Sunday 8th May 2016
First things first. Rise and shine and start the day on the beach with some stretches, a run and then a swim. Have a beach shower, change and off to breakfast by the beach. It gets tougher – we then had to be ready for a 10:30 pickup and drove for an hour north and then across to the eastern side of the island (we are on Phuket Island) where we boarded a boat to motor out into Phang Nga Bay in the Straits of Malacca. We were on a day excursion with John Gray’s Sea Canoes.
We spent the day in and out of the canoes with our very own guide/paddler. We explored the sea caves – Oyster Cave, Bat Cave (and yes there where plenty of very small bats) and various lagoons only accessible when we paddled through the caves and floated out into the high, rock walled enclosed lagoons.
In some cases we had to lie flat in the canoes and breath in to pass through the caves – what an incredible experience. We saw some bird life and marine life but alas no monkeys today.
We dined on fresh Thai cuisine for lunch and dinner and then with the help of our guide we made a Buddhist offering to the Gods using banana tree trunk for the base, folded banana leaves, orchids, marigolds, incense and candles. After dark we boarded the canoes and headed for the sea caves again and lit the offerings and floated them into the water as we made a wish. The final adventure was to see the phosphorous plankton – just like fire flies but under water. Back to the boat just in time as a cracking great tropical thunderstorm broke. We were right in the middle of it. It lashed the boat for about an hour, the lightning lit up the night sky, the thunder was incredibly loud and the rain came down and the deck was awash. However we all stayed dry thanks to the roll down plastic blinds. Strangely enough the seas did not get at all rough. I think there are just so many islands and it is such a protected area.
We didn’t get back to our room until 10pm – what a great day.
