Keith and Chris came to our rooms to wake us up at 9am (I forgot to mention we stayed in the same guesthouse) so we could go on a boat trip. I wasn't very hungover but I was very tired! We got up and dressed and paid the 450 baht (£9) for our tickets before heading to the pier to get on the boat.
Our first stop was called Shark Point. I don't like the sea at the best of times so although I managed to jump in, it wasn't long before I'd convinced myself a shark was circling me and I got out and watched the others instead!
Our next stop was a national park called Bamboo Island, where we stopped out at sea and could either kayak or swim to shore. I shared a kayak with Keith and we made our way to the beach - it was harder work than I though. The beach was gorgeous - it had the most turquoise water I have ever seen. I did some snorkeling and saw some amazing tropical fish, including long finned banner fish (Gill from the tank in Finding Nemo!) and some other brightly coloured, stripey, spotty and generally cool fish who I collectively named Disco fish, as I didn't know their official names. It was so amazing, I've never seen so many tropical fish before.
Back on the boat we had some lunch of vegetable rice and pineapple which was tasty. The next place was called Mosquito Island. It was a huge, rocky island - we didn't stop there but we just slowed down to take pictures. I am covered in mosquito bites, I even have one on the sole of my foot! They are so itchy and unsightly so I was glad we didn't stop there in case the island lived up to its name and I acquired even more bites.
The next place was called Monkey Beach. We stopped out at sea again and I swam to the beach this time.
There were loads of monkeys around, it was awesome to see them in the wild instead of in a zoo. They are so human like that it is a bit freaky, I half expected them to start talking to us. The water was crystal clear again, but I didn't snorkel, I just swam around in the sea and took in the scenery.
Afterwards we stopped by some huge rock formations. We could either snorkel near the boat or take a kayak and go between some of the rocks into a lagoony inlet thing. Vick and Vix did rowing at uni so they shared a kayak, and I went with Chris and Keith - they paddled and I just sat in the middle and got a ride! The scenery was absolutely stunning, as usual. Vick and Vix paddled past us, and Vick had a go at splashing us with her paddle. It was very successful, but Keith retaliated with a huge splash and we ended up having a water fight! I didn't have a paddle so I was left defenseless and soaking wet.
Our final stop was Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh (Phi Phi South, we are staying on Phi Phi Don which is the North island...or maybe it is the other way around). Maya Bay is where they filmed The Beach. It was cool to see it but having just read the book I was expecting something a bit more dramatic. It looked like any other nice beach really! With Leo DiCaprio on the mind, we took some Titanic 'I'm the king of the world!' photos at the front of the boat.
We slowed down to a stop on the way back to Phi Phi Don so that we could watch the beautiful orange sunset over the sea. It was such a lovely day and we saw so much stuff that we would definitely not have seen otherwise, so I definitely think the trip was worth it.
We were starving when we got back so we quickly showered and changed before headed for some dinner. I had a burger, my first one since I've been away - it was good!

We ended up back at Carlitos for a third night running watching the cool fire show again, but they were getting a bit arsey because only one out of five of us bought a drink. We were tired anyway so we headed back at around 10.30pm to go to bed! Our room was soo hot that we slept without covers. I didn't get to sleep for ages because my bites were so itchy and my bed was so hard, and I was woken up at some point by a bunch of drunk Irish people returning to bed, so I didn't have a great night's sleep!

xxx