Shanghaied Bob: Phuket, Phi Phi Islands

Among the many activities to do while visiting Phuket is taking a boat ride to one of the many islands where you find very pristine beaches and wonderful swimming and snorkeling. One of the more popular/famous islands to go to is the Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) islands. The day starts with being picked up at your hotel at 8am, arriving at the docks around 9am and after getting organized, leaving the docks by 10. It is a one hour boat ride, I think it is a 20 mile trip, on these boats the hold between 30 and 40 people with 2 or 3 large outboard engines. The trip is fairly smooth but there were some swells out there that made the trip more interesting. The locals have been very successful in packaging these island tours. On any one day there could be between 20 to 40 boats pretty much all doing the same trip. After an hour ride we stopped at one of the islands to do an hour of snorkeling, from there we went to the main island where there is a small town and had a set lunch. Then back on the boat to do some site seeing around the islands. One stop was in this big enclosed bay area where the opening scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed. We did some swimming there, the water was crystal clear. Next we stopped at the site where The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed in 2000. We stopped to take a jungle walk and a swim on this beautiful beach. We then made one more stop for another hour of snorkeling and then back to the docks by 5 and the hotel by 6. Overall the day worked out very well, good snorkeling and swimming and we saw some of the must-see sights when one visits Phuket, but the overall experience was a little more touristy than we typically like.