Mention the Phi Phi Islands, and it immediately conjures up beautiful limestone islands jutting out from the sea and powder white sand on its isolated beaches. It equates to tropical paradise. I finally made it here and, no doubt the limestone islands are really otherworldly. The Phi Phi Islands are actually a group of islands one of which is the one we were at – Ko Phi Phi Leh and it is the smaller of the Phi Phi Islands. Our motorboat headed straight to a large lagoon where all the other tourists were. This is Maya Beach or locally known as Ao Maya.
This place was made famous, way famous, by the movie The Beach, which was a movie adaptation of the book of the same name by Alex Garland. They probably couldn’t have picked a better location of the movie. Interestingly, it is said that although the movie was filmed on this island, the book itself was inspired by the secret lagoons and limestone islands of the Bacuit Archipelago of Palawan in the Philippines. Maya Beach also has a powder white sand and wonderful water that glows and iridescent green – given good lighting conditions.
Truly, this is paradise found, or is it?
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