Thailand Day 5: Kayaks and Caves

Day 5 was Jude's 9th birthday.  To celebrate we took a boat tour of Phang Nga Bay.
Tour companies in Thailand are often full service.  Our AirBnB host put us in contact with Phuket Sail Tours and they showed up the next morning at about 7am to cart all of us over to their home base.  There were three other groups on our tour totaling about 15 people on a huge doubledecker boat.  This was the most expensive activity we did in Thailand costing about $80/adult and I think $60/kid but it was worth triple that.  At their base camp they gave us a full breakfast and then put us on the big boat.  The boat had a ton of food and drinks for us to snack on at will as we sailed an hour out to the first islands in the national park Phang Nga Bay.  This area is defined by the islands that look like they're upside down or floating because the limestone bases have been eroded away into magical cliff like islands jutting out of the water.  Kicking back in the boat and watching them slowly approach was like watching National Geographic.

Once we approached one of the islands the guides loaded us into kayaks and started paddling toward the overhanging cliffs.  When we got to the cliffs we were told to lay down in the kayak so that we could be paddled under them.  We understood that we would be going right up to the overhangs and maybe a little way into a cave, but what actually happened was beyond the tour guide's English ability to describe.
In we went on these kayaks into a completely black cave with clearance above the water of about three feet.  And then two feet.  And then no clearance at all about 100 yards in.  Once we could go no further in the kayaks the guides mimed sweetly "Get out."

Laying flat in the kayak through the cave passage.

Get out.  Get out of the kayak and completely submerge yourself in the black water with only about a head space of black air above you.  Get out of the kayak, you can touch the bottom.  What's in there?  Who knows.  Get out.

In the black cave hoping for the best.

My third born child riding a stranger's back into a water cave.

And guess who had to be first?  Me, of course.  Nobody was going to do it unless I jumped in and pretended that everything was ok.  Suddenly, I was in the water and had two kids clinging to me for "safety".  The guides had the flashlights.  The hippie jumped in and so did most of the rest of the tour, save a few wimps who wanted to be left behind.  Si hung back but then, when he realized he was going to be left in a black tunnel with strangers, he panicked and swam after me.  The guide swung him up on his back and pointed through the basketball size hole infront of us saying "It get big!" and through the little hole we swam.

Head and shoulders clearance, barely.  Black water, lit by flashlights, hope they keep working.  

That cave opened into a much larger one and we thought that was the end of the tour.  But no, onward further we had to go to the other side of that interior cave and through and through in chin deep water holding up my precious children until suddenly everything opened up into brightness.  We had reached a lagoon!  The water was crystal clear blue.  The sides of the lagoon towered above us, maybe 200 feet completely enclosed.  The foliage was untouched, other than the children climbing the trees that grew from the center of the lagoon.

Light, at last.

In the Lagoon.

The water in here was only hip deep and I don't know what the ground was.  Rock maybe?

Monkey boy before we saw real monkeys in these trees.

If there are trees they will climb them.  Spot the guide.

Unidentified creepy animal.

Creatures from the green lagoon.

The guides spotted movement in the trees overhead and started hooting at it.  One by one out came monkey after monkey, shimmying down the trees and jumping into the water.  I think we counted nine monkeys, half of which were babies on their mother's backs.  We kept a safe distance from them because, duh, they are wild monkeys.

Two of the nine monkeys we saw playing in the water.

Monkey pic.

After we played in the lagoon for an hour we swam back through the caves, got back on the kayaks and paddled back to the big boat where the most delicious Thai meal had been prepared for us.  Again, so much good food and not enough room in our tummies.
Our next stop was a cluster of islands that we just kayaked around and enjoyed.  Our boat passed by "James Bond Island" where they filmed the man with the Golden Gun.  Later we visited a large dry cave we could crawl around and finally we spent an hour on an uninhabited island with a pure white beach.  The kids took the kayaks for a spin while we relaxed on the beach and swam.  Few place in the world are quite so beautiful.
When we got back on the boat the tour guide brought out a lovely chocolate cake for Jude and we sang to him on the boat.  Pretty good ninth birthday!

Singing to the birthday boy!

On the boat ride back a squall dumped on us but we were generally untouched.  We had really good luck with the weather overall.  The day was long and full of food, gorgeous vistas, warm water, creepy caves, jumpy monkeys, and the bluest ocean you ever did see.  Nice work on the whole scenic experience down in Phuket, God.

James Bond Island

After we went home and rested we went out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate Jude's birth.  Guess how the food was.  You're right.  It was amazing.  On our walk back to our car we had to pass a lot of bars filled with beautiful women -- the naughty kind of bars.  It was, however, amusing to watch the Hippie bat away all their attention.