and they were loving it! new people and free drinks so we went to the tiger bar to support our fair ladies and thats where we stayed until they knocked off and we all got fairly hammered and danced the night away!… For the next day we had booked a 3 in 1 tour: cliff jumping, snorkelling with reef sharks and sunset at Maya bay… And by the time we had all got up after the night before it was time to head off. First stop…cliff jumping, there are 4 heights to choose from 8,10,13 and 20 metres and after he had parked the boat and started the climb up the razor like cliffs to the 8m jump we were all already shitting it a bit and knowing that it would be pretty impossible to climb back down what was in effect a massive cheese grater we all flung ourselves off the edge with gusto…and it stung… alot. Toby went back up for the 10 and the 13m jumps but after the 13m he was done and had managed to bust his chin open when the force of the water rammed his necklace into it, and seeing as we were about to go swimming with sharks we all fibbed and told him it was alot smaller than it was so not to scare him too much. The snorkelling was absolutely amazing! we saw so many weird and wonderful fish and even quite a few sharks, the water visibility was probably 30m or so and when its that clear you reall get a sense of how deep and massive the sea is. We were out there for probably an hour just gorping at the fishes and reefs before we headed to the boat again to sea Maya bay. To get to the bay our guide took us to a tiny hole in the rocks about 4ft round where the waves crash against them and we have to swim over and nip through the hole between big waves. Once through everything is so quiet and the cliffs around it are hundreds of feet high, we followed a path through trees for a few minutes until they just stop on a beach…The Beach… It takes your breath away just how beautiful it all is and it takes a few mins and a couple of cigarettes to take it all in. We walked from end to end and just took it in as the sun went down between the cliffs as if it was the only place it was ever meant to be seen going down, then got back in our boat and headed back…