Phi Phi island tour & a surprise from JW Marriott Vacation Club

At 3.2k bhat, this tour was on the pricy side but well worth it as we had a speed boat take us out to several islands.

After a good breakfast of croissants and bananas, we were shuttled in a private van to the Marina Beach.

We gathered at the Marina Beach with other tourists. There was some time of waiting wherein we spent time shopping. I bought a pair of shorts and a beautiful Phuket t-shirt plus a trendy sunglasses that could be worn over my glasses. 

I also bought fish food to feed fish out in the ocean. We were taken on a boat ride on a speed boat by a captain named Jack (really choppy) far out to sea. I had to take seasick pills as I was feeling dizzy due to the motion of the speedboat. An hour passed and we were taken to Bamboo island. 

Now as I was suffering from arthritis (but I was not going to let this affect my holidaying), I had some problem getting up and down the boat. We had to wade through shallow sea waters to reach the shore. 

Tim and the girls went to practice snorkeling. The waters were just pristine clear but we could not see any fishes. Many tourists were resting on the beaches. The sun was hot and I was afraid of getting sunstroke. Thank God I bought the sunglasses at Phuket...

Back in the boat, we had pineapples, cookies and watermelons. We also had drinks on the house such as 100 plus, cream soda and water.

After about half an hour, the speedboat took us out to the deep sea. One by one the people in the boat went down to the waters to snorkel. I just stood up at the boat and threw fish food into the sea....I could not swim you see much less snorkel!

The fishes came in so many colors to eat the food I threw them. I could admire them from the top of the boat and I could see wavey designs on the rocks. It was so clear that I could see right to the bottom of the ocean and admired the corals. 

Tim and the girls told me later that they saw Nemo....

After the snorkeling, we had a good buffet lunch at Phi Phi Natural Resort. Again we could not dock. We had to haul ourselves down at the shallow beach waters and walk across the sand to the Resort for our lunch. Lunch was delicious with tom yum, spaghetti, chicken drummets, tomato chicken, vegetables, salads.

After lunch we went to Monkey Beach. Due to the presence of monkeys on the beach, we did not dock. We just watched from the boat. One monkey was bold enough to jump up to our boat!

We then went to a lagoon. The waters were just electric blue. There the girls and Tim had the time of their life jumping from the boat! We saw people climbing up the surface of the limestones hill and jumping down!

Finally we ended up at Maya Beach, the place where apparently Leonardo Di Caprio acted in a famous movie called The Beach (no idea what this movie is about as I have never heard of it).

We reached back to our hotel about 5.30 pm.

A surprise was in store.....!

It was our youngest daughter's birthday. The Marriott housekeeping team left her a birthday message. They also made 2 cute penguins out of 2 sets of face towels that brought a big smile to her face. They later presented us a birthday cake which we hid in the fridge without her knowledge.

We went for dinner at a very pricey restaurant at Ginja at the JW Marriot Hotel Resort & Spa. Exclusive fine-dining on Thai food but the portions were O so small!

We could not get enough of the green curry, the blue crab, the vegetables, the soup, the meang kam that we had no choice but to order a steamed fish dish. The youngest daughter was mentioning that it would be great if she could have a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday - a fitting end to a great day!

The bill - a whopping 4k plus bhat that we had to share without the birthday girl's portion. 

Anyway, the thoughtful restaurant staff was so kind as to present her a birthday cake in the form of the Thai sticky rice mango dessert with a single candle! So I guess the price of the dinner was worth it......

Back in the hotel, we distracted the birthday girl as the elder sister lighted up the candle and called her out from the room. She was surprised but so happy to see the cake given by the Resort staff!

It was really the most delicious green tea cake we had ever eaten!

THANK YOU JW MARRIOTT VACATION CLUB STAFF FOR YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS!
YOU HAVE MADE OUR STAY MEMORABLE!