The life & times of Jacks

By Jacqueline

Thailand Trip - 2018 - Day 5

We had booked a day trip out with Andaman Sea Kayaking company for a bit of sea kayaking and sailing around the Andaman so it was a reasonably early start to the day.

The driver picked us up from the hotel and I remember thinking, he looks a bit dodgy in his jeans, baseball cap and sunglasses - it wasn't so much the items of dress but more the way he wore them.  This point I am making will come in useful later in the day.

It was about 45-50 mins in the car / minivan until we reached the pier - Ao Por Pier where we were then separated into groups based on language.  We then transferred onto a larger boat that was going to take us to the islands.  The agenda was to stop by some islands that you would kayak into through cave entrances and inside there were some gorgeous lagoons to be discovered.  I have added some extras of this part of the day.    

The Guide gave us the safety talk and he made a few jokes and I'm ashamed to say I struggled to understand his accent - it took a lot of concentration.  Listening to Thai people speak Thai is lovely - sounds so melodic but I struggle with the English which is a terrible thing to say given I don't speak a word of Thai.

We came to the first stop at Phang Nga Bay and then I believe the first island cave was Panak Island.  The caves we kayaked under were 135m long and at points we needed to lie down as the stalagtytes dropped pretty low.  We also paddled under a ceiling full of bats - it was quite a site to behold.  Scary biscuits.  

We then came out of the mouth of the cave to a beautiful enclosure - I took only my compact and I don't think my images do justice to the beauty we saw.  Our kayak driver (needed someone who could navigate those inflatable canoes though tiny nooks and cranies) spotted wildlife for us and we came across a family of monkeys on the inside of the lagoon.  

After this and  another shorter cave and second lagoon we headed back to the boat for a buffet lunch - so far, it doesn't matter where we eat on this trip the food is incredible and I am totally overeating.  There was a massive selection of chicken with cashews, noodles and vegetable, stir fried veg, egg fried rice, vegetable and prawn tempura - amazing!  Watermelon and slices of pineapple to finish us off.

The only thing that has been a bit dodge out of the hotel resorts are the toilets but I don't think that comes as much of a surprise.  

Next stop on the day trip was a drive by the "James Bond Island" or "James Bond Rock" which is where I think 2 James Bond movies have been filmed in parts as well as Rambo 3!  The islands are beautiful but the land part of it was rammed with people so we snapped our vista pics and carried on our way to Hong island which was our second Kayak / cave experience through 3 lagoons.  As before - stunningly beautiful and my camera / my skills don't do justice to the level of beauty here.

Finally back to the boat and then a final stop by a beach location where we could either swim or take the canoe ourselves to the beach.  Steve and I took a canoe and I have to admit I wasn't too bad at the navigation - the consensus between Steve and I was that I was the best at it - of course he doesn't read this so can't disagree!

That was good fun and something new for me as I won't even get in a paddle boat with Steve.

Back home to the hotel and I was absolutely shattered.  I dragged myself kicking and screaming into the shower and we headed back out to check out one of the markets in Patong.  

We found a place to sit where someone would bring us drinks and then we sampled as many dishes as our bellies would handle - again ashamed to say this was a lot.

I tried mango sticky rice - delicious, then we shared prawn gyoza followed by Pad Thai and then finally some chicken spring rolls.  It was in total about £16 (including our cocktails and beer).  So cheap.

We wandered around to check out the stalls for souvenier shopping and Steve warned me to be prepared to haggle.  I saw a little purse I thought my niece would like so we agreed that we thought it was worth £3 and would haggle down to at least that.  All prepared we went in for the kill.....although when the lady said 50 baht we accepted straight away - this is about £1 so no way were we haggling that down.

I feel like the pricing is more than fair - at no point do I feel like we are being ripped off as tourists - the value for money is really good here.

On the way out of the market we got some chopped up (manically) fruit with icecream rolled into these cute rolls.  Delicious again.  One more bar stop on the way home and then back to the hotel.  I had to work myself up to that hill back to the resort - it is getting harder, not easier, every night - that may have something to do with the weight I am no doubt gaining while I am here.


 

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