The climbing was a success, but Denise and Duncan came
back very tired and de-hydrated. We then moved on to Koh Hong and picked up a
mooring amongst very picturesque scenery. We took the dinghy to go into a big
hong (this is a lagoon within the hill). Again amazing scenery. We also explored
the two small beaches and another cave. Denise was not well that night; she had
picked up a traveler's bug; not nice at all. Subsequently we did not do much the
next day. Moved on to another island with a white beach and again stunning
scenery. We left Koh Pak Bai the next morning. The next morning we left early to
get over the shallow area at high tide and went to Koh Yang/Koh Hong. Here we
explored more hongs and caves by dinghy. There were many tourists here in boats
doing the same thing, but the nice thing was that they were taken around in
inflatable kayaks. Denise was feeling much better again so was able to enjoy the
magnificent sights. The photos speak for themselves.
After lunch we motored to Koh Panak; a much bigger
islands with many challenging hongs and caves. I had seen enough by then and let
Denise and Duncan go off to be more adventurous. The tourists had gone by then
so they had all the caves to themselves and took some amazing photographs. A
very wet rainstorm cleared the air a bit; it really is not and sticky
here.
After a quiet night at anchor we made our way to Yacht
Haven Marina. Denise's time was coming to an end; we hired a car to do some more sight seeing (Nayang Beach); put the
air conditioner on on the boat to cool down and relax before going to the
airport in the middle of the night.
The next day Duncan and I took the car north and
explored the coastline above Phuket; also very nice and a lot less crowded. This
area was very badly hit by the tsunami of 2004.
We spent one more night in the marina and then headed
back to Boat Lagoon Marina to get Sea Topaz ready for hauling
out.
