Our last day in Thailand.

Kayaking in Krabi province.

Our last day in Thailand was a real adventure and we faced it with our good friends, Megan & Phil.

We had decided to splash out on a full day of kayaking through mangroves. We were picked up in a minivan and driven through Krabi province. There is plenty of stunning scenery along the coast of the province as dotted off the shore are lots of limestone islands jutting dramatically out of the water. At one point on the drive we could see 7 or 8 of these islands from one bay.

We began the day by kayaking out of a wide, silky estuary at low tide, getting accustomed to directing the kayak accurately (which seemed easy with this huge amount of space!) Out of the estuary, we turned inland in to the wide mouth of a canyon. Behind us on the horizon were silhouettes of jagged peaks; haggard facial profiles and leaking ink blots.


Ahead of us we spotted the small figure of a monkey who appeared to be walking on water! Our guide told us that monkeys can often be seen fishing for crabs with their tails and it is not unheard of for a monkey to be stuck with his tail down a hole, as a large crab has caught hold of it and he can't pull it out. The monkey then has a choice; to drown when the tide comes in or gnaw his own tail off. This was the first time I'd seen a monkey in the sea. He wasn't too interested in us until the Russian family with us started throwing him small bananas, which he stuffed in his mouth as quickly as possible and then strolled off when he'd had his fill.

We then deliberately ran aground on a mud bank and watched in amazement as a rusty red mass of army crabs swept away from us each pace we took. There were thousands of the creatures all scattering in different directions and then hurriedly digging a hole with their disproportionately long pincers and disappearing. We also found lots of dusty coloured star fish, with rippling cellophane like suckers.

Next we paddled in to the canyon, it was difficult to see where it was deep enough for the kayak to go and an hour or so later we did have to turn back and go back the way we came. Along the way we saw a few monkeys sauntering across the muddy banks and a large monitor lizard winking at us. There were cobalt-blue patched crabs scuttling along the sharp edged rocks of the canyon. On either side of us were mangrove trees and then the vertical walls of the narrow canyon formed by the Karsts. Up until 3 or 4 foot above us the rock was soot grey and heavily scarred with mollusc shells. The walls above were dirty vanilla striped with great drips of grey and orange, fragile, wiry trees somehow clung determinedly to the crumbly rock. The shadow of the cliffs were very welcome as we drifted through the canyon listening to the loud, constant hum of the insect world.

After a really tasty and filling lunch, we were down to just a group of 5 and we ambled down the coast and through the mangrove forest. Monkeys were dropping from tree branches in to the water to keep cool and quietly stalking our kayaks. Either side of us were the dark intricate webs of roots, like fairground claws clasping for a prize in the deep mud. Each tree was formed from a dozen or so overlapping arches bridging the water culminating in one proud spindly trunk growing high out of the water.

We turned down a narrower tributary and appeared, on first sight, to reach a dead end of rock. Our guide told us to duck and keep going beneath the overhanging rock in to a low cave. Watching our heads on bobbly stalacites and without room to paddle we cautiously guided our kayak through the cave and gradually out the other side in to a hidden lagoon. Surrounding us were high rock walls, mangroves and vines hanging off the trees. Pixels of blonde sunlight danced and tickled the grey rock walls. Magical!


Emerging once again we continued through the mangroves to another cave. We clambered in to the steep opening of the cave through sticky mud. Above us were a hundred bats hanging in the shadows, swooping away when we clapped our hands. Before us opened a large high cavern, it was so dark we could barely see the ground below us. We stumbled through one step at a time over the uneven ground cushioned with powdery 'kee kam kaow' (bat poo). All the time we could hear the gentle whispering of wings and the bats conversing in clicks over our heads.

The large cave had several different exits. We climbed down towards one exit which led down to the water one way and then to our right, were columns of stalacmites and stalactites clinging to each other like a falling child and his desperate mother. One structure looked like it might be a set of heavy, velvet curtains hiding a trophy or plaque. The guide drew our attention to a noise that sounded like drumming in the distance. We walked towards the cave wall following the eery sound like water boiling over, rattling the lid of a saucepan. It was apparently water trapped from high tide.


Reluctantly we climbed back in to our kayaks and made our way back. This seemed to take us a lot longer than on the way there and we struggled to get in to rhythm and eek out the last of our energy!

Overall it was a fab end to our time in Thailand and we were really sad to leave this incredible country and our new found friends.

But we can't complain, on to phase 2 of our travels!