First off, this is part 1 of the post as there are too many photos to fit in one post so do settle down with a good cuppa tea… actually, scratch that! Chuck that tea down the sink and get yourself a huge vat of mulled wine instead (go on – it’s Christmas time… N.B.: I will probably still be using that excuse for at least a month after Christmas…)
Our trip to Thailand was one of my favourite place we visited this year! I was excited to be in Thailand (as anyone would) but the next day, aboard the boat to explore the islands in Phang Nga Bay (in Phuket), I had one of the most amazing experiences and have been wanting to share this with you for ages (which is why it’s taken me ages to get round to it… and why there are too many photos for one blog post. Part 2 is available here).
We arranged for an early pick up from our hotel/apartment (which you’ve seen already here). Thankfully, the driver had a few stops to make and the journey was long enough that we could catch a few winks before arriving at the Royal Phuket Marina (the port we would be catching our boat from).
When we set off, you could see the promise of all the islands we were going to visit in mysterious misty silhouettes in the distance. The tour was meant to start at 9am and finish around 5.30pm so it was gonna be a full day of activities and sightseeing.
Before long (and by before long, I mean in about 1 hour of sailing and gaping at the islands) we started to sail past a few of them… The height of these islands are so impressive to see! Needless to say, everyone on the boat was clicking like crazy on their camera as we sailed past the islands..
We stopped at our first destination – Panak Island. Panak Island is accessed by kayaking through a cave into a central lagoon with lots of mangrove trees, monkey and bats (didn’t see the last two though wasn’t really expecting to see lots of bats out in the open during the day).
The lagoon was quite tranquil and surreal. It was so quiet and surprisingly a lot more humid than it was outside the island. More so, it was absolutely amazing to be right next to these tall cliffs on the island which were even more impressive close up! Actually, quite a while was spent kayaking across the length and breadth of the lagoon.
We hopped back aboard the boat in preparation for our next stop! Hong Island.
Here again, we hopped onto the kayaks but this time, the water was a lot choppier and the kayaks swayed a lot from side to side. Then it started raining too (hence the raindrops on the photo) but in a few minutes it stopped… and then started again quite heavily for another 5 – 10 minutes before clearing away. Thanks to how warm it was – the rain was actually quite welcome! It was also quite a liberating experience to not care at all about getting wet (don’t worry, I had my camera back with me so I just popped it in when the rain got too wet).
(Wasn’t expecting to see this guy here so he gave us a bit of a fright when we all saw him initially. Turns out he was just there to take photos of people – I’m not one for buying “official photos” taken by companies but on this occasion – I made an exception! Plus it was actually too cheap not to)
After some more kayaking around Hong Island, we hopped aboard the boat for lunch which comprised of absolutely fantastic selection of rice, noodles, stews, fresh fish, meats, fruits and desserts whose names I can’t remember but enjoyed immensely. I was so hungry by this point but had no clue how hungry until I saw the food in front of me! At that point, I’m pretty sure I would have climbed on top of everyone else to get my lunch! Thankfully, I didn’t have to! 🙂
After pigging out on lunch, we set off for our next stop of the day – James Bond Island (more on this on part two of this post – see what I said about having quite a lot of photos).
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