Phang Nga Bay Expedition Express trip report: Day 1 | Day 2
For this first day of the Overnight Expedition Express by John Gray's Sea Canoe we followed the same itinerary of the Hong By Starlight Tour, sharing the boat with the day trippers.
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| JGSC Escort Boat |
According to the tide prediction of the day I was picked up on time at 12:00 and
transferred to Ao Por marina where all participants were gathered at a restaurant for
the count, then after the staff introduced themselves we got on the "escort boat". Once on board the tour leader did a safety briefing about the
do's and don'ts on the boat while we started cruising towards Phang Nga
Bay. There were about 25 guests on board plus many guides though there was plenty of space for everybody, fruits and soft drinks available all the time, the boat also has a toilet on the lower deck.
When we were about half way to destination a light buffet lunch
was served, mostly vegetarian choices and plenty of food for everyone.
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| Safety birefing |
After lunch we were given a very detailed briefing about
the canoe session that we were about to enjoy, the guide in charge was using maps and other
funny pictures which made the briefing interesting so people didn't miss the important parts. We then finally got to our first stop which was at Panak
island, a canoe and an English speaking guide/paddler was provided each 2 people, all the guides are kind and knowledgeable about the local
environment providing a lot of information and smiling all the time. In the meanwhile we were paddling from the moored boat towards a high and steep limestone cliff with a dark cave entrance at the bottom.
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| Cave entrance |
Once we went deeper into the tunnel it was pitch black so the guides turned their flashlights on, the
tunnel was large and very long and we could see hundreds of bats sleeping while hanging on the ceiling. After about 200m the cave started to get more and
more narrow to the point that we had to lay down horizontally and deflate the
canoe a bit in order to move forward, when we managed to pass through the little hole I realised that we entered another
world. This was one of the so called "hongs" (Thai word for "room"), a large hidden lagoon completely surrounded by
limestone cliffs covered in lush vegetation, only accessible through a cave.
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| Inside a hong |
The atmosphere inside the hong is surreal, you can find absolute silence only broken by the animal sounds. The effects by the light filtering
through the trees was amazing and could see plenty of sea eagles flying
above us. Looking carefully into the trees we also spotted some large hornbills and monkeys (long tailed macaques) laying on the rocks. After
about an hour exploring this hong we went out again trough the cave
and then to a smaller lagoon before returning to the boat.
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| The very narrow hong access point |
We
immediately started cruising towards the other side of the island and during navigation we were followed by a flock of sea eagles "hunting" some pieces of chicken skin that where tossed from the kitchen, quite impressive! When we reached our destination we had some free time to self paddle, swim and relax on the
beach, this was also the place where we would later spend the night camping. There were few other boats from other tour operators moored here and many people
wandering around though they left very soon as they were at the end of
their day while we still had plenty of time to go.
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| Diamond-like Calcium carbonate |
Once back on board
the guides provided us banana leaves, flowers and needles to teach us how to build a traditional krathong, this part was interesting and a particular experience of Thai culture. Before sunset we moved to the nearby Hong Island and went
for another canoe session through caves and hongs, pretty similar to
the first though in this cave there were some formations of calcium carbonate that was shining like diamond when hit by the light from the torches, therefore it was called "Diamond Cave".
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| Krathong construction...well done! |
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| Lawa Island's beach - overnight campsite |
While most guests returned to Phuket,
the 5 of us who chose to stay overnight were left on the tiny
secluded beach at Lawa Island together with few of the guides. They already
prepared the camp site with tents, fire, oil lamps and all the
supplies we could ever need. Everything was perfectly organised and it was nice
to be just a handful of people from different countries chatting around a
fire on a remote beach, all under a starry sky. Unfortunately as it often happens in tropics the weather quickly
changed and in a couple of hours a short thunderstorm came, time to go to
sleep. The tents were set under a limestone cliff and a large tree so
we were well sheltered from the heavy rain, it actually cooled down
the temperature enough to allow us a nice sleep and be fresh for the second day of our adventure.
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| Sunset in Phang Nga Bay |
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