The Emerald Cave - Koh Muk, Thailand

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 12 Feb 2011 10:51
07:22.567N  99:17.101E
 
Koh Muk (Muk Island) is the scene of our first magical experience of the season.  Stuff like this is the reason we keep at this boating/traveling thing despite the heat, go-kart rental cars, scavenger hunts, and general lack of Triscuits.  Where else can you wake up in the morning and paddle through an 80 yard natural rock tunnel onto a private beach surrounded on all sides by limestone cliffs taller than the Empire State Building?
 
On January 24, we left Koh Tarutao with Baraka and mostly sailed - yes I said sailed, but more about that later - the 50ish miles northwest to tiny Koh Muk.  We arrived too late in the day and at the wrong tide level to attempt entry into the Emerald Cave or 'Hong' (Thai for room) we had read about, so we made plans to make the dinghy trip early the next morning just before low tide.  Below are pictures.
 
 
Harmonie, Baraka and a third boat anchored next to Koh Muk.
 
 
This is the entrance to the Emerald Cave, which was about 200 yards from where our boats were parked.  You can see why it's important to transit the tunnel at low tide.
 
 
After paddling the dinghy through the dark, curving natural tunnel while listening to the incoming surf crash and echo eerily off the walls, this was our first view of the sand beach and limestone walled hong.  Well, minus the people anyway.  Don and I were the first to arrive and had the place to ourselves for at least 15 minutes.  After that, Jan and Dave paddled in with their tandem kayak, followed by a few tourists who swam in with their Thai guides after being transported from somewhere on the Thai mainland in 'longtail' boats.  In the foreground is Dave, Don and myself next to our dinghy.
Photo credit:  Jan from Baraka.
 
 
From the opposite side of the sandy hong, Don took this photo of me standing next to our dinghy in front of the tunnel exit just after our arrival.  That first fifteen minutes before anyone else arrived was quiet, a completely calm, early morning quiet with only us there to disturb the air and cause small echoes to bounce off the sheer mass of limestone around us.
 
 
Don and I leaving the hong through the tunnel with paddles mostly in hand and head lamps mostly in place.
Photo credit:  Jan from Baraka
 
Yup, not a bad way to start the day.
Anne