In Bangkok (in a mall, to continue the long version, part I)

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I'm at an internet cafe in a mall right now. It's only 20 baht/hr (less than a buck!) And I thought it was a good deal back on Phuket for 200baht/hr (I was gouged!).

I'm a bit worried about my photo taking capacity right now. I brought along a 2 gig and a 512 mb chip, and I'm already close to filling up the 2 gig one. That's 700+ images plus some videos. I should've brought another chip.


So to write the long version...


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Back on Phuket...

Father wanted to take a boat tour to the outlying islands. We found a hole in the wall tour operator (aren't they all hole in the walls?) that offered a whole day tour for 1300baht/person, including lunch and canoe rides from the 'mothership' to the outlying islands. We did the calcs, seemed like a good deal, so we signed up.

The morning of, they picked us up at the hotel around 8 and then drove for an hour to the other side of the island, closer to these outlying islands, the main one being Phang Na (I hope I'm spelling this right).

It was only about 9am and I was already hot and sticky and miserable; I had another 6 hours to go...

Right there at the dock, a few Thai folks had set up stalls to sell last minute provisions to the tourists. *sigh* I was missing a hat and sunglasses. Father was missing a hat, sunglasses, and flipflops (he was wearing sneakers). We ended up buying 2 hats and a pair of flipflops for I'm ashamed to say how much.

Everyone else who was going on the tour was dressed for the beach, skimpy this and that and a sarong here and there. Aren't they worried about skin cancer??

I doubt it.

We had to get onto a dingie (?) first to get to the mothership, and then the mothership sailed for about 30 minutes to reach the first Island. They called everything "island" even though I'd say they were more "rock" sized. I didn't quite understand the Thai guy's explanation of how they were formed, but basically, we were going to sail INTO these rocks during lowtide.

Imagine a volcano shape (a mountain with a dip in the middle). Now imagine little mouse holes near the foot of the volcano. During lowtide, the water receeds enough that the canoes are able to pass through. We had to lean back (lie down) in the canoe so we wouldn't hit our heads on the rocks, and the guide peddled us in while holding a flashlight... During hightide, the holes disappear underwater.

We sailed into a few of these Islands and inside of each was a little different. One had a shallow tidepool and trees (see pix) and another had rocks that had a bunch of hardened oyster shells clinging to it (pix didn't come out). All were open to the sky.

End of Part I.

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Photos

On the Mothership
With a big bugbite on my forehead.

Trees Inside the Rock
This is what we saw when we were peddled under and into the first rock/island.

Going Towards the Light
Coming out of the rock/island...

Into Another Rock/Island
Each one is a little different but we all peddle in from under.

James Bond Island
Look familiar??

Comments

[Sally]

Wow, that's amazing!
Dang Judy, that's some jeeeeeenky tour you got on. nice pictures though. i remember doing some jenky stuff in thailand too. i went hiking on this pristine waterfall for goodness sake! got your CKS postcard in today's mail. check your email.

[Wendy]

The pictures look cool!
But I don't think I'd go there to suffer the heat and humidity. I'll just look at your photos. And don't you need to say holes in the walls?