Kiwis loose in Thailand

Sandra and Karen decided a holiday was long overdue and headed to Asia to visit Simon and Amanda on the yacht Thyme.

After kicking up their heels around Thailand, Sandra and Karen arrived in Ao Chalong straight into the arms of a bargirl. Trevor insisted this was a good place to shelter from the rain?!?!?! The tune of, “I love you my mother” and “When you happy, I happy” were set to become our mantra for the trip.

The weather put on a good show and we pounded our way Phi Phi Don in the rain. Phi Phi was beautiful but very crowded and in the evening we retreated to the quiet of the boat to watch what else but The Beach.

The next day we headed for the Emerald cave on Koh Muk. Sandra and Karen practiced steering their hovercraft around Thyme before braving the pitch black of the 200m long cave.

We bravely battled past the stinging jelly fish, through the roar of the surge in the dark, past the bats and finally saw some light at the end of the tunnel. We popped out of the tunnel into a jungle green open cave with a white sand beach. Ahhh, heaven. It was well worth the jelly stings.

With the bar set high for adventure, we had a tough act to follow the next day. Where could we find some more excitement? Koh Taratau of course, wasn’t that the setting for a survivor series? Day 1 found us exploring the mangrove creeks looking for Crocodile Cave. After a few hours, some wrong turns, a little debate over dinghy fuel levels we finally stumbled upon a run down concrete wharf of sorts. Curious we dimembarked, followed the trail and entered another cave we found some kayaks and paddles kindly awaiting our attention. Si and I jumped in and were off… just to make sure the path was safe… NO – of course we weren’t waiting to get photos if they fell in!

For the next 2 days we wore ourselves being attacked by green ants and plunging through thick rainforest trying to find a waterfall. Finally on day two of the expedition we came across the cool freshwater pool and falls. We all jumped in keen to cool off only to be surprised by an attack of thousands of tiny fish.

I think we might be starting to wear them out…

Off To The Andamans

We headed back to Phuket to collect our Indian Visas, crew, fuel, supplies etc before our trip to the Andaman’s. We also made a lucky find in our travels, a mobile Oyster vender.


Once under way we put our new hands to work, day hopping up the coast before crossing to the Surin's. There we waited for Gadfly and Ultimate Dream to arrive before crossing the Andaman Sea to Port Blair.

As soon as we crossed into Indian waters the fishing improved 10 fold with catches that included Yellow fin, Mahi Mahi and Spanish Mackerel. On Gadfly the fish came out on top taking Trevor’s prized lures. Fish 3, Trevor nil.

Finally we got a little bit of wind managing to sail the last 24 hours. Sloop was keen to sight land after his 3 days at sea. Me too.

Welcome to India

Stepping back in Thyme - Ko Phayam

We left the Similans with the wind on the nose, tacking back and forth unsure of where we would anchor. We finally rounded the point of Ko Ra to watch a flotilla of 50 or more fishing boats leave the port right before a torrential rain squall hit. Simon sent me up the front to keep a lookout and I only wished I had taken my shampoo with me!


We pottered around some deserted islands for a few days before heading to Ko Phayam near the Burmese border. It was like stepping back 20years. Small-scale tourism, friendly locals and older hippy tourists. We hired a motorbike – not sure why they insisted no riding on the beach given the roads???

Wanting to stay longer we decided to tackle some jobs here rather than rush back to town. Simon had to seek inspiration before cleaning the inside of the toilet plumbing. Toilet jobs not my cup of tea I made myself scarce and headed to the beach.

There was no more delaying, we really had to drag ourselves away and head south. The map shows our trip north from the Similans to Ko Phayam.

Still at the Similans

Our days in the Similans were spent mostly in the water exploring.




During one of our dives, the dinghy’s unknown to us must have circled each other. The result was a tangle of hoses that somehow Amanda ended up in the middle off. Underwater bondage?


During the day, around 11am the fast boats turn up bringing their guests for lunch. Feeling bad for them as we had a lot of the moorings I offered to let them tie up behind us. 5 grateful captains did a whip around and gave us a bag of soft drinks. This became standard practice during our stay.

We also decided to try a meal on shore, however this didn’t start well with our dingy getting caught by a wave during our approach and doing a 360. I surfaced to find the engine still running in gear and our stuff floating away as the next wave started to build. Tony from Jellyfish came out to help and as our camera etc was in a waterproof bag no harm was done… apart from a dent in our pride.

With time ticking and stronger winds forecast from the north we pounded our way back to the mainland to continue exploring northwards.

Lazy days @ The Similan Islands

The 50 mile sail out to the Similan Islands was the best we had in a while, having the MPS (big sail) up for most of the trip. Our first stop was the main south island where we could take walks and our book advised there was food and accommodation… which turned out to be a tent village.


After a rolly night on our mooring we tackled the walks. Sloop was keen to come but signs said in no uncertain terns that no cats and dogs were allowed on the Island. This must be to protect the food for the cat owned by National Parks.

We wandered around the place noting the twigs used to prop up some rather large rocks on the way to the lookout.

After a walk to the western side for a look it was back to the boat, a quick bit to eat, then off for a snorkel before heading north in the hope of finding a less rolly anchorage.

We arrived around 3pm to find only 1 available mooring. Luckily being first, Thyme quickly snapped this up. Much to their disappointment, Ultimate Dream and Gadfly had to head over to the other Island, another crappy spot. Apparently only yachts are not allowed to anchor in water less than 40m. Anyway the bay was really nice once the tourist boats had left for the day.

First light brought with it a free mooring that Ultimate Dream jumped on, and by 10am another came free which was a relief for all of us as Trevor had well and truly cracked the shits by this stage. Having 3 of the 7 moorings in the only protected bay in the Islands we were going nowhere for the next 3 days.
Although the coral was crappy the area was full of a large variety of fish, the best find being a Lionfish living on our mooring.

Our Mooring like most was a rope tied around a large rock.

Christmas & New Years - Nai Harn & Patong

After picking a quite spot in the bay Christmas was the usual affair, endless food and cold beer. Trevor and crew arriving with roasted Pork and salads and us spit roasting a Duck with veggies and of course NZ invented Pavalova cooked by yours truly.


Amanda and Miss V after drinking Wild Africa decided it was cougar milk and they were now cougar girls. Wondering if it had the same affect on men, Amanda tried to force Trevor to take a sip. It didn’t work.

Richard and Susanna arrived as Ginny fell victim to the cougar milk

Rudolf tried to make me drink the stuff but like Trevor I resisted and decided a swim was a better idea. We had a bombing competition off the side of the boat, which managed to clean the decks. Miss V after breaking one glass and losing another was sentenced to a plastic vessel attached to the boom with a bungee cord to prevent further loss.

After a few more days relaxing at Ko Racha Ya to recover from the shennangans of Xmas, New Years Eve was upon us. This turned out to be more of the same held on Richard and Susanna’s boat in Patong with the inclusion of fire works. The usual remedies, Hungry Jacks, a swim etc etc still didn’t cure the following days illness (for Simon and Richard that is).

Enough of the girly bars and crowded beaches - we're off the Similans.

Sailing around Phang Nga Bay

With Christmas fast approaching Trevor had to travel south to Ao Chalon to collect new crew and drop off existing ones. Us wanting to avoid the chaos for as long as possible were not planning to arrive in Nai Harn till the 24th. One of his crew was keen to stay on the water till the New Year so we put up our hand and offered to take her north with us. Our first stop was to be James Bond Island. Getting right into theme, we even bought the The Man With Golden Gun DVD only to find the high quality pirated copy got stuck half way through!



Ignoring all the domes dayers who said we would run aground (like that hasn’t happened before) we opted to go further north to a Muslim stilt village.


Here our missions were to find some paintings believed to be from the Neanderthal era, a hole through a rock and of course Internet. The Paintings were the easiest to find.

The Internet was a little more trouble some however Amanda did find some good clothes on the mission. And the hole through the rock was an 8-mile dingy ride into the mangrove river system. If there had not been fishermen along the way to continually point us in the right direction we would never had made it.

The place was full of friendly locals.

Having visited the tourist hot spots it was time to go in search of cleaner water. This meant leaving Phang Nga Bay and heading to Koh Racha Yai, south of Phuket. Here swimming was back on the menu.

Unfortunately so was walking. I did however get to make some new friends

The 24th had arrived so we put Miss V (identity not disclosed as she is very shy) on the wheel and we headed off to Nai Harn for Christmas.

Phang Nga Bay

We dotted our way north West checking out what’s hot and what’s not, finding bats, Hongs and calm waters.

What we didn’t find was a doctor. Amanda was a little nervous about some stomach pains she was experiencing (not pregnant) and after taking various medications on board wanted professional advice. We were still traveling with Gadfly at this stage and he had a friend in Aussie who was a doctor. Next problem, phone service. We headed into the bay in search of reception.

After having no real success we headed back to the boat with the plan of heading to Phuket in the morning if no improvement was felt. Fortunately things were much better so we decided on Ko Hong for a day stop.

We bumped our dinghies through the 100s of tourists in kayaks to visit the numerous tunnels through the island. We even bumped into National Parks who wanted money for visiting the area. We advised them we were just leaving and headed off to Koh Ping Kan for the night. This was a much quieter spot and we found a long tunnel that cut right through the Island.

Once getting to the center of the Island things shallowed up and one of Trevor’s crew went forward to investigate the lay of the land reporting back “impassable”

We headed back to the boats for a meal of prawns procured from local fishermen.

Krabi

Once arriving in Krabi the first business to attend to was our inwards clearance. This involved getting a Songthaew to town and finding Immigration, Customs and the hardest of all, the Harbour Master.

Resisting the urge to have our feet cleaned by little fish, we found the markets then headed back to the boat.

Wanting to get away from the racket of long tails ferrying about tourists, Railay beach sounded like a good idea.

After a day of snorkelling and exploring it was time to move. We decided to head into Phang Nga Bay in search of Thailand’s famed Hongs (Thai for “room” but are holes in rocks) and of course James Bond Island where The Man With The Golden Gun was filmed.

Koh Lanta - Old Town

The trip from our peaceful anchorage behind Ko Muk to Ko Lanta was as expected a little rolly.




Motor bikes were again the order of the day for exploring the island. We went south first thing having to shelter in a interesting resort for a number of hours to wait for the rain to ease.


Having discovered we went the wrong way, we made our north and crossed the island in search of a waterfall and caves. After skillfully navigation our way past the guides with elephants, we made our way up the slippery clay track following our nose. When the bikes could go no further we continued on foot.

Finally after a half hour jungle tramp we found the elusive waterfall without the assistance of a guide where I got my first thai massage.

The trip back to old town wasn’t without event. Trevor on the lead bike sustained a fall, resulting in the loss of a small amount of blood and 5,000 baht. Not sure what hurt most…