Raya Island Day Tour

I had heard about this day trip to Racha Yai island, and decided to do it with an outfit called Baan Raya Resort, who have a very nice resort complex on the island.

Arrived at the office at about 8:45, just as the mini-bus was bringing in the other folks....they offered coffee and juice while we were waiting for more people, then at nine off to the beach and the boat, transferred there by another bus.....

Got on this big speed boat with twin 200 hp outboards, they told us it would take 45 minutes to the island, the water was flat and it took about 35 minutes.



Pulled into a bay and it was time to go snorkeling in clear warm water, got to do that for half an hour, then we moved to another site and went again for another half hour. The crew had some bread and was throwing in crumbs and the sergeant majors were swarming, sort of exciting.....
Then, we returned to the boat and went over to this floating dock, it’s made up of plastic cubes all joined together and it’s weird...did you want to know how it feels to walk on water...just walk on this thing, it goes up and down with the wave action.

There was transport waiting for us, a wagon with bench seats, pulled by a tractor quite slowly through the resort grounds to the main resort area, past the water buffalos and a zillion fallen coconuts.

When we got to the main resort area at about 11:00, we were given an orientation of the grounds and told to go and enjoy the beach or the pool or just have a look around. The resort has it all, a Spa, bars, restaurants, dive shop, and general store and great looking bungalows, and horses...lunch was at twelve.

I went to the beach and then the pool, which was fantastic and has stunning views over the coast below. Then off to lunch, which was great. Fried fish, morning glory, spring rolls, tom yum koong with shrimp of the super king sized variety and another dish, with chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, and some sort of soup like sauce, didn’t get the name, but it was great.....really, really good food.

At one o’clock, back to our transport and off we went through the palms to the other side of the island, to Bungalow Bay, where there is an outstanding beach; you know the kind, fine white sand and lots of it. We had an hour there to mess in the sea and the surf or just sunbathe.

Then around 2:30pm, our transport took us back to the other side and the floating dock, a little more exciting to walk on this time as the wind had changed and there were bigger waves, so the dock was moving up and down quite a lot......back on the boat and off we went back to Chalong Bay.

A smooth fast ride, we were at the beach by 3:30, and the minibus was waiting to take everyone back to their hotels.

It was good, a nice day on a nice island and great food.

Recommended Tour: Easy Day Thailand's Premium Racha Island Tour

Phi Phi Island Tour with Phi Phi Cruiser

Got to go to Phi Phi yesterday on the Phi Phi Cruiser ...opted to try out their VIP service. Got to the boat about 8:00AM, getting on was easy, was shown to the VIP area immediately, which was up on the pilothouse deck.

They give you these stickers to put on your shirt so they can differentiate the various trip packages people bought. Anyway, the VIP room is closed in, has 40 very comfortable seats, a big flat screen TV, and food and drink that is part of the deal....coffee, tea, water, soft drinks, croissants, just help yourself to as much as you like.....room has air con and big windows to look out and a sort of stewardess, very nice person named Chalee.



We were supposed to go at 8:30, but they waited for stragglers and we actually got going about 8:45. Lots of folks out on the top deck getting sun.

Got up to speed pretty quickly and had a nice smooth ride..the boat is quick, I've made that trip on a dive boat and it takes at least twice as long...we saw the big island Phi Phi Don up close by 10:05 am, then pulled into Ton Sai Pier about 10:20.
The folks that were staying overnight got off then, and then the day trippers like me got a sight seeing tour that took us over to Phi Phi Ley, we cruised into Maya Bay, where they filmed part of "The Beach", didn't go in, too crowded and the boat is too big, then we cruised around to Loh Sama, Pileh Bay and past the Viking Cave...all very pretty, then cruised back over to Phi Phi Don, got to near Monkey Beach and stopped and transferred to a smaller boat, that was taking everyone who wanted to, snorkeling. Then the big boat went off to Ton Sai Pier to wait for us.

We continued over to tie up to a barge that was moored in Coral Bay. Now it's 11:30.
The VIP people got to get on the barge, the others went into the water or watched from the snorkel boat. We got to go down and enjoy the Undersea World Aquarium..the only one like it....you go into an air lock, then it is pressurized and you go through another door and down into the hull of this barge...they cut the bottom out of it, built sort of a frame around the perimeter so fish can swim in and out of it, put sort of a screened floor that you can stand on, once you go down the steps to reach it...very cool, fish swimming in and out and all around, water is about knee deep on the platform you are standing on, but it is quite a ways below the surface...they gave us some bread to break up and feed the fish with, crazy how they swarm to get the crumbs..quite exciting for those who don't swim or snorkel but want to see what the others see and very safe....

After that back on the top deck, where the VIP folks got fruit and soft drinks and so on...after about an hour, we took the snorkeling boat over to Ton Sai Pier and went ashore. So about 12:45pm we went into the Phi Phi Hotel and sat at our pre-assigned table..we had soup, steamed fish, squid, chicken, shrimp, two vegetable dishes, rice...all excellent.....usual fresh fruit for dessert.
After lunch we got to explore the island a bit, probably had about an hour and then back to the boat for 2:30PM.

On the way back they had a great movie in our lounge, (OK I thought it was good.Iron Man2.), followed by some Mr. Bean shows...lots of people just slept, inside the lounge and outside...lots of sun and activities had tired them out, had another smooth ride back, got in to Phuket for 4:30PM.

If you've only got a day to see Phi Phi, then this was a good way to go..a little nicer lounge to sit in out of the sun, the deal with the live aquarium, and I think we got more sea food at the restaurant too. I'd do it again.