Phang Nga Bay Expedition Express trip report: Day 1 | Day 2
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| The best sea view "room" |
I woke up around 7:00 when the sun was already high enough to warm up my tent, and when I
unzipped the tent I was welcomed by a beautiful scenery with some of
the limestone islands of Phang Nga Bay at the horizon, it was the best sea view "room" in the world!
While my fellow travellers where still in
their tents the staff quickly prepared an abundant picnic breakfast,
there was food to suit all habits, from scrambled eggs to bakery stuff
and fruit along with tea and coffee.
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| Campsite on Lawa Island |
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| Our unique breakfast |
After breakfast and some relax
time our support longtail boat arrived, it was time to move for some
self paddling canoe, one couple had booked a different program so the group was split. Starting from our beach camp we circumnavigated
about half of Lawa Island and reached a cave, a different one from
those we visited on the previous day. This time there was no water in
the cave so we parked our canoes on a tiny sand stripe at the
entrance and walked through a long tunnel which once again ended up
in a hong.
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| Mud Skippers |
Due to very low tide also the hong had no water at the time so we could walk
around and see some huge mangrove trees and some funny Mud Skippers, a kind of fish with the ability of breathing air and hop around the muddy floor when the tide is low.
Back
on the canoe we paddled further and got to a little beach hidden between two cliffs, at first glance it was nothing special but then the guide
showed us an old wooden ladder that was leading to a hole a couple of meters
above the ground, it was the entrance to another cave but once again
it was different from the previous one, we never got bored of seeing caves because
each one had its peculiarities. This particular one is called
"Icecream Cave" because there are plenty of white and brown
stalactites and stalagmites which were mixing together and really looked like
huge ice creams.
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| Some of the magic in Phang Nga Bay |
Once back outside we loaded our canoes on the support boat and started cruising east towards a new island where we had
some more self paddling around, this time no caves but beautiful
environment and landscapes. Later with the boat we moved further east to the Krabi side of the bay and stopped at Pakbia Island which has a nice
quiet beach and clear water with the opportunity to do fairly good snorkeling, here we had about 1 hour
free time to enjoy the place at leisure.
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| Cruising towards Pakbia Island |
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| Little corner of Parafise at Pakbia Island |
When it was about 12:30 we cruised to
the little Thalen Pier whiich is located not far from Ao Nang, there we had another
great meal at a local restaurant, this time was a seafood set menu
lunch. Time to part ways with my new friends Josh and Maggie, they
got a car waiting for them to transfer them to Ao Nang and then a short boat ride to Railay Beach where
they had booked their new hotel, while I returned strait to Phuket
with the fast and comfortable long tail boat. The journey back took
about 2 hours, just enjoyed the breeze and the navigation admiring
the landscape, there are more than 50 small limestone islets all around. We finally reached Ao Por Pier around
17:00.
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| Great lunch at local restaurant |
A big thanks to the very professional and friendly staff who took very good care of all the guests allowing us to have a truly unforgettable experience. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who wishes to have an original and safe adventure off the beaten track, just remember that accommodation is in a tent so it's very basic and definitely not as comfortable as a hotel. As long as you don't have back ache issues or similar health conditions the experience is definitely worth the effort, after all it's just for one night.
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