Day 11 - 2/1/10 - Island Snorkeling

Today was a day of Island hopping! We signed up for a Phi Phi Islands tour. This tour was going to go to Maya Bay (known from the movie Beach), Hing Klarng open sea snorkeling, Phi Phi Don Island for lunch, Monkey Bay - to see some monkeys, Lohsamah Bay for snorkeling & finally Bamboo Island for a wonderful swim. The tour was a full day event from 9 am until 5 pm.
We got picked by a speed boat at our hotel and after 45 minutes of a bumpy ride of a lifetime (we sat in the front, somewhat more bumpy there), we end up at our first destination - Maya Bay.
Luckily, were one of the first boats to get there but what was at first a serene bay have turned very shortly into a nightmare. Well, actually we decided to view it as very interesting and entertaining instead. It was comical how many boats and how many people could fit on this tiny beach! It was almost like being on a New York sidewalk during busy time of the day. We were little worried as we thought that all of our stops would be like this one, but luckily that was not the case!
Our next destination was Pileh Bay - wonderful secluded lagoon & the Viking Cave - both of these we just looked at from the boat.
The next stop was Monkey Bay to see... you guessed it.. monkeys and then finally - snorkeling. It was open water snorkel near Phi Phi Don island and it was great. Not the best that we have seen but still very beautiful.
We had lunch at Phi Phi Don with some island exploration and after another snorkeling stop we arrived on Bamboo Island. It was so beautiful there and the beach so white and the water azure blue - just like paradise!
Eventually, this wonderful island experience had to end and we found ourselves back in our hotel room with a delicious cocktail in our hand. Ahhhh...
We freshened up and went on to explore the East Railay Beach area by our hotel. We got there during its low tide time and it was something. For whatever reason the tides here are very extreme and the water line moves by about 300 feet. This change makes East Railay into a stinky, muddy mess of mangrove trees. The very busy restaurants on Railay West are replaced here with an empty seats all around and restaurant staff begging for any business at all. After reviewing this area we decided that it may be best if we have our dinner on the West side.
We went to the Sand Sea Resort Restaurant. We knew from before that this restaurant is was Muslim owned so we came armed with shot bottles of vodka in our pockets as they don't serve alcohol. This restaurant is one of the most exciting restaurants we have ever been to. Ordering is the easy part but what comes to you thereafter is always a surprise. Our first round of mocktails never showed up but Chris' meal came instead. So we ordered another round of drinks and half an hour later I got my meal followed finally, by our drinks! Our friends told us that we were actually lucky because one of their meals never showed up. Although we almost got somebody else's order three other times. Oh, did I mention that this restaurant has about 15 tables and about 20 waiters, including couple of ladyboys. It was very entertaining.