Viking Cave, Phi Phi Leh Lagoon and Maya Bay

There are a lot of good day trips from Phi Phi Don and most tourists take a long tail boat trip to Ko Phi Phi's smaller island, Phi Phi Leh which is famous for its Viking Cave, stunning lagoons and world known Maya Bay.

Today Maya Bay has turned into a popular tourist spot and its hard to find a stretch of beach where you can enjoy this bay in silence. The bay is packed with speed boats and longtail boats which makes Maya Bay in my opinion just another Thai hot spot and not the magical place it once used to be. On a sunny day the waters of Maya Bay have the most stunning colours and looking through the huge limestone rock formations to the other side of Ko Phi Phi can be quite jaw dropping.

Longtail boats on Ko Phi Phi

If you want to visit Maya Bay make sure your tour operator has a permit to pull his boat on shore because a lot refuse to pay the Maya Bay fee without letting tourists know which can be quite dissappointing. In that last case the boat stops in the waters of the bay or at some of the little stretches of beach alongside the rock formations. Your option would be to swim over to Maya Bay beach but ususally they ask you to be back in half an hour which turns the trip into a bit of a hasty experience.

Before entering Maya Bay a lot of boats will take you along the Viking Cave or Pirate Cave of Phi Phi Leh. This cave is famous for its birds nests and believe it or not but the Thai mafia has this cave under constant surveillance because birds nests are a Thai delicacy and restaurants pay big money for them. So if you would order the traditional Thai bird nests soup on Phi Phi you know where it might come from!

Phi Phi Leh is also famous for its stunning lagoon which is probably even prettier than Maya Bay if you ask me. The water is absolutely amazing and when I did the tour it was a pretty cloudy day so I can only imagine this place when the sun starts to shine. Beautiful! Unfortunately our long tail boat driver didnt stop for much time so there was no real opportunity to jump into the water.

Phi Phi Leh is a really nice place to visit when you're staying on Phi Phi Don but make sure you book the right tour and get to know where you will stop exactly and for how much time.