Sailing away from our troubles...

We were so disappointed with our current lodgings that we found an alternate hotel, checked out of the awful one at 6am and brought all of our luggage (ie. everything that we own) with us on our full-day kayaking trip just so we wouldn't have to go back to that horrible place at the end of our day.

We were lucky to be met by a fantastic crew who helpfully locked away all of our bags for the day and made us quickly forget our unfortunate hotel stay.  

After Geoff sent some emergency work emails, we boarded a "fast" longtail boat to take off to the islands to do some kayaking. A scenic boat ride introduced us to the large number of Thai islands in Phuket before we arrived at the "bat caves" to start our paddle.    To see the cave's interior - including the multitude of bats on the cave's ceiling - Geoff paddled our tandem kayak through the very narrow surroundings while Beth controlled our one headlamp and tried to highlight the different points on interest.  After a dark ride, we emerged on the other side of the cave to see some glorious towering rock formations that dropped right into the shallow water.

The 12 hour time change in Thailand has made for some unusual work habits and, after the cave, Beth took over paddling the tandem kayak while Geoff took a last-minute conference call.  As he strolled back and forth along the island beach where we parked the kayak, it was a little surreal to realize that this incredible scenario had become our life!

Calls complete and back in kayaking mode, we paddled around the island, stumbling into numerous monkeys sitting at the water's edge.

We arrived at our next island for a quick hike (with lots of group photos!) to see the mangrove trees and fruit bats.  Fruit bats are much larger than regular bats, likely because of the large fruit buffet they enjoy.  And these bats are loud.  They "chirp" away all day.   No wonder the island is so free of people! The mangrove trees are also a sight to see -  long and lean with lots of different roots, they have an amazing reproduction technique where they shed pointy branches from up high which dig and root into the ground and start anew.

For the next leg of the trip our young boat hand, Musa, joined team leader, Sod, in showing us around.  This included both of them piling into a single person kayak and Musa taking on the role of paddler - which Geoff explained to him was the "the raw end of the deal".  We arrived at a third island to find a large group of Chinese tourists snapping photos of themselves wearing lifejackets and poking their toes into the water.  They seemed like they were having a marvelous time!

Because it was too cloudy for snorkelling, we went to a much quieter (and sandier!) beach to go for a swim instead.  On this island, we met just one gentleman who was lying on a towel and reading his book.  He had actually hired a boat to take him to this remote island so that he could escape the buzz of the nearby town. He seemed to succeed in his solitude, except for one pesky monkey who actually swam across from the other island and snuck up on him, likely looking to steal his sandwich lunch!

Getting late, we headed by Krabi towards Kon Koo Yai for lunch at a now sleepy restaurant on the water. This seafood restaurant definitely did not understand the concept of vegetarian options so we munched on pad thai and rice while sipping coconut juice and watching our crew get unbelievably excited about finding a snapper fish hovering under the water by the dock.

For the hour long boat ride home, we lay on the front of the boat, with heads perched on lifejackets, smiling about our awesome day and excited to get to our new hotel, Indigo Pearl, to settle in!