Asia

The flight to Phuket was about an hour and a half. We had a driver waiting for us to take us to our hotel – The Burisari Resort in Patong. This is the southern part of Thailand on the west side. We had a couple of hours to get settled in and repacked for our pick up time of 1:00 pm. Our adventure for today was Hongs by Starlight.

We drove to Ao Po to board our boat where we would spend the next 8-9 hours. Our group was somewhere between 20-24 folks. We had Australians, Brits, Portuguese and a couple of Americans other than ourselves. We would be paired up for our canoes later so there was a crew member for each canoe and four or five more crew for cooking and running the boat. One young fella was fishing all day to catch the crew’s dinner!!!


Burasari Hotel Lobby	Islands off shore	Kites soarings

After a briefing for our day we were served a light Thai lunch. It was presented beautifully and tasted just as good as it looked!! The crew was quite fun and some of the fellas had quite a good time flirting with a trio of Aussie girls on holiday and playing with the young toddler on board as well.

The canoes we used were inflatable and just perfect for the day. We canoed from the escort boat to different islands to explore caves and hongs. This has to be planned according to the tides of the day as the water level is crucial to getting in or out of the areas. At low tide you can’t get into the caves and if the water is too high you can’t float out. We paddled up to the steep cliffs of the islands and would have to actually lie down in the canoe to get under and through. Inside would be a totally enclosed area with steep cliffs all around. It was so tranquil and so lush. The islands are so beautiful… mound of rich green vegetation with some exposed areas of steep limestone. I would have liked to have seen it all on a sunny day. In some ways we were fortunate that it was overcast… no one got sunburned and it didn’t really rain either.

After one cave tour we had about an hour to take out the canoes and just paddle wherever we wanted. We paddled over to a beach for a look around. Gary and I spotted a pretty large jelly fish on the way over. It made me think twice about wanting to swim there.

While we were waiting for the sunset each canoe make a Kratong. We used a slice of banana tree stalk and made a swirl of triangular shapes from banana leaves around the edge. Marigolds (for prosperity) and orchids decorated the middle along with candles and incense. They were quite colorful. The locals do this for the full moon each November and float the Kratong thanking the sea for it’s goodness and making a wish. They can be made from many things as long as they float.

Dinner was an absolute culinary delight! It’s amazing that they can do this kind of cooking in the galley of a working boat!! After dinner we were mesmerized watching the huge fruit bats fill the sky heading to the mainland. We watched them for an hour as far as our eye could see. They were flying so high you didn’t notice them at first. Occasionally one would be lower or we’d be closer to an island. There had to be thousands!! We had seen some at the nocturnal zoo so we knew exactly how big they are. They have a wing span of two – three feet. They roost on the islands but there is no fruit there for them so they fly to the mainland every night and then back before dawn.

We also had a great time watching the Kite (sea eagles) flying behind the boat. One of the crew was tossing in pieces of the chicken skins from dinner preparations and they were swooping down for morsels. At one time there were close to twenty.

Another bird we spotted along a couple of islands was a Hornbill. That was a serendipitous thing!!.. We had been able to see them in Costa Rica a little closer. They are a beautiful bird.

We were in the Phang Nga Bay on this trip. Our sunset was not a very colorful one tonight. Our last canoe trip was after it was fully dark. We paddled over to go inside a hong and launch our katrongs. We all lit our candles and incense and the hong was filled with that sweet smell. It was beautiful.. We let them float until the candles starting burning out and then paddled back to the boat. It was time to head back to the mainland and then to be transported back to the hotel.. Today was a long one and we were ready to rest!