Christmas 2015 Krabi bay

Our guests, Amy and Andrew from Perth, arrived late on the 23^rd and we left Krabi Boat Lagoon on the high water next morning. It felt good to leave the marina; the isolation of the place deep in the mangroves and accompanying mosquitoes at sunset were the downside; the upside was a perfectly sheltered lagoon and access to repair facilities.

Our Christmas Eve was spent at Railay beach which is on the sea side of Krabi town, a small resort area with a handful of restaurants and bars. Feeling AndrAmy would like to go native as soon as possible we began with massages all round, cold beers and a Thai curry and then watching a Christmas show on the beach which was being hosted by one of the bigger hotels. The night sky was perfectly clear – clear enough to see Santa and his reindeer crossing the sky.

Andrew and Amy

 

Koh Hong Krabi

 

 

Jackster on mooring

Next day, Christmas Day, we moved to Koh Hong Krabi (hong is Thai for room – the caves / inlets formed by limestone erosion) and took the dinghy into this beautiful lagoon surrounded by limestone cliffs. The water is body temperature warm; perfect for floating away the stress (?) of the day.

After lunch we hopped a short distance up to Koh Kudu Yai to anchor between two tall islands. The guide books suggested this is a perfect place to see wildlife and watch the big fruit bats at sunset. Andrew is a zoologist so this seemed a good fit. It was perfect in that we had the place to ourselves – a welcome change to days which are buzzing with day trippers. Touring the island in the dinghy we spotted kingfishers, herons, a hornbill (did you know hornbill's bills are yellow because them rub then on their tail feathers which secrete the colour?). Alas the bats failed to appear, but we did have a fabulous roast pork dinner, sparkling wine and presents.

hornbill Kudu Yai

 
 

exit Koh Roi hong

 

Andrew kayaking

 

 

 

 

If it's Boxing Day it must be Koh Roi, a dramatic island of vertical cliffs, blue water and a hidden hong accessible at half tide. To enter the hong you must find the hole in the cliff at the back of the beach and duck your head to avoid a painful contact with the rocks, but inside you look up and up to a secret wonderland; surrounded by 100m cliffs there is a forest of mangroves alive with bats (the bats which should have been living on the last island no doubt). I thought bats slept in dark caves during the day. Not these though, they hang in the trees, squawk, chatter, fight amongst themselves for prime branch position and occasionally fly to the next tree to hassle the neighbours.

big Koh Hong

Next stop in Phang Nga was the other Koh Hong. Sadly this one suffers from being closer to Phuket which means tourist boat saturation from 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Outside these times are only company were a handful of yachts and a better time to take the kayak to explore the big hong. This one has an entrance at either end and, by passing through a tunnel at low water, access to two small, fully enclosed hongs. In here you are in another world. The only sounds are water dripping through the rock, birds, bugs and the lapping of your paddle in the water. Exit and you re-enter the mayhem of 20, 30, 40 kayaks jostling to capture photos of themselves in paradise.

The wind has started to strengthen this afternoon and we thought it might be enhanced as it was pushed through the channels but when we moved to Koh Phanak to explore it's hong the wind was stronger and we had no sweet spot to anchor comfortable. Amy & Andrew understood we needed to move on and our best option was to run to Chalong at the south end of Phuket. In the end it was a wonderful fast sail. Our trade off for sailing wind was a very wet ride home in the dinghy after dinner ashore. With four in the little green goddess (dinghy) we hit every wavelet and received a comedy bucket of seawater in our faces each time. We couldn't have been wetter if we'd been swimming.