Phi Phi Islands

 Phi Phi islands are an island group between Phuket and Straits of Malacca Coast of Thailand. They are about 40 kilometers southwest of Phuket, and have limestone mountains with cliffs, caves, long white sand beaches and crystal clear water. 

Boat tours to the islands are day long, and include visiting beaches, snorkeling, swimming and lunch.

It was cloudy with periods of sunshine the day we visited Phi Phi islands, the sea was calm like an inland lake, the speed boar ran at full speed, and I did not feel motion sick.

The first stop was Monkey beach - what attracted my attention first was the emerald green sea and the steep limestone cliffs with dense plants. The fine grain white sand beach was impressive as well but the beach was under water due to high tide, we could only feel it walking in the shallow water.

Phi Phi island - typical landscape

Monkey beach does have a troupe of monkeys

Our second stop was snorkeling at an area where there are corrals. Most people stayed close to the speed boat, I swam a round a little. The fishes at the corrals are well camouflaged by water refraction of lights  - one can not see any fishes from the boat. With snorkeling, we can see a totally different underwater world! 

I was the last to get back on boat.

Snorkeling at Phi Phi islands

After lunch we went to Pi Leh Lagoon to swim and enjoy the vista. There was no colorful fishes there even though the seemingly the same emerald green water as the snorkeling place. But the view above is great, especially if you swim backstroke, blue sky with white cloud, and lime stone mountains with greenery. We swam into a gap between cliffs, and along the mountain foot. Later I put on life jacket to swim to far side of the lagoon from where our boat was anchored, alternating between breaststroke and backstroke to enjoy the view all around. I was again the last to get onto the boat for next stop.

Pi Leh Lagoon

The last stop of our Phi Phi island tour was Maya bay.... large white sand beach, shielded from open sea by mountains, beautiful but swimming or wading in knee high water is forbidden due to marine life conservation - it is a place where some small sharks breed.

Maya Bay

Phi Phi island is a beautiful place worth visiting multiple times; we may stay on the islands for a few nights, and enjoy true wilderness in the ocean without tourist crowd.

Note 

The last stop of the tour was Khai Nai Island, where snorkeling condition was marginal, it has less than pristine water due to heavy crowds because all tour providers use this tiny island as the last stop. But Nicholas enjoyed jet skiing for the first time after 5 minute training.