Phang Nga Bay: Rest day and Tour

November 24, 2006

The guesthouse breakfast was supposed to start at 7:00, though that didn't happen because the cook was at the market. We walk to the 7-11 to get coffee yogurt, chocolate milk then return to our room to eat. At 8:20, we walk to the tour place, as we sit at a table, we are given hot tea, and Kirsten and Michael arrive. They are going on a different boat for only 1/2 day that includes canoeing in the mangroves.

We get to the pier in an open air bus. Once in the boat, we talk some more with two Dutch girls from the bus, a couple in the front of the boat don't speak. Soon we are off in the long tail boat for a day of exploring Ao Phang Nga Marine National Park. The karst scenery is beautiful, created by mainland fault movement that pushed the massive limestone blocks into geometric patterns and forming more that 40 islands with huge vertical cliffs (LP).

First, we run through the mangroves; these are the largest remaining primary mangrove forests in Thailand. The Andaman Sea covers more than 80% of the area in the Park boundaries. Next, we sail through a few caves and reach one that we could swim in, there are no takers on our boat, or from the boat that landed ahead of us. The highlight after landing on the small beach is lunch of fried rice and shrimp in a spicy banana curry sauce, and slices of pineapple. We swam and rested for an hour then back in the boat to "James Bond Island" or Ko Phing Kan, where the "man with a golden gun" was filmed.

The island was one huge souvenir stand, really individual stalls all connected and selling the same stuff: sea shells made into various items like wind chimes, T shirts etc. and there are heaps of other boats and people. Our last stop is a Muslim fishing village, on the way out we pass by the "noncommercial" side and see the mosque. Going back, we land on the restaurant--souvenir side--where we have to walk through both areas to get to the village. Guess it's not much different from home, when exiting an event or tourist building, it's usually through the gift shop.

The houses are built on stilts and boardwalks above the water, even the chickens are in cages suspended above the water. We are back to our hotel by 4pm. Around 6pm, Michael comes to the room to tell us they have found a restaurant along the river where we could meet for dinner.

At the restaurant, the table bungalows are all taken so we sit at a concrete table with a built-in checkerboard. We ordered fish, crab sticks, Massman curry and King crab. Rachel a margarita and Kirsten a mai tai, the guys drink beer. The big surprise was the King Crab...not what we were expecting. It is one of those "darth vadar" looking crabs we first saw at Ao Leuk. It has "lots of eggs" according to our waiter, "very nice" he says. We all look at each other and decide we have to all try it together. We each take a scoop of eggs along with the mango-cashew salad and decide it's not too bad. But once the mango salad was gone, we all stopped eating the eggs. Two black kittens at Rachel's feet benefited and are very happy kitties.

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