We decided to do a day trip while in the Phuket area. This was the first taste of the real beauty of Thailand. Now I know where they got the inspiration for the floating islands in the movie Avatar. It was just awesome. For about 30 per person, we were driven over to Phuket Town, and the marina, boarded a large boat, motored over to 4 different islands, were feed lunch and snacks, got a long tail boat ride, were entertained, got to do some kayaking and were given tours. It was a good day.
The first stop was the bat cave. They dropped the kayaks in the water, guide/paddle boy included if you wanted, and away we went, grabbing some bananas on the way off the boat. Of course Brian wanted to do the paddling so we hopped in and headed towards the masses assembling at the cave entrance. As we paid the guardians, a bunch of monkeys – literally – our pilfered bananas, we entered. It was a huge cave and you could hear everyone’s voices echoing off the walls. I was amazed to see huge stalactites and stalagmites all around us. Then we flipped on our headlamps as we paddled deeper in. Up above us, there they were – bats – and a lot of them. It was really cool, even for a scaredy cat like me. We went all the way back until we literally had to lie down in the kayak. We could see light emanating from the water at the rock line, but the tide was too high to get to the other side. Alas, we turned around and headed out, feeding the last of our treats to the gatekeeper monkeys!
The next stop was equally amazing in a different way. We kayaked through a cave that opened up into a fern like grotto. Then we went through another out the other side. We paddled around the island, taking in all the beauty.
The third stop, and the most famous was James Bond Island. We didn’t take the kayaks and the boat was too big so we all had to load up on a long tail boat and taxi over. It was a hard sell, once you stepped off the boat and hit the shore as all the vendors were lined up and waiting for us. It was a zoo.We finally made it over to the “famous” part out of the movie. Took our picture and then the camera battery died. Figures. Anyhow, we tramped around for a bit, bought some postcards in lieu of photos and then got back on the longtail to our boat.
Our last stop was a random place for everyone to go for a swim. Since I saw one to many huge jellyfish in the water, we opted to grab a kayak and do some more paddling. Well, Brian paddled, I just came along for the ride.
We found another awesome cave, and paddled back into it until we hit beach. We disembarked and started to explore this huge cavern. It was so neat, but we had to cut it short when we heard the departing horn. Back to the boat!
It was a good day.
View all the amazing pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625145867383/
