Phang Nga Bay Tour Re-Run - Phuket, Thailand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 12 Feb 2012 15:16
| 8:10.221N 98:20.404E January 4, 2012 - January 13, 2012 After the New Year's festivities, Don and I took a leisurely eight-day tour around Phang Nga Bay (lies between the island of Phuket to the west, and mainland Thailand to the east), stopping at all our favorite anchorages. It was a re-run of the tour we did with Bill and Kathie Maloney last year - except there were no sea rescues. The weather was near perfect (if only a bit hot, surprise, surprise), and although we didn't do a lot of sailing (the wind that toyed with us Christmas week predictably disappeared), it was still marvelous to be out and about and not marina sitting. From Ao Chalong on Phuket's southern coast, we headed east to Phi Phi Don (Pee Pee Don), then northeast to Thailand's Krabi coast (home of rock climbing backpackers and last year's sea rescue), then northwest to Pak Bia, Kudu, Roi and Hong Islands, before heading back to Yacht Haven Marina on Phuket's northern coast to prepare for our land trip to Laos. Aside from rendezvous with Storyteller on the Krabi coast and Lady Kay at Koh Roi, our cruising week was uneventful and completely peaceful. Correction: mostly peaceful. When cruising around Phang Nga Bay, it's hard to avoid the deluge of tourists being toted around in all manner of noisy watercraft: speedboats, long tails, large tourist boats, and oh no! jet skis, or worse yet, big banana floaty-things. We pulled into Phi Phi Don's northern (and less crowded) bay, only to be greeted by five screaming tourists riding a big banana floaty-thing pulled by a speed boat. They circled us several times whipping up a good wake while we tried to eat lunch, and then we decided maybe Phi Phi Don wasn't one of our favorite places after all. We pulled up anchor, and motorsailed another twenty miles northeast to the Krabi coast, where we were greeted by the roar of fifty long tails toting backpackers from their rock climbing nirvana to the town of Krabi up the coast. The traditional Thai long tail boats are lovely when sitting on the beach or carrying slowly meandering fishermen at sea, but when on a beeline from tourist point A to tourist point B at top, unmufflered speed, they are not so lovely. We are so spoiled by the pristine Pacific and parts of Indonesia, that we cringe when surrounded by so many tourists. It's really an unfair way to look at things given that we are essentially tourists too. Of course, we like to feel we are very special tourists, existing at the top of the tourist pyramid. In our mind, we are more sensitive to the land, people and culture we are visiting than the beer-swilling, banana floaty-thing-riding crowd. This way of thinking, slightly twisted though it may be, works for us - and gives us license to sit in our cockpit and peer down our long, superior-tourist noses at all the rest of those yahoos. As much as it might sound otherwise, Thailand's Phang Nga Bay is not completely overrun with hordes of tourists. There are still pockets in the bay that exist in tourist-free peace, and even the overcrowded areas all clear out by 5pm, allowing us boaters to take over and claim the place as our own for the night. Below are pictures from our 8-day tour. This photo of Phang Nga Bay was taken by Bill Maloney last year, but it captures the hanging, hazy, humid ambiance of the place so well, it's worthy of a blog re-run. Don walking the beach of tiny Koh Pak Bia (Pak Bia Island) next to one of the lovely (while beached) long tail tourist boats. Koh Roi (Roi Island) from our vantage point at anchor. Sunset at Koh Roi, looking west and away from the island. Another Bill Maloney picture from last year. Taken near Koh Hong, and showing the amazing limestone formations next to friendly fishermen in their long tail. Our sunset view from the anchorage outside Yacht Haven Marina. The tidal current runs strong through the marina, so we often opt to anchor overnight, and enter during slack tide in the morning. Besides, there's a nice view of the docked super yachts from out here. Next up: Laos. Anne |