Leonardo DiCaprio ruins things.

Every time he appears in a film, something gets ruined. When was the last time you were on a boat without at least one chop standing on the bow, yelling “I’m the king of the world”?

Oh, and every frat boy pumping their chest during a cocaine-fuelled lunch like they’re Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street?

The latest Leo-inspired destruction came about as a result of Danny Boyle’s 2000 film, The Beach.

The film was shot on Maya Bay Beach, Thailand, which quickly became a tourist hotspot following the success of the movie.

Maya Bay was practically deserted in 1999. It went on to attract in excess of 200 boats and 5 000 visitors a day, reports The Telegraph.

Authorities in Thailand announced the closure of Maya Bay indefinitely, extending a four-month tourism ban that came into effect in June to at least a year and potentially longer. The move is in response to the untold damage caused by these boatloads of tourists.

The bay has lost much of its marine life and an estimated 80 per cent of its coral, due to harm caused by snorkellers, divers, boats, anchors and sunscreen-covered swimmers. The most rapid deterioration has occurred over the last ten years.

From that picture above, which screams /serenity’, to this:

I want to revise my earlier statement – people ruin everything.

The island and the beach are only accessible by boat. While this might have ordinarily deterred people from visiting, you can’t stop a fan from touching the same sand as Leo.

Speedboats and larger vessels charged in from neighbouring Phuket, while tourists staying on Phi Phi Don typically arrived by long-tail.

The non-stop arrivals and departures of keen travellers who had to leap off boats and paddle through the beautiful, clear waters to access May Bay, was chaotic at best and potentially life-threatening at worst.

Crowds of people were penned into a small swimming area to the side, and speedboats frequently appeared to narrowly miss those wading out to return to their vessels.

The beach, which was once beautiful, is now a trash heap because tourists can’t clean up after themselves. There was also a shocking level of interference with the indigenous wildlife.

Our speedboat driver laughed as he threw packets of biscuits into the sea to attract tropical fish. He later did the same with pieces of chicken.

I watched speechless as another tourist gave a can of Coca Cola to a monkey and filmed the creature greedily drinking it.

Instagram might be full of pictures of the once beautiful spot, but the reality is depressing.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

[source:telegraph]