Jen and I flew to Phuket, Thailand to meet Kyle for the start of our Christmas holiday. Phuket, although it has a certain urban beach town charm, is not the kind of trip-of-a-lifetime destination that we often seek, so we booked a three day paddle tour of nearby Phang Nga Bay with a group called Paddle Asia. It's hard to believe, but we are in one of the world's top vacation destinations at peak season, and we spent three full days of paddling without ever seeing anyone other than local fishermen.
Fishermen collecting jellyfish in Phang Nga bay
Phang Nga bay is famous for its numerous lumpy islands. The limestone in the area eroded into bizarre shapes, often forming stunning finger-like towers. Most of the islands have soaring cliffs, and all of the islands are undercut at the water line, making them appear to be balanced on the water. Caves can be seen all over the islands, and stalactites often hang down over the water like monstrous fangs.
Gravity defying limestone islands
undercut limestone with stalactites
The coolest thing about these islands is the hongs. Hong means "room", and it refers to a sinkhole (collapsed cave that is exposed to the sky) that is connected to the sea by a small opening in the limestone cliff. One minute you're paddling on open water, and the next you're in a quite garden inside a natural amphitheater. The atmosphere inside the hongs is solemn, reflected sunlight filters through the jungle vegetation, casting everything in a calm green light, and bird songs and bat screeches echo off the limestone cliffs. It is really quite remarkable.
Inside our first hong. You can see the opening we had to paddle through.
One of the hongs required us to use flashlights so that we could navigate through a 50 meter-long narrow cave that was completely dark. On the other side was a beautiful saltwater lake that we paddled around. There were fish in the lake called mudskippers that skipped (appropriately) across the surface of the water before climbing out to cling to the rock wall where they breath air through their skin. Another hong was quite large, and had a saltwater creek at the base of the cliff and a mangrove forest in the middle. There was a large population of flying fox fruit bats making a commotion and climbing around in the branches of the mangroves.
Trees full of flying fox fruit bats - wow did they make a lot of noise!
Into the mangroves
I'm a big fan of mangroves
At one point we entered a place that our guide referred to as "the canyon". To get into it you had to duck down and paddle through a little cave, but on the other side it opened up into an amazing mile-long jungle-filled limestone canyon. A solemn silence descended over us as we listened to animal calls echoing off the high cliffs. It was like entering The Land That Time Forgot.
The entrance to the canyon
inspecting the vegetation inside the canyon
Of course Kyle wanted to cliff jump, so our guide found a safe place for him to do that. By safe, he meant "deep enough", but it did involve a hopeless climb.
On the way up
The last time we saw Jen's awesome hat
Lunch on the beach
That's all for now
