My husband really wants to pronounce Phuket with the “f” sound “ph” makes for us. But in Thailand, “ph” sounds like “p.” He’ll have to settle for the fun of me going to the Phi Phi Islands where the water is a startling turquoise, not yellow. 🙂
I took a speedboat tour to the islands, with some narration by our very entertaining ladyboy tour guide, Madame Jasmine.
The Phi Phi Islands are gorgeous! Really spectacular. Rock formations jutting out of pale seafoam green/turquoise water. So beautiful. We pulled up to Monkey Island, but Madame Jasmine said, “Monkeys are bad. They bite. We stay in boat and take pictures.” So we did.
The monkeys came to us.
We spent 10 minutes here and 30 minutes there. 1 hour at Koh Khai beach that was about as big as my backyard and was packed full of people. The thing is, you can’t really swim much since dozens of speedboats are pulling up to shore. I just sat in a rented beach chair and watched people wade into the water.
We had a barely edible buffet lunch (45 minutes), stopped for some people to snorkel (30 minutes), and then ventured on to Maya Cove on Phi Phi Lei Island, which is where the movie ‘The Beach” was shot featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. “But you won’t see Leonardo DiCaprio on the beach today. If you want to see him, you come to my room tonight.”
I think you can guess who said that. 😉
The beach was beautiful. The sand was powdery and the water a crystal-clear warm seafoam green. I swam and enjoyed the beach and 45 minutes later we packed ourselves back into our tin can speedboat and left.
Maya Cove was probably the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been on — with or without Leonardo.
Where’s the most beautiful beach you’ve seen?
Browsing The Atlas 
Oh, the turquoise water is so beautiful! The most beautiful beach I’ve seen? Hmm… that’s a tough question… I’ve been to many beaches mainly in Indonesia, Singapore (not good), Australia and Brazil. I like a “secret” beach somewhere in Bali, Bondi beach in Sydney (beautiful golden sand, really blue sky and water, everything is so colourful, so busy but fun), and Ingleses in Brazil (quiet, beautiful beach, the softest sand ever, the kids loved it!)
Great list! I’ll have to make note of these. I agree with you that the beaches in Singapore wouldn’t top the list, but I do love sitting on the rocks there, watching all the ships. It’s one of my favorite places to be in Singapore.
I agree… It’s fun to just sit there and watch all the ships. I like it too 🙂
Poipu Beach on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai 🙂
I’ll definitely add that to my list of places to see if I ever finally get to Hawaii!
Years ago, my family and I went to Pangkor Laut Island in Malaysia and the beaches there were like ones you’d see in postcards. Unfortunately, we were nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes and other tropical bugs but even so, it was absolutely beautiful there.
I think that’s probably pretty close to these beaches, isn’t it? Stunning colors. And the rocks jutting out of the water took my breath away.
hahaha so it’s a trade off. He can’t have f – uket, but instead he gets to tell everyone he was at the “pee pee islands.” I guess that’s a fair trade 😀 Happy travels!
Silly humor. 🙂
Looks amazing! Madame Jasmine…awesome.
It’s really hard to choose, because I love the moodiness of the Pacific up here, but I have to mention a private island I went to in Puerto Rico some years back. It belonged to the resort I was staying in, and it was so perfect that it didn’t look real. Like being in a Caribbean calendar.
I know what you mean about the moodiness of the Pacific. It’s beautiful. I’m rarely a beach person, but I love to look at the water. Which means I’m pretty particular about beaches if I’m going to actually spend any time at one. This beach was the most beautiful to me, but a close second were the natural, wild beaches of Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. I’d go back there in a heartbeat.
I’m with your husband on pronunciation, but thanks for clarifying. I wouldn’t want to puck it up. 🙂
🙂 he was hoping I’d find him a fun t-shirt, but I guess the Thai have missed out on that potential market.
Smartly so, I would imagine. 🙂
Well yes. But I’ve got to stick up for Jersey’s fabulous beaches here Juliann 🙂 And, believe it or not, Ireland has some awesome beaches though many are difficult to access and you’d need a wetsuit before you’d swim off them. And another great Julie travel blogger https://lespetitspasdejuls.wordpress.com/ took us to some unbelievable places in Central America in 2014. (Some folk take a lot of pleasing I know – nice post!)
I loved looking at the water from Ireland. No need for a beach there for me. I do like the few Central American beaches I’ve been to. Sounds like I need to give Jersey a try. 🙂