The Beach, Snorkling, and Sunburn

We woke up at 7 this morning and climbed on a long boat and cruised to a nearby island where 'the beach' with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. I've never seen the movie, but ever since I set foot in Bangkok I have heard about it -- Every backpacker and tourist wanted to go there. Upon arrival at the secluded beach we lept off the boat and swam to a ladder which led us to an isolated campground looking area and further in was a giant beach (In the middle of the bay about 20 feet out was a beautiful 30 foot sail boat tilted at 45 degree angle - we concluded that the crew must have anchored and it slipped -- an expensive mistake).

After 10 minutes, 7 seven or so giant boats pulled up and unloaded a few hundred people on the beach... My small group of friends, 6 of us felt out numbered and lost the joy of being there. We returned to the long boat, to find 2 giant cruise ships and 6 other long boats anchored. We snorkeled (!!!) for an hour or so, and drove back to 'monkey island'. It reminded me of the parks in China where the monkeys would lurk the path and attack tourists.

Side note:
We have been touring Ko Phi Phi with a Canadian couple. Before joining us they rode elephants in southern Thailand where the guy contracted some sort of rash on his inner leg which pussed at night. The first day in Ko Phi Phi, his girlfriend sliced her foot open on a seashell requiring several butterfly stitches. Today the guy got sun burned and the girl was bit by a monkey on this monkey island.

This was their first trip together and they claimed that they were doing us a favor learning everything the hard way. They were real troopers.