Day 11: Phang Nga Bay
We had booked a long (and not inexpensive)boat tour and snorkeling trip with Captain Mark Tours.

They picked us up early (it is the longest tour) at 645am and we drove to the inner eastern side of Phuket, which faces Phang Nga bay.  The west side, FYI, is the Andaman Sea.

Although we travelled the furthest, we were the first to arrive and was greeted by Captain Mark, an older Aussie expatriate who looked like some cousin of the Skipper on Gilligan's Island.  He was jolly and had a great sense of humor, sarcastic usually.

We were joined by two Indian families and a white uicouple.  Amazingly, all lived in San Francisco.  Up until now we hadn't even met anyone from North America, so they were practically neighbors.

One family of 5 (Bala, wife Sangeeta and 3 kids) were now living in Bangalore, having moved from San Francisco.  I wondered what it would be like to immigrate to India as a (former) NRI.

 The other Indian family lived in SF and was a large troupe covering 3 generations. Ramana was the head of this clan.

And last but not least, Mike and Jami also from San Fran.

So the 15 of us boarded the speedboat and headed out to beautiful Phang Nga bay.

Picture this: calm green water, endless sky, and many rocky islands rising sharply (often with steep cliffs) from the calm water.  The sights were stunning to behold and I must have taken hundreds of photos.

The first activity was landing on a small island beach with high, sheer, cliff-like walls.  We walked through a low cave (through a foot of water) which opened to a protected inner clearing to a mangrove forest.  The ground was wet (you could tell water would flow in) and we took pictures of the mangroves, fiddler crabs,  and small fish that slithered over the muddy areas in the tidal pools.

The second stop was one of those experiences of a lifetime.  We got into kayaks at a beautiful and rocky island, again with high cliff walls.  The kayaks were navigated by local fishermen, and we kayaked through a long cave which opened up to a secluded inner Harbour within the island.  The ceiling of the cave started out low (we almost had to duck) but opened up with stalactites and other mineral formations.  It was serene and awe inspiring. We took some great photos here.  We kayaked further to another scenic location and took more great photos.   We had made good friends with our tour mates and we took photos of each other on their kayaks (to exchange later).

Next stop was a floating Muslim village, which is actually a remote fishing village built on stilts. We had a great lunch here; they served chicken curry, various seafood dishes and some veg options (all the other Indians on the trip were vegetarians.

We toured the village, which was remarkable in that it was a fairly large village with a population of 1700, complete with Mosque (new, big one under construction), school and 3 mini floating soccer fields.
For a floating village on a remote island, it felt cramped and dirty. I was happy to move on.

Our next stop was a small jungle island in which there was a giant Bodhi tree, supposedly planted over 100 years ago by Indians.

Our final stop was a beautiful white sandy beach where we did some snorkeling.  This was the clearest water I had seen in Phuket.  Still not as clear as Aruba, but perhaps comparable to Playa del Carmen.

I tried to teach Ramana's nephew how to snorkel (Vikram, about 5 years old) but he had some trouble learning how to breathe using only the tube.



We had all enjoyed the tour and Mark's guidance and sense of humor, and we exchanged contact information.

It was heavy traffic on the way home, and we were quite tired by the end of it.   We went for a massage and then dinner was very local (next door).  I ate some very unremarkable roast chicken.  Simmi was still loving her Tom Yam soup.