I had awoken at around 4am looking up at the starry sky gently swaying with the boat rocking on the water. It was quite surreal, being in the middle of Maya bay with silence except for the water lapping against the boat. With the dark outlines of the imposing rocks around the bay it was quite eerie. I must of nodded back off quickly as suddenly it was dawn and Laura was whispering for me to wake up, we watched the morning dawn on us quietly for a few minutes before the others started stirring. Everyone then got up and looked on in awe at the wonderful view surrounding us. There were a few people stirring on the other private yachts in the bay and a few had even headed over to the beach, we both keen to make the trip ourselves but the crew seemed completely out of it, likely too many funny fags the night before! We sat and enjoyed the view... well till a completely naked women climbed off one of the boats for a wash in the sea lol... this gave the young thai boys on the boat something to giggle at as they laid down out of view to watch her.

We eventually made our way over to the beach on the boat and it was amazing being one of the few people on there. We got some amazing photos with the obligatory jumping shots which needed a few takes and a few of the untouched sand. we cuddled up on the beach and watched the sun rise fully before Laura collected a small stone for her mums collection (we try and get a stone from our exotic holidays for her to keep). After that wonderful experience we headed back to the boat for some much needed breakfast. The breakfast was delicious and consisted of scrambled eggs, bread and bananas all washed down with tea and coffee. Before departing we did some more snorkelling and myself and Laura went around the bay on a kayak. By this point more boats were now arriving and we duly coasted off and headed back to Phi Phi Don.

The cruise back was a good opportunity to get some shots of Phi Phi Ley and we agreed on the boat we would all meet for lunch later. After the boat docked back at the pier we disembarked and said our thanks to the crew for an amazing experience. At this point we had about 5 hours until our boat left for Koh Lanta so we thought we would explore the town until we met the others at lunch. Trying to haggle here was difficult and it seems the Phi Phi premium came into affect. We stopped for a couple of tea with unlimited refill in this bar/restaurant whilst doing the standard Internet checks... 12pm soon arrived and we met with Todd, Tom, Leah and Mark. Todd and Tom explained to us that had been kayaking out around the bay, they have some fitness levels. We later found out they are both fitness fanatics and actually runs tours hiking and camping down the hand canyon. It sounds amazing but you need a good level of fitness and sign a disclaimer...which neither of us are ready for at the moment. They suggested a restaurant over looking the bay which was quite pricey but we didn't mind as weren't hungry so me and Laura opted for drinks only. It was nice sharing details and we learnt Todd and Tom will be in Cambodia when we are so will defiantly meet up. After the lunch we all said our goodbyes and it was time of the next stage in our trip. We picked up our bags from the office and headed down to the pier to catch our boat to Koh Lanta.

Immediately on the boat one of the crew was trying to sell us his accommodation which we had to explain it was out of our price range. They never stop these Thais haha.... but after explaining about our budget he quickly moved on to some else. The boat was fairly uneventful and took about 1 hour to reach the port of Saladan in Koh Lanta. On disembarking we were then bombarded with taxi and tuk tuk drivers trying to get fares but we bulldozed through to reach our hostel awaiting for us just down the road. Saladan had a very rustic, authentic feel to it which was nice and had some lovely looking bars down the front promenade. We checked into our hostel with minimal fuss and to our surprise our room was spacious and with a good fan pointing right at the bed... Not bad for budget room! After settling in we had a wander through the town past the various tourist eateries. We headed a little further into town to find a more local haunt so to speak. We stumbled along one called 'mamas' and had a mediocre green and panang curry which was relatively cheap but accompanied with many flies buzzing around. The evening consisting on watching 'the beach' and reminiscing about last night... It wasn't long before I was dozing off! I think the past few nights have finally caught up with me!!