After having kayaked to Ko Nangyuan on Koh Tao, Anna and I were hooked and made a pact of sorts to make sure and do it again! Ko Phi Phi Don provided yet another fantastic opportunity to do so. On our second or third day there, we got up bright and early (around 10am-ish?) and headed out for food and coffee to quench our slightly hung over bodies. It was probably about noon or one by the time we made it to Lo Dalam beach to rent a kayak so we could paddle our way to Monkey Beach.
As soon as we stepped foot on Lo Dalam we were approached about renting kayaks by a local shop worker. The price for the day was 600 baht. This price wasn’t out of the realm of what we were expecting to pay, but being the bargain seekers we were, we tried a couple more places first. The third place we stopped by was the winner. The woman (whom I’d guess to be the boss) had that feisty vibe that reminded me of Mol from Mol’s beach bar on Hin Wong Bay (Ko Tao). We asked her how much the kayaks were, and she said “200 baht per hour”. We replied that we wanted to rent one for the day, to which she gave us a quizzical look, checked her watch, looked back at us and said “for the day??”. Lol! We had to laugh and give that one to her! I’m sure most people renting kayaks for the day would have in fact rented them in the morning, but alas there we were mid-day. She gave us the kayak for the bargain price of 400 baht and away we went.
The crystal clear water of Lo Dalam bay was so calm and almost lake-like that the paddle just around the corner to Monkey Beach took very little effort and time. Once there, the only thing to really watch out for was the boat traffic! Dozens upon dozens of tour speedboats were coming and going with numerous tourists aboard, all coming for the snorkeling and monkeys. A quiet beach this was not!! The snorkeling was also ok, but not the best of the bunch really. The monkeys of course were adorable and lovely and amazingly patient as tourist after tourist shoved their phones and iPads toward them on selfie sticks.
After several hours of literally baking in the sun, we decided to try to get to yet another beach that was located across the Lo Dalam bay. We skirted around tour boats and out into the open sea we went! While the sea looked to be quiet and calm from our perspective on Monkey Beach, it wasn’t quite the correct story once we were actually out there… Lets just say that Anna started to feel a little sea-sick and we both started to question whether it was really smart of us to continue on.
We opted for the “Safety first” route after making it probably 3/4 of the way. But seeing how the waves were crashing violently against the cliffs ahead and not wanting to potentially be part of those waves doing so, we headed back toward the sanctuary of the bay waters. We didn’t quite make it until sunset on the kayaks, but instead simply went to the Sunset bar for drinks to toast the setting sun. 🙂 Anna took a picture of a kayak in the sunset (while we sat comfortably drinking) and we pretended that was us in spirit. 🙂
Ramblintraveler 