One thing I really wanted to do while in Phuket was do a day trip sea kayaking through the caves on Phang Nga Bay, and although Molly claimed to be scared of caves, she was nice enough to sign up with me. The day started out with an hour van ride to the northeast side of the island, and since Molly and I were the last ones picked up we had to ride shotgun in the front of the van. Luckily I got the window seat, but Molly was squished between me and the driver the whole way there. Once to the pier, we boarded a boat with about 20 other people and were taken 45-minutes to the Bay. Along the way, each pair or group was assigned a tour guide, and Molly and I got Adam. He was a dark-skinned Thai man in his 30s, who spoke good enough English but about every 5th word you had to stop for a minute and try to figure out what he had just said. He told us that all the tour guides had wanted us (probably because as two young girls, we were the lightest and cutest group on-board) and he won by picking the lucky bottle cap out of a hat. He explained to us that we would be making three kayaking stops, and that in some we would have to use the “torch” (aka the flashlight) to guide us through the pitch-black caves. At some stops, we would also be in narrow, low caves and would have to lie down in the kayak to make it through. When we told him that both our names were Molly, he decided that the same name for two people wouldn’t suffice and for the rest of the day called me “Mo” and Molly M. “Lee” (as in Mo-lly). We later learned that most of the tour guides were part-time employees of the tour company, and that due to the recession tourism had been very slow. They each waited anxiously by the phone every night to see if they would be needed for the tours the next day. Adam moonlighted as a fisherman to make ends meet when he didn’t receive that phone call. He liked his job because it allowed him to practice English, and one day he hoped to work in a hotel but at this point his English wasn’t good enough to quality for a hotel job (which was crazy to me, because his English was better than half of the employees at our hotel in Kata Beach). As we got closer to the bay, the small islands dotting the bay became more and more apparent and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. I don’t really even know how to describe it. There are thousands of these peaks that just jet out of the sea for no apparent reason. They are all shaped differently are a mix of jagged rock and lush vegetation. It reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. The local fisherman have discovered the ins and outs of these islands, and have spread the knowledge to the tour companies. Our first stop was traded for our second stop when our captain saw all the other tour boats parked at the island we were supposed to kayak through first, and this change of plan served us well the entire day, as we were always leaving as the other tour groups were arriving. Our new first stop was a donut-shaped island with a lagoon in the middle. We entered what looked like a sheer rock wall through a tiny opening and entered our first cave. Adam paddled towards the light on the other side and all of a sudden we entered the lagoon. It was spectacular. Adam pointed out rock formations that look like a sitting buddah, Snoopy the dog and a giant piranha. Our next island’s cave was longer and narrower, and we had to both lie down in the kayak to get through and use the flashlight because it was so dark. This cave’s lagoon was even more spectacular than the first—it was more secluded, had beautiful mangrove trees in it with walking fish climbing on the roots, and there was even a pack of wild monkeys that we tried to feed bananas (they were already full from the other groups that had been there before us and didn’t want our bananas). The final cave we entered was called the bat cave, because about 300 bats live in it. This was one was the darkest and the biggest, and you literally couldn’t see your hand in front of your face without the flashlight. Adam kept splashing us with water and telling us the bats were peeing on us, but we knew better. After kayaking for a few hours, we got back on the boat and had lunch. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was one of the best tour lunches I have ever had. They filled the center of the boat with about 10 freshly prepared Thai dishes, and we all indulged. After lunch they took us to a beach in Khao Suk National Park, and Molly and I lazed under the shade of a tree while Adam made us flowers out of colored straws. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, and we were the only people there. There we bungalows for overnight guests as well as a few tents on the beach, but we didn’t see any of those guests. Someday I would like to go back and stay in those bungalows. When it was time to go, we took to boat back to Phuket Island and Adam’s way of saying goodbye was, “I’ll see you when you see me.” Pictures: First views of the island in Phang Nga Bay; One of the islands and a kayak next to it; a mangrove tree in one of the lagoons; Bats on the roof of the batcave; Lying down in the kayak, leading Adam with the flashlight.
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