As sightseeing boats headed into the turquoise waters of Maya Bay, a floating buoy rope kept them a few hundred meters away from the glistening beach, leaving tourists to appreciate the beauty from afar before the boats turned back and departed.
These boats then need to navigate around to the back of the bay, where a floating pier has been built for brief stops. From there, tourists disembark and walk along a wooden pathway through the jungle to the white sand beach, a place made famous after featuring in a 2000 film “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
This has now become a common pattern for visitors coming to Phi Phi islands’ famous scenic spot on the Andaman Sea coast.
It’s hard to imagine that five years ago, the beach was inundated with thousands of speedboats and tourists daily, leaving in their wake a trail of devastation on the coral reef and marine ecosystem, compelling authorities to make the difficult decision to close Maya Bay in mid-2018.