Phang Nga Bay by Kayak

Part two of a series on Phuket. Links to part 1 and part 3 .


I've always wanted to go on a kayak tour. My two previous attempts (Palawan and Australia) were scuttled by poor weather or lack of participants, so I wasn't going to pass up the chance in Phuket.

The vast majority of advertised tours were mass-market paddles sandwiched between snorkelling off the beach and tours to James Bond island. Not my cup of tea.

The other end of the range was made up of serious multi-day sea canoe expeditions. Camping. Hmm. Maybe next time.

Finally I settled on a day trip visiting the various hongs (lagoons) inside the islands in Phang Nga bay. Again, on the advice of the ThornTree folks, I booked with John Gray - who is well known for his ecologically responsible tours and who pioneered exploration of the hongs.

We weren't disappointed. John and I (my husband John, not our tour leader John) had an excellent time kayaking through the caves and the lagoons. Normally, the tour company provides a guide who paddles the kayak for you. John claimed I was an Olympic kayak competitor (I doubt anyone believed that for a second!) so we took an extra paddle and struck off in our double-engined kayak.

Turned out that was a great idea. We entered most of the lagoons well ahead of the other kayaks, and enjoyed a beautiful view in unbroken silence. Our guide, Golf, pointed out crab-eating macaques, crabs, mudskippers, and a lazy water monitor.


We had a good Thai seafood dinner on board the support boat. We got about two shrimp each (in tom yum goong soup), and the rest was yummy chicken and fish. John Gray is a fervent environmentalist and doesn't support commercial shrimp farming.

We stayed out in the bay until well past sunset, and paddled back through the caves and into a lagoon after dark. We brought traditional Thai krathongs, lit candles, and floated them in the caves. The lagoon was pitch-black, the darkness broken only by the occasional firefly or the swirl of bioluminescent plankton in the water.

Finally it was time to return to the support boat, with the guides collecting the floating krathongs along the way. We got back to our hotel, tired but happy (and hungry, in John's case) at around 10 pm.

Note: There are a number of kayak and sea canoe companies offering tours in Phuket. Some are much more professional (and more ecologically friendly) than others. You'll pay a bit more if you go with a good tour operator, but it's well worth it - we've heard stories of cheap tours where eager guides pull out baby mangroves to show tourists their roots... sigh.

Prices and reservations

Tours can be booked through the John Gray Sea Canoe website (http://www.johngray-seacanoe.com) or via phone. The Hong by Starlight tour, for 3450 baht per person, includes hotel transfers, beverages, lunch, and dinner. The web site states they'll serve "a light lunch", but don't be fooled - it's quite substantial. You can pay online via credit card, or via cash or credit card at the pier.

post this to del.icio.us

Phuket Post-Tsunami

(Or, flying to paradise for S$14.95)

Just got back from a much-needed four day vacation in Phuket. Apart from the dearth of tourists, a little construction, and stacks of tsunami survivor t-shirts in Patong shops, there was very little sign of the tsunami that hit last Christmas. Most of the Patong, Karon, and Kata area was either undamaged or already restored.



Phuket "local expat" residents hanging out on the Lonely Planet ThornTree message board showered us with recommendations on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do. The consensus was that we should avoid over-developed Patong ("We call it the zoo," quipped one expat) and spend our time elsewhere. Kata beach was still touristy, looking at the number of tailor shops lining the main road, but it was quiet enough in the low season. We counted one bored backpacker waiting for his girlfriend to get her blond hair beaded, a German couple in their sixties, and one newly-arrived Irishman still acclimatizing to the humidity.

Rawai was laid-back and the beachfront mats were filled with Thais enjoying a family dinner. Apart from our host Richard, there was only one other Westerner on the beach.

More on our adventures in future posts... I’ll stop for now by saying it’s an excellent time to visit Phuket. Zuji is advertising 4-day, 3-night flight and hotel packages with airport transfers and a free Thai massage, for just S$128 via Tiger Airways. Even when you add in the S$79 Singapore airport tax, it’s still a good deal.

Other blog entries on Phuket:

Phang Nga Bay by Kayak

Furry Friends in Phuket

post this to del.icio.us

Surviving Singlish

You’ve just got to love how organized society is here. There’s an initiative for everything, accompanied by big posters on the buses and in the MRT stations. Does any of it actually work? Well, when you combine the "Speak Mandarin" campaign with the "Speak Good English" campaign, here’s what you get...

First of all, there are Chinese words and non-words creeping into all parts of the conversation hor. Speak straight English also cannot do, what. And don’t forget the accent. At lunch, stand in front of the hawker auntie looking very blur when she ask me question. What? What? Oh... "eat in or take-away?" I so pai seh, very embarrassed!

Aiyah, too much, cannot tahan any more. Been here six months liao, still blur. Each time get in a taxi, very kan cheong. What if taxi driver dun understand, drive drive never reach?

Take MRT no better lah. The queues! Everyone so kiasu, always standing right in front of the MRT door. You want to grab the sole remaining seat, is it? Never mind, just stand lor.

Lah, ah, lor, hor, leh, meh. Wah, who can keep them straight?

But I very on the ball one, now understand Singlish ooooso caaan! Otherwise how to survive in Singapore ah?

The rest of us non-Singaporeans can decode this using The Coxford Singlish Dictionary.

post this to del.icio.us

Dharma's and the Treasures of the Vatican

On Friday night we went down to the waterfront and had drinks and dinner at Dharma's Kebabs, musing about the blue patch in a sky full of grey. I've got a love-hate relationship with Dharma's. Their kebabs and breads are wonderful. The curry sauce is a little on the mild side, but still great. The chicken and beef are unbeatably tender. But this Friday, the whole dish was just served cold.

How could it be? They'd just started serving grilled items (at 6 o'clock, when we ordered), and nobody else was having kebabs. I guess they were too busy filling beer glasses to bring over our plate. Oh well. The calamari appetizers weren't bad, though.

Throughout dinner we gazed at the Asian Civilisations Museum across the Singapore river. Posters all over town have been announcing the arrival at ACM of pieces from the Vatican Collections, in an exhibit entitled "Journey of Faith".

Entrance to the museum is half-price ($4 from the usual $8) on Fridays from 7 to 9 pm. We breezed through the Southeast Asia gallery, tinkered with the interactive kiosks, searched the China gallery for Tang dynasty porcelain (in remembrance of Mr. Croup), and finally stood in awe at the foot of paintings by Raphael and Veronese.

It was interesting seeing carved pieces of early Christian catacombs up close. We felt like we were walking around a Dan Brown novel, or an Indiana Jones movie. The exhibit displays narrate the necessary Biblical and historical context, for those who aren't familiar with Peter's stewardship or Paul's life (and the great difficult they had in seeing eye to eye).

Closing time overtook us before we could explore the South Asian gallery.

Capped the night with a drink and Rosanna & her jazz players at Bar Opiume. Nothing like a plush sofa after walking all evening...

Update: While writing this up I discovered that Dharma's Kebabs is owned and managed by McCraic Holdings (who also owns Father Flanagan's). No wonder it felt like an Irish pub.

post this to del.icio.us