Day 2: Welcome To Phuket and The Andaman Coast
The second day was started off by flying from Bangkok down to Koh Phuket. Phuket is the hub of the western coast having many beautiful beaches and lush tropical landscapes to explore. This is a view from the Airbnb I stayed at while in Patong, one of Phukets coastal beach towns. This is one of the areas that was hit hard by the 2004 tsunami.
From here I was off for an afternoon of sea cave exploring the insides of limestone formations around Phang Nga Bay Marine Park. Leaving the dock you can already begin to see the giant rock outcroppings rising from the water in the distance.
After about an hour boat ride we arrived at the base of a large limestone cliff face. From here I hopped on a sea canoe with a guide for a much closer look at the towering stones. Paddling between the cliffs and around the corner reveals an awesome view of what looks like floating boulders.
The goal for this first stop was to get lucky enough to see some monkey hanging out on "Monkey Beach" while floating around the island.
From here we started paddling towards one of the limestone karstic islands and into a “Hong“(Thai for “Room”). These internal rooms are also called lagoons. Depending on the time of day and the oceans tides this will determine if it is safe to enter the lagoons. If the tide is too high there is no way in and if it rises while you're inside then there is the chance of being stuck for a while. It's a tight squeeze either way, laying down on a low profile sea canoe your nose can still touch the roof of the cave. It is all worth it once inside the hong.
Preparing to exit the first lagoon and head back to the boat so we can travel to the next area.
The name of this island is Phanak IS and when we reached the inside of the lagoon it looked like a scene out of the movie Jurassic Park. There was also a monkey swimming around that almost hitched a ride on our canoe, but instead it dove underwater and swam a good distance before eventually popping it's head up.
Once back on the boat we finished the day after dark by floating our own self-made flower “Kratong” in one of the lagoons where it is completely dark. The evening Loi Kratong ceremony was complete with fireflies and dinoflagellates (bioluminescent plankton) inside the cave where the water glows. I don't have a photo of the plankton because there must be complete darkness to see them.
Back to the boat one last time for a delicious seafood-vegan buffet on the trip back, with a nice sunset backdrop.The trip was by far one of the coolest experiences i've had so far and the food was some of the best I had while in Thailand. I highly recommend http://www.johngray-seacanoe.com/ if you'er ever visiting this region and would like to have an awesome adventure exploring the limestone formations of Phang Nga Bay Marine Park.
It will be hard to top day 2.
Follow Along For Day:3 we'll be journeying through some of Phukets tropical forest and mountainsides.
