It is rare for me to break a promise. Disheartened by the incessant din of diesel-belching speed boats, the smog-saturated air, and a ‘floating carpet’ of tourist detritus strewn across its murky waters, I had resolutely sworn off Maya Bay on the island of Phi Phi Ley. The same super-famous, coral bay-turned-cesspool of ugly mass tourism of yore left along Thailand’s Andaman Coast like a discarded emerald.
In 2017, when I was here last, this small spot off the coast of the Krabi province was nothing more than a noisy parking lot for speed boats. The kind that collectively disgorged a whopping 4,000 tourists per day. All year round. And all in search of that, paradoxically, “elusive” stretch of beach. The same one promised by the neo-hippy, cult classic 2000 film The Beach that was filmed here.
