Scott and I had an all day catamaran cruise planned for today and couldn’t wait to see the famous and iconic Phi Phi Islands that we would be sailing around. The company we chose was called Meka Catamaran. They would be providing lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner, a live DJ, and provided all the equipment/toys/gear for entertaining us at the various stops. The highlight of the trip would be a stop at Koh Phi Phi Ley, where the 2000 movie The Beach was filmed. The company offered pickup and drop off service which was nice and would be picking us up this morning to take us to the boat.

The pickup time was later in the morning so we decided to check out a nearby restaurant just a few doors down from DeLoft Hotel. The place that was calling our name that morning was called The Happy Porcupine. It was a small restaurant with open air seating and it was their slogan handwritten on the sandwich board outside that piqued our interest: “Only happy people!” Little did we know what a lovely meal and experience we were about to be treated to.

After receiving our coffee from our attentive server, the owner came out to check on us and introduce herself. Her name was Nim, and she treated us to her fascinating story. She was one of those people that you feel like you’ve known a lifetime the moment you meet her. The Happy Porcupine was a life’s dream realized for her and you could tell how passionate she was about her endeavor and sharing good food with visitors as well as regulars. Our meal, (Thai style omelettes) in addition to the company, was lovely. We had to peel ourselves away eventually so that we could go rendezvous with our excursion driver.

The red truck taxi-esque vehicle finally showed up to pick us up, after being delayed just long enough to cause me anxiety that we had somehow been forgotten. We piled into the back of the truck and snagged the last two remaining seats on the wooden benches in the truck bed. It was about a 20 minute ride to the Ao Nam Mao Pier and thankfully, this was one of the less wild taxi rides we had taken yet, and our motley crew of travellers from around the world¹ arrived all in one piece, ready for a day on the luxury catamaran.

After some confusion about having to pay the National Park fees (we thought our tickets from the previous day when we had visited the caves were good for this park entry fee as well, but it turns out they were not) we were set and headed to the pier to get loaded onto a longtail boat to be tendered to the catamaran. Along the way we were chatting with the only other American couple on the tour who ended up being from Charleston, SC of all places!

The catamaran was just as luxurious as the promotional materials had promised and we were escorted to our assigned seats that were perfect for lounging and soaking up the sun (or shade if you got too hot) and given a welcome drink. The cushions and pillows and color scheme added a level of poshness and made for lovely photos… especially with the dramatic limestone karsts of the Andaman Sea in the background. We settled in before going to check out the rest of the boat. It had an upstairs that was similar to our deck and the front lounging area had several types of comfy seating in addition to its “trampolines,” and even had bean bags that could be taken onto them.

There were several stops planned for the day, and at most we would be able to get out and play in the water or take some sort of craft (stand-up paddleboard, clear kayak, rubber ducky inflatable, etc) to get to the island. The first stop was quite a long haul from the Pier so we sat back and relaxed and soaked up the Indian Ocean sun. Scott even dozed for a bit in our comfy booth. Eventually we arrived, to join what seemed to be the entire rest of the tourists visiting Thailand that day, at Viking Cave. Words do not do justice to the amount of boat traffic that was milling about in this area. The din of longtail boats was louder than at Ao Nang beach; an impressive feat. This was just a drive-by and photo-op stop, and we would not be getting out here. We hung out long enough to admire the towering karsts, take some pictures of the cave entrance, and marvel at the sheer volume of traffic floating and buzzing around us, before heading on to Maya Bay.

Lunch was served and we both enjoyed the offerings, and soon after we were at Koh Phi Phi Leh, home to Maya Bay. The catamaran dropped its anchor in the deep water and we were allowed to swim, snorkel, or paddle around. The limestone karsts rose up around us like highrise buildings which was impressive. The iconic half of Maya Bay was roped off to prevent traffic (boat and human) from getting too close to the beach, as its popularity due to the movie The Beach, had caused over tourism and the health of the reefs, water, fish, and entire bay had suffered. A revitalization project had been started in 2018 which actually closed off the area entirely to tourists while the area could be nursed back to health, and it was eventually reopened in 2022 with much stricter rules and regulations about its access in place.²

Even though we weren’t able to splash around in the same area that the movie was filmed, we were still able to appreciate its beauty from afar. We both attempted stand up paddleboards (this was my first time!) and took them to an accessible cove and beach nearby. I mostly paddled it on my knees, but with a little assistance from Scott was able to successfully stand up and paddled almost all the way back to the boat before my legs got too shaky to remain stable and I went splashing face first into the water. This is so much harder than I had imagined and I am in awe of the people that paddle them down whitewater! We spent the rest of the time floating around on huge rubber duckys before heading back in. (We appreciated the fresh water shower that was on the back of the catamaran and took advantage of it each time we reboarded the boat.)

When everyone was back on board the crew lifted the anchor and the catamaran set sail to our next destination- Monkey Bay (Phi Phi Nui Bay). As the name foretold, there would be monkeys and we were excited to see them. The crew warned us of sea urchins in this bay and instructed us not to wade in the water to avoid stepping on them. Scott and I jumped in the water and swam the 150 meters to the beach. When we arrived at the beach we were greeted by a troupe of aggressive macaques that were busy shaking down tourists for food and drink. There was one poorly behaved tourist that was taunting some of the monkeys with a bag of chips and he was acting big and brave until a large male macaque ran up to him and bared his teeth, exposing his terrifying and fanglike canine teeth, and demanded the chips. The tourist shrieked and dropped the bag and the monkey grabbed it and took off with it into the woods line, eventually settling on top of a boulder to eat them. The other monkeys continued to shake down other tourists despite a multitude of signs warning not to feed the monkeys. The image of monkeys squatting on rocks and holding beer bottles and cans in their hands and tipping them up to drink from them will forever be seared into my memory. (One poor monkey had snagged himself an unopened bottle and diligently kept tipping it bottom up hoping for beer and each time having no luck… I wonder if he is still there trying… it was both hilarious and sad.) Scott and I quickly figured out that all the trash in the forest was not necessarily due to tourists but from the monkeys themselves after they’d stolen food and would take it away to eat. We decided that we should swim back and get our camera so we could document the monkey mayhem.

We got our phones and then got into one of the clear kayaks to paddle back to the island to get pictures of the monkeys. This time when we reached the island there was a park ranger with a slingshot in his hand to help ward off the macaques. His presence had caused the monkeys to retreat up into the jungle- obviously they knew what the slingshot meant. Unfortunately we didn’t get any good pictures. We waited for a bit to see if they would venture back down but eventually had to paddle back since our boat was soon departing.

They served us an afternoon tea as we sailed on to Chicken Island, passing Bamboo Island on the way. They timed it so that we would be able to watch the sunset near Chicken Island. Their timing was perfect and we were treated to one of the best sunsets of our trip as the sun slipped dramatically down the horizon right over top of the Phi Phi Islands and cast a soft orange glow over the karsts and eventually seemed to lower itself gently into the Andaman Sea.

Once the sun had disappeared it was time for dinner and the DJ went to town spinning tunes for people to dance to. With full bellies we sat back and enjoyed the sail back to the pier. The longtail boats were waiting to transport us back to land, and the truck taxi was waiting to take us back to the hotel. By the time we got back to DeLoft Hotel we were exhausted but aglow with a fun day filled with adventure and incredible sights.

Postscript: We had originally considered doing a speedboat tour of the Phi Phi Islands and we are so thankful that we chose the catamaran, even though it was a bit more expensive. It was well worth it to have the amenities that the catamaran provided as the speedboat appeared to be much rougher and have zero creature comforts and more closely resembled a bus than a cruise. We paid $80/each plus a few drinks and this included the National Park entrance fee.