I was pretty excited to explore Phang Nga bay as it was one
of the top things I wanted to see while in Thailand. I learned about it after
watching someone's trip to Thailand on YouTube where they were on a kayak
approaching a lime stone formation and leaned back and went underneath the
rock! After some darkness, it opened up to this oasis of nature in the middle
of this mountain of limestone as it appeared from outside. With the sun shining
down and the vivid greenery surrounding, I knew I had to visit this beautiful
nature spot.
We hadn't booked our excursion ahead of time until the day before when we arrived in Phuket. I had wanted to do a self-kayaking tour, as the majority of the tours had a guide do all the paddling, which didn't seem that fun and Richard and I wanted to do some kayaking. I emailed a couple of companies the day before that had good reviews on Trip Advisor for self-kayaking, or the only companies that offered it, and only Sea Canoe replied to me. However, it so happens that the US Navy and their air craft carrier was in Phuket and had fully booked their self-kayaking tour. Nice, thanks US Navy.
Anyway, we had booked a tour through a tour company that our taxi dropped us off to. Or apparently where all the taxis drop tourist off as there seems to be some sort of arrangement with the Aldaman company. We got picked up from our hotel in this van along with other people from nearby hotels and had a 45 minute drive up north to the Ao Por pier which was below Phang Nga bay. We then boarded our boat for the day and there were "only" 39 people participating in today's excursion as the boat was pretty empty, which we preferred. It was unfortunate that the weather was cloudy today which didn't bring out the vivid colours of the islands.
The first island we visited was Panak Island which we had to kayak through a
small cave opening. Our guide was a young guy named Nang, who was great as he
took us around to some areas outside the island that others didnt go to. With
my GoPro and GoPole ready, and Rebecca wearing the headlamp, I was excited to
record our first cave entrance to the lagoon in the middle. After seeing how
tight and the extruding (stalagmite?) rock from above, it is clear why they
have guides paddling for you as the majority would have difficulty getting
through. With so many people, and other tour groups there at the same time, it
would be a huge traffic jam inside the cave. In the dark. Nonetheless, it would
be more fun to kayak yourself through this darkness and just come to the end of
the cave which opens up to this beautiful peaceful lagoon (or it would be more
beautiful if it was sunny out). You would have never have thought there would
be such a nice place in the middle of these gigantic limestone rock formations.
Nature always amazes us.
The lagoon was full of trees and plants on the walls of rocks. There was another entrance to another section but the water level was not high enough to make it through due to rocks. Unfortunately, we weren't really kayaking along with Richard and Melissa, as we had gotten on a kayak a few people ahead of them. We just did a quick circle of the lagoon, and Nang took some photos of Rebecca and I. We were in there for less than 10 minutes, which I was a bit disappointed in as you didn't really get the chance to soak in and admire the scenery.
The next island was Hong Island, the main lagoon. This entrance was trickier at
the end of the cave as we had to fit through a triangle shape and had to use
our hands to push off the rock. The lagoon looked pretty similar but we were
able to kayak through to another section. I'll just let the pictures and video
do it justice.
Still no sign of the private US Navy kayaking group. I guess Sea Canoe really go off the beaten path or they made a special route so we wouldn't see the Navy guys.
We had a buffet lunch on the boat, which was pretty decent for a tour lunch, as we headed to the famous James Bond island (Khao Phing Kan). It was where 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed. Once we arrived, we had to take this super long tail taxi boat and could see there were many other tours already here which I thought was weird as we only saw couple of other boats at the previous spots. Once we landed, it was clear why. The place was full of Chinese tourist, who obviously wouldn't do the kayaking excursion but just visit the James Bond Island and take pictures on their cameras, cellphones and iPads. Anyway, the four of us set out to explore the island. Right at the entrance, there was this huge sliver piece of rock that had somehow broke from the mountain of limestone with the inner face being almost perfectly straight/flat and had fallen down. Imagine seeing that piece fall, it would surely be amazing and scary. We explored some crevices and made our way to the James Bond beach which was packed. We had made our way only maybe half way on the path when we were told that our boat was leaving. We only had 30-40 minutes there, so we aren't sure where the stair path led to.
The last spot we were supposed to stop at was Naka or Lawa Island, but due to a high amount of jellyfish in those area, it was not safe to let us swim there. Which is unfortunate, as the picture of the beach on the brochure looks nice. So instead, they stopped at this random spot on a side of an island, with a tiny beach and let us swim. Richard and I were playing Jenga with a crew member and for the last game, the loser had to jump off the boat into the water in front of everybody. I wasn't aware of this rule until I Jenga'd lol. Luckily, this was nothing compared to the cliff jumping we did in Phi Phi so I wasn't scared
I just needed Richard to throw down a life jacket. I talked the crew member to jump in as well and he went first. After me, more people from the tour jumped, as well as Richard and Melissa. Rebecca was about to but couldn't do it, even though it was only maybe 3-4 m high :p.
After jumping, we were finally able to do some kayaking on our own. Although not inside a lagoon, exploring the outside will do. We got pretty far away from the boat compared to a few others who decided to kayak as well. At the end, we decided between to have a race back to the boat between Melissa vs. Rebecca. Rebecca proved herself as a kayaker as we got a big lead over Richard and Melissa. It was Mel's first time however. Half way through, they were exhausted and turned into a relay race with Richard and I taking over. We had a decent 10m lead or so but I wasn't able to paddle straight all the time and had to correct our path. Richard was catching up though so I paddled even harder and was pushing it all the way to the end and was able to maintain our lead for the Win! It was harder than I thought but it is probably because we were in inflated kayaks and it didn't cut through the water as well as the pointed plastic ones.
The boat ride back to the pier started off as quiet as the tour group didn't really mingle that much and were all just resting after the days activities. Music was playing with American top 40 tracks and Gangnam Style played like 5 times. Must still be popular in Thailand lol. One of the tour members started to liven up the atmosphere by doing a lip singing performance to Linkin Park and it just took off from there. He was pretty good at putting on a show even did some Eminem. From there, he started some break dancing and then the rest of the guys from the tour members started breaking as well. They weren't that great but could do some moves and were just having fun putting on a show. Wished I could breakdance but those couple of learning sessions I did at MacBreak a few years ago wouldn't be enough and I never followed through. Breakdancing is one of those arts that you can bring anywhere in the world and be able to share with other dancers around the world. Plus it looks so cool.
Back at pier, we had arranged a direct drop off at the Phuket Airport which one of the tour members drove us in his truck. We got to the airport at 5, which was 3 hrs before our flight so we went to Burger King as they were craving Burgers and had free WiFi. We started to look for an elephant excursion we could do in Chiang Mai, last minute planning again which Rebecca was not pleased about. Fortunately, she was able to find a good elephant sanctuary where the elephants are treated well from someone's blog post. The sanctuary was called Ran Tong and she emailed them to inquire about doing the tour tomorrow. luckily, as it was still early evening, they replied right away to say that they can accommodate us tomorrow and we were able to get wifi at our gate, as there was another burger King there, to confirm our elephant excursion!
Our flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai was with AirAsia and Richard didn't say he was checking in any baggage when he booked online, so he had to pay an extra $60 to check in their bags compared to like $20. However, their bags were tagged and sent down the conveyor and was told by the baggage check in to go pay at the AirAsia service booth. Seeing how their bags were already sent down then conveyor to be loaded, he thought he could get away with not going to pay at the booth. We get to the gate to board our plane and he gets caught as it was written on their boarding pass that money was owed for baggage, so he ended having to pay the fee anyway.
Our flight was only 2 hrs long but there was a lot of turbulence. We all passed out and I was woken up by our plane shaking as it landed in Chiang Mai. We arrived at our hostel, So Hostel, with no issues. The hostel is relatively new and has a modern design to it. This was our first hostel that we stayed at for our entire trip. It is also the first hostel experience for Rebecca, Richard and Melissa, who weren't really fond of the idea but I pushed for it as that is part of the backpacking experience. It’s also because she has this negative association of hostels as old, dirty places and you have to share a bathroom with randoms. she never really had to do that in 1st year University so it’s a new concept for her. However, So Hostel's rooms were pretty good and clean for a hostel; I’ve been in questionable hostels in Europe lol. Their bathrooms were okay except the shower stalls were a bit small and didnt seem to have hot water or a lot of water pressure.
The thing I learned to love from travelling in Europe was meeting new people from around the world. It was easiest to do when you stayed in Hostels as that is where all the young backpackers stay. Hotels aren't as open and don't have much atmosphere. The best memories were meeting some good people, like Eugene whom I still stay in touch with a bit, and going out with the hostel.
Anyway, we had 6 beds to the 4 of us and since we arrived late and have an early morning tomorrow, no meeting anyone today. Oh well.
Posted by Steven
We hadn't booked our excursion ahead of time until the day before when we arrived in Phuket. I had wanted to do a self-kayaking tour, as the majority of the tours had a guide do all the paddling, which didn't seem that fun and Richard and I wanted to do some kayaking. I emailed a couple of companies the day before that had good reviews on Trip Advisor for self-kayaking, or the only companies that offered it, and only Sea Canoe replied to me. However, it so happens that the US Navy and their air craft carrier was in Phuket and had fully booked their self-kayaking tour. Nice, thanks US Navy.
Anyway, we had booked a tour through a tour company that our taxi dropped us off to. Or apparently where all the taxis drop tourist off as there seems to be some sort of arrangement with the Aldaman company. We got picked up from our hotel in this van along with other people from nearby hotels and had a 45 minute drive up north to the Ao Por pier which was below Phang Nga bay. We then boarded our boat for the day and there were "only" 39 people participating in today's excursion as the boat was pretty empty, which we preferred. It was unfortunate that the weather was cloudy today which didn't bring out the vivid colours of the islands.
The lagoon was full of trees and plants on the walls of rocks. There was another entrance to another section but the water level was not high enough to make it through due to rocks. Unfortunately, we weren't really kayaking along with Richard and Melissa, as we had gotten on a kayak a few people ahead of them. We just did a quick circle of the lagoon, and Nang took some photos of Rebecca and I. We were in there for less than 10 minutes, which I was a bit disappointed in as you didn't really get the chance to soak in and admire the scenery.
Still no sign of the private US Navy kayaking group. I guess Sea Canoe really go off the beaten path or they made a special route so we wouldn't see the Navy guys.
We had a buffet lunch on the boat, which was pretty decent for a tour lunch, as we headed to the famous James Bond island (Khao Phing Kan). It was where 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed. Once we arrived, we had to take this super long tail taxi boat and could see there were many other tours already here which I thought was weird as we only saw couple of other boats at the previous spots. Once we landed, it was clear why. The place was full of Chinese tourist, who obviously wouldn't do the kayaking excursion but just visit the James Bond Island and take pictures on their cameras, cellphones and iPads. Anyway, the four of us set out to explore the island. Right at the entrance, there was this huge sliver piece of rock that had somehow broke from the mountain of limestone with the inner face being almost perfectly straight/flat and had fallen down. Imagine seeing that piece fall, it would surely be amazing and scary. We explored some crevices and made our way to the James Bond beach which was packed. We had made our way only maybe half way on the path when we were told that our boat was leaving. We only had 30-40 minutes there, so we aren't sure where the stair path led to.
The last spot we were supposed to stop at was Naka or Lawa Island, but due to a high amount of jellyfish in those area, it was not safe to let us swim there. Which is unfortunate, as the picture of the beach on the brochure looks nice. So instead, they stopped at this random spot on a side of an island, with a tiny beach and let us swim. Richard and I were playing Jenga with a crew member and for the last game, the loser had to jump off the boat into the water in front of everybody. I wasn't aware of this rule until I Jenga'd lol. Luckily, this was nothing compared to the cliff jumping we did in Phi Phi so I wasn't scared
I just needed Richard to throw down a life jacket. I talked the crew member to jump in as well and he went first. After me, more people from the tour jumped, as well as Richard and Melissa. Rebecca was about to but couldn't do it, even though it was only maybe 3-4 m high :p.
After jumping, we were finally able to do some kayaking on our own. Although not inside a lagoon, exploring the outside will do. We got pretty far away from the boat compared to a few others who decided to kayak as well. At the end, we decided between to have a race back to the boat between Melissa vs. Rebecca. Rebecca proved herself as a kayaker as we got a big lead over Richard and Melissa. It was Mel's first time however. Half way through, they were exhausted and turned into a relay race with Richard and I taking over. We had a decent 10m lead or so but I wasn't able to paddle straight all the time and had to correct our path. Richard was catching up though so I paddled even harder and was pushing it all the way to the end and was able to maintain our lead for the Win! It was harder than I thought but it is probably because we were in inflated kayaks and it didn't cut through the water as well as the pointed plastic ones.
The boat ride back to the pier started off as quiet as the tour group didn't really mingle that much and were all just resting after the days activities. Music was playing with American top 40 tracks and Gangnam Style played like 5 times. Must still be popular in Thailand lol. One of the tour members started to liven up the atmosphere by doing a lip singing performance to Linkin Park and it just took off from there. He was pretty good at putting on a show even did some Eminem. From there, he started some break dancing and then the rest of the guys from the tour members started breaking as well. They weren't that great but could do some moves and were just having fun putting on a show. Wished I could breakdance but those couple of learning sessions I did at MacBreak a few years ago wouldn't be enough and I never followed through. Breakdancing is one of those arts that you can bring anywhere in the world and be able to share with other dancers around the world. Plus it looks so cool.
Back at pier, we had arranged a direct drop off at the Phuket Airport which one of the tour members drove us in his truck. We got to the airport at 5, which was 3 hrs before our flight so we went to Burger King as they were craving Burgers and had free WiFi. We started to look for an elephant excursion we could do in Chiang Mai, last minute planning again which Rebecca was not pleased about. Fortunately, she was able to find a good elephant sanctuary where the elephants are treated well from someone's blog post. The sanctuary was called Ran Tong and she emailed them to inquire about doing the tour tomorrow. luckily, as it was still early evening, they replied right away to say that they can accommodate us tomorrow and we were able to get wifi at our gate, as there was another burger King there, to confirm our elephant excursion!
Our flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai was with AirAsia and Richard didn't say he was checking in any baggage when he booked online, so he had to pay an extra $60 to check in their bags compared to like $20. However, their bags were tagged and sent down the conveyor and was told by the baggage check in to go pay at the AirAsia service booth. Seeing how their bags were already sent down then conveyor to be loaded, he thought he could get away with not going to pay at the booth. We get to the gate to board our plane and he gets caught as it was written on their boarding pass that money was owed for baggage, so he ended having to pay the fee anyway.
Our flight was only 2 hrs long but there was a lot of turbulence. We all passed out and I was woken up by our plane shaking as it landed in Chiang Mai. We arrived at our hostel, So Hostel, with no issues. The hostel is relatively new and has a modern design to it. This was our first hostel that we stayed at for our entire trip. It is also the first hostel experience for Rebecca, Richard and Melissa, who weren't really fond of the idea but I pushed for it as that is part of the backpacking experience. It’s also because she has this negative association of hostels as old, dirty places and you have to share a bathroom with randoms. she never really had to do that in 1st year University so it’s a new concept for her. However, So Hostel's rooms were pretty good and clean for a hostel; I’ve been in questionable hostels in Europe lol. Their bathrooms were okay except the shower stalls were a bit small and didnt seem to have hot water or a lot of water pressure.
The thing I learned to love from travelling in Europe was meeting new people from around the world. It was easiest to do when you stayed in Hostels as that is where all the young backpackers stay. Hotels aren't as open and don't have much atmosphere. The best memories were meeting some good people, like Eugene whom I still stay in touch with a bit, and going out with the hostel.
Anyway, we had 6 beds to the 4 of us and since we arrived late and have an early morning tomorrow, no meeting anyone today. Oh well.
Posted by Steven
Hello Dear, I like your all pics and me also missing the amazing place Phang Nga Bay. Thanks for shared the valuable info...
ReplyDeletePhang Nga Bay Tour