The Maloneys Arrive - Koh Hong, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 9 Mar 2011 08:20
|
08:13.165N 98:30.064E
The Maloneys arrived at the Phuket Airport per the plan on
February 13th. There were no steamer trunks equipped with wheels.
Strike that - there were two suitcases equipped with wheels, but they were more
like mini steamer trunks than the steamer trunk behemoths the Browns
brought aboard. Perhaps the lunch the Maloneys shared with the Browns
before they left home had something to do with the luggage shrinkage. (The
Browns claimed in their Christmas card to us that one of the top 10
things they learned while on vacation onboard Harmonie was that "less
is more". They also claimed they learned that "Don Myers does not bite",
and "underwear is overrated" - all extremely important life lessons we
thought.) However, the Maloney's light luggage probably had more to do
with the fact that they had already experienced life on board Harmonie for two
weeks in Tahiti and the Society Islands back in 2008. Plus, their
visit with us in Thailand was only a small part of their overall Southeast Asian
travels. They came to us from Cambodia after spending ten
days in Vietnam before that. After leaving us, they moved on to
northern Thailand for a total trip time of six weeks. Six weeks and all
they had were two mini steamer trunks equipped with wheels and three smallish
backpacks. Very impressive! Especially since they had to bring
clothes covering the gamut of weather conditions from sweaty Thailand with us to
freezing Sapa in the far north of Vietnam. Very impressive
indeed.
Bill has done an excellent job detailing their trip across
Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in a blog at the following address:
http://web.me.com/wmaloney2/Southeastasia/Bill_&_Kathies_Travel_Blog/Bill_&_Kathies_Travel_Blog.html
You'll have to excuse the redundancy between the Maloney's
blog and ours as I finally update ours with all the marvelous pictures Bill
provided us from their time aboard. All the pictures in this and the next
eight entries were taken by Bill - a joy since his
pictures surpass mine in every way possible.
Without further ado, here is a sample of some of Bill's
pictures taken on Valentine's Day after we left Yacht Haven Marina and motored
18 miles to our first destination in the lovely Phang Nga Bay.
 Kathie enjoying what breeze there was (mostly we were making
our own breeze by motoring at our standard 6 knots) as we entered the
northern part of Phang Nga Bay. Phang Nga Bay lies between the
big island of Phuket and the west coast of mainland Thailand.
According to The Rough Guide to Thailand's Beaches & Islands, "The
bay is thought to have been formed about twelve thousand years ago when a
dramatic rise in the sea level flooded the summits of the mountain ranges which
over millions of years had been eroded by an acidic mixture of atmospheric
carbon dioxide and rainwater." What is left is an amazing seascape of
giant limestone karst formations - pillars of limestone reaching as high as 900
feet - in a broad, shallow bay.
 The haze is constant here due to the heaps
of moisture hanging in the air, which causes us to sweat
puddles while admiring the ghostly view.
 Beautifully calm water and evidence of zero breeze.
Remember that sailing we were bragging about doing just two weeks prior
to the Maloney's arrival? No sailing going on here, but the scenery
pretty much makes up for it.
 More evidence of flat seas. Cheers to the photographer
though. Nice picture.
 Koh Hong. As you might recall, in Thai, Koh means island
and hong means room, so this is Room Island. Named as such because the
hong here is one of the best - right up there with the Emerald Cave on Koh
Muk. It's so popular that this spot is inundated with zillions of tourists
arriving daily on every form of tourist boat ranging from the traditional small
Thai longtails (more on longtails in a future entry), to the 'luxury'
double or triple decker affairs equipped with kayaks. The tour boats
descend every day between the hours of 9:30 am and 4:30 pm. This timing
works out well for us boaters because we get the place to ourselves in the
cooler temps of early morning and late afternoon. In between, when
it's too hot to move, we amuse ourselves with tourist-watching.
It's a lot like people-watching only more fun because tourists often
act slightly more odd than normal people.
 Several double-decker tourist boats disgorging their loads of
kayaking Europeans and Australians to paddle through Koh Hong's
hong. Sometimes the kayaks come equipped with Thais to do all the paddling
for the tourists. Doesn't seem right, does it?
 The four of us paddled the dinghy through this cave
leading into the hong during the tourist-deserted hours of late
afternoon. Hongs are formed when the roof of what used to be a large cave
collapses, leaving the four-sided limestone 'room' open to the sky
with only a small entrance through a cave or narrow opening in one of
the limestone walls.
 A close-up of limestone stalactites hanging down from the
cliffs of Koh Hong.
 Harmonie sitting peacefully at anchor off the coast of Koh
Hong, basking in the sunset with two other boats. All as seen from
Storyteller's upper deck while the four of us participated in a Valentine's Day
cocktail hour with Sue and John and their two guests from Singapore, Ling and
daughter Eugenia. The next day, Storyteller motored back to Yacht Haven to
drop off their guests while Bill, Kathie, Don and I continued our Phang Nga Bay
tour.
Anne
|