koh phi ley + ocean

!koh phi ley×!ocean×

koh phi ley + ocean
Here's a picture I took of Phi Phi Ley about halfway into our hour long trek over to Long Beach.
koh phi ley + ocean
But instead of going in that away, we went all the way around the island so that we could swim in through the back way that's only open during low tide! During low tide, the water in the bay is really shallow and rocky so our boat driver anchored...
koh phi ley + ocean
...nestled between two huge, thirty-story mountains, is the side entrance to one of the tiny beaches in Maya Bay.
koh phi ley + ocean
Crazy, right?
koh phi ley + ocean
The view over to the left a bit more.
koh phi ley + ocean
I had been swimming around what I thought was a big underwater coral formation, but when I surfaced, I realized what I thought was a reef was just a huge karst island that continued underwater!
koh phi ley + ocean
Back on the surface!