The Beach, yes THAT Beach

We signed up for a snorkeling trip of Koh Phi Phi Ley, which is a small uninhabited island just east of Koh Phi Phi Don. It was sort of overcast and it had recently rained, but it was still incredible. We got to see puffer fish, clown fish, and I even saw some squid. After about an hour of snorkeling we visited the section of the island where the movie The Beach was filmed. No, Leonardo DiCarpio was not there.

Neither Erin nor I have seen the film, but Erica filled us in on all of the details. It is a specatular beach, but it is not as remote as the movie lets on - there were probably 10 boats pulled right up to the sand including ours. However, it is still worth the trip as it is quite beautiful and pristine.

The real trick of the journey was access to the beach. You can either get there by swimming up to a narrow gap in the rocks (against pretty treacherous waves trying to avoid being eaten by the coral) and hike across the island. Alternatively, you can boat around the northern tip of the island to get there. The hike is a lot more exotic, but after swimming against the current for about 15 minutes with no luck of reaching the rocks we turned back to ask our boat captain to drive around. Erin was slightly scratched after hitting some coral, but we all survived. And now we can say that yes, we did visit THAT Beach.