Even if you have never heard of Maya Bay in Thailand before, you may have seen it. It was the beach used in the movie The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio from the year 2000. Now, I may be aging myself when I mention that because, you reader, may have very well not even been born yet. But I was 14 when this movie came out, Leo was an undeniable hunk at the time, and it was an edgy story set in a beautiful location – what’s not to be obsessed with? Well, I’m not sure because I have actually never seen the movie, but I did read the book!
Well, many years later I found myself in Thailand and found out that this filming location was one of the most popular tourist attractions. I looked it up, and WOW is it beautiful! So, I knew I wanted to go. However many of the pictures I was finding online showed it being crowded with people and long boats. One of my life’s missions is to figure out how to visit popular locations when they are going to be the least busy, and I figured out how to do this for you – so keep reading.
The island is very small, and there are no permanent structures or facilities on the islands, so unlike many of the islands in Thailand, you don’t come stay here for a few days, you simply visit for a few hours. Due to how lovely it is – the beach has beautiful white sand, there are gorgeous limestone cliffs, and the water is so turquoise and clear, it’s such a paradise! But the Thai government has (rightfully) taken measures to preserve the beauty and ecosystems after tourists have ravaged it since the movie came out in 2000. It was closed for a while (just after I visited they shut it down to allow the ecosystems to recover), and now can only be visited during certain times of year to allow for more preservation. Make sure you check these rules if you are planning a trip. Only 375 people are allowed to visit at one time (still a lot, it’s not that big!) and I believe that they are not currently allowing boats into the Bay itself.
When I did my day trip to Maya Bay, I was staying on Koh Phi Phi, which I can tell you more about another time, but I took a full day tour using this company – Maya Bay Tours (https://www.mayabaytours.com/). They have 2 tours going to Maya Bay, one you sleep on the boat, which I opted not to do (it seemed as though it might be kind of a party scene that I wasn’t really feeling). You can do all of the activities of the tour though, and be dropped back to Phi Phi before they go off to have the sleepover!
The reason that I decided to take this particular tour is that you arrive at Maya Bay in the late afternoon, just as all the day trippers are leaving! To see the beach practically empty of people, and without all of the boats moored in the inlet is, in my opinion, the best way to see it. I will go into detail about the day, but if that doesn’t interest you, honestly go checkout the link above and consider using this tour to see Maya Bay!
The day started in the early afternoon. I actually had a lot of trouble figuring out where I needed to board this boat, they kept telling me that it would be at the dock, but I was nervous I was in the wrong place because I didn’t see the boat. Anyway, I couldn’t see the boat because it wasn’t actually there yet. Once it arrived it was very obvious where I needed to be!
We set off into the water and they pointed out some cool places including some caves. The wind was pretty high the day we were out so the boat ride was a bit rough, but the boat is pretty big so it was still enjoyable. The boat stopped in the ocean somewhere, and we did some snorkeling and had a snack. I don’t love snorkeling to be honest, I have a relatively healthy fear of deep ocean water, but I did go for a little swim and have a look. There is potential to see some reef sharks, but I didn’t. Just some pretty fish. I didn’t spend long in the water, but relaxing on the boat in the sun is lovely. They also take you past a cool cave, they call it a viking cave. Apparently it is called that because there are some paintings of old Scandinavian Viking ships inside. It is not able to be entered by the public.
Then you head over to the island that has Maya Bay. If you take one of the long boats here, it will moor right into the bay. But since the Sleep Aboard boat is quite big, it is not able to enter that way. We needed to enter the bay from the rear entrance. As I mentioned, it was quite windy and the guides were heavily considering taking us to a different island because getting to the bay from the rear is tricky. But, one went and took a look, and decided we could do it.
If I was a cat, this would have been one of my 9 lives used! This was really scary. I have no pictures of this because I was basically in survival mode the whole time.
The big boat anchors, and they bring you over in a small boat a few people at a time. The back entrance is pretty high up in the rock face, and you climb a net to reach it. The net extends a fair way away from the island, and you are still far away when you begin to climb it. Basically, it’s underwater and flat before it starts being an actual vertical climb. I was holding the net, somewhat swimming and somewhat crawling along it. The water was rough because of the wind. I got stuck in the net, and pulled under the waves. Because the net is all floppy and moving, I couldn’t get myself untangled and back up above water and I started to panic. I did manage to resurface on my own, however when I did all 3 guides were rushing towards me! That’s how you know you were probably in real danger. I was so shaken by the time I climbed to the top of the net, but then we were there and able to enjoy the beauty of the Bay and watch as the sun began to set. It was so beautiful, and I was able to relax and have a good time.
When it was time to leave, you had to go back out the same way. As I was waiting for some of the other people to climb down and back to the boat I was soooo scared. But, by this time the wind had died down a bit, and retreating was easier than arriving. Thankfully! Looking at some of the more recent visits on some blog posts, it looks like they may have changed the net to more of a rope ladder. It looks (and sounds) equally as challenging, but I thought I should mention it is possible that today’s experience is not exactly the same as mine was in 2017.
After you are all back on the boat, they feed you a super tasty dinner. Honestly, I was starving from all my fear and energy exertion, I felt like I ate so much, but there was still so much more too! The food was sooo good. It was an unexpected highlight of the day!
Then, the (day) tour ends with something I didn’t know existed, but as soon as I found out about it, I knew I needed to see it – bioluminescent plankton! I know I just told you that I feel a little weird about hanging out in deep ocean water, but as my tour guide in Vietnam told us at the start of my trip, ‘Never Try, Never Know’ and I lived by the motto for these 3 months! So, we put our life jackets on upside down, kind of like a diaper really! And turned allllll the lights off (I was already feeling nervous being in open water on a boat with no lights!) and we jump in the water! The way the plankton works, you put your face in the water (this is why wearing the life jacket this way helped, because you were bobbing over kind of like a duck) and then you agitate the water with your hands and then everything lights up and glows! It’s like a starry sky, but under the water. It was so amazing! The one part that freaked me out was there were all these jelly pods in the water too. We were told they were harmless and that they were jelly fish eggs, but they kept touching my legs and I couldn’t take it. I lasted about 10 minutes in the water, and that’s all I could manage. But, I tried it and I saw something beautiful!
The tour ended then for me. They drop all the people staying overnight off on a beach for a party and bonfire, and then the rest of the people are taken back to the dock that we got picked up from that afternoon.
The official name of what I did through this Tour Company is ‘Plankton Sunset Cruise’ and the price of this is 2000 Thai Baht, so $78 CAD at the time of writing this. Which is such a good price in my opinion. You get to see two amazing things, eat a great meal and spend a day cruising around relaxing. This post is not sponsored at all by this company, I don’t get anything if you book with them. I just truly believe that it is the best way to see an otherwise crowded place! Even with the newly implemented restrictions on tourists and boats in the area, which would definitely make it a more pleasant experience, I still highly recommend this tour because the extra things I mentioned really made it a spectacular day!
Let me know if you have been to Maya Bay, or if you are thinking about taking this tour from what you have read here. If you want to ask anything else about my time in Southeast Asia, drop a comment or send me a DM on Instagram @wanderlured.blog. I will soon write a post about Koh Phi Phi overall, with tips on where to stay, what else there is to do and link it here when it’s done.
Jess xx
