We just got back from our five day trip to Phangnga in the south of Thailand. Its a pretty beautiful area, but the trip certainly had a few bumps.
We flew down on Monday. Because we couldn't get a rental car (they were all booked), Tim had an employee drive our car down for us. He then took a bus back to Bangkok. He returned today to get the car. Yeah, its nice to have inexpensive labor.
Monday was pretty relaxed; we hung out at the hotel pool and nearby beach. The Khaolak Orchid Beach Resort is a little way away from town, but it is a very nice place and the staff was very gracious.
On Tuesday we rented a boat and visited some of the islands around Phangna. We made four stops, including an island featured in a James Bond boat chase scene.
The island of Similan was our destination on Wednesday. You have to book a tour to visit these islands, as the government regulates the number of visitors. Well, maybe if you have your own yacht its possible visit on your own, I don't know.
We went with Medseye, a local tour group. Similan is an hour and a half speed boat ride from the mainland. The trip involved a couple of rounds of snorkeling and visiting some beaches.
Similan was nice. The speed boat trip back was not. The water was fairly calm, but I was sitting in the front of the boat and every wave we hit would lift me off my seat a little. On some of those I would slam back down and it hurt my back and neck. I was just wanting the trip over. Little did I know that I would have loved to have had a repeat performance the next day.
We also used Medseye on Thursday, this time to visit the island of Surin. Surin was supposed to have nicer snorkeling and coral reefs, while Similan's beaches were nicer. The Sarin boat left from a different pier, and we actually had a difficult time finding it. Tim stopped a few times to ask for directions. My GPS was only of limited help because we couldn't find the pier in it. That is a problem in Thailand; the lack of signs. Sometimes you'll actually have signs that tell the direction where you want to go, and then after you travel a few kilometers, there is a split with no sign to tell you where to go. Eventually we made it though.
We did our first snorkel at Surin without any issues. It was definitely a beautiful coral reef. Jacob and I saw a coral snake, and Jacob spotted a small shark when he was ten or so meters away, so I missed it.
After the first snorkel, we stopped as planned on the island for some photos and lunch. We were supposed to leave at 1:00 p.m., but at 1:30 the guide announced that winds had come in and the sea was rougher than expected. This was not obvious to us on the island, as the land protected the water.
Finally they decided to try to take us to an area to snorkel while we waited. Unfortunately, the water was a bit too rough, so we visited a village of the Moken, "sea gypsies".
After an hour or so they announced that we would try to go back to the mainland. The guide (her name was Chair), said that if it was too rough, we could vote on whether to go back to the island and spend the night or try to make it back to the mainland.
When she said this, I was shaking my head. I tried to explain to her that she and/or the captain of the boat were the ones responsible for making a decision on whether it was safe to continue. Neither me nor my fellow passengers had the experience. She kind of blew me off in the Thai way where they pretend to agree with you to get you to leave them alone. Tim was in the front of the boat at this point, and I in the back so I couldn't get her help.
The sea was fairly rough, but for me, the ride was a lot easier than the day before. I raised out of my seat a little, but didn't feel slammed down into it. After forty-five minutes the guide asked us if we wanted to go on or back. The captain told her it would take four hours to make it to the mainland. I still wanted to go on, but as soon as one or two people said to go back, she seized on it and said we'd turn around.
I was livid; not because we turned around, but because she called for a vote. If it was too dangerous to go, then she should announced that we were turning back, no matter how much we wanted to go on. If ten people had said to go on, how could she have said okay if she knew it was too dangerous. Was she going to put her life and everyone else's in the hands of people who really didn't understand how serious (or not) the situation was. I am willing to wager that few if any of the passengers had spent enough time on a speedboat to know if the sea was just a little rough, or if we were in real danger.
So we turned around to the island. Unfortunately, all the rooms were booked in advance, so we had to sleep in tents. We didn't have dry clothes with us (except Nalin and Aleena), as we didn't imagine that we would need them. According to the guide, she had never had to do this before, and had been doing the Surin tours for many years.
Tim had a little money, so she bought some tee-shirts and Thai style pants. The co-op restaurant that we had lunch at provided us dinner. There wasn't much to do, and to make matters worse, there was a light drizzle. We got into our tents around 7:00 p.m. and stayed there for the night.
I was in a really bad mood about the whole thing, and didn't sleep well at all. Perhaps I got three hours of sleep. I didn't like the decision initially, but I really didn't like how it was made. If they had just stood up and said "its not safe, we are turning back", I might not have liked going back, but I would have respected them. I had and have no respect for the guide. If I ever walk on a boat and see her in charge again, I will turn around and walk away. I don't care if I lose a deposit or even the entire fee (although I'd try to get it back), I have no confidence in her judgement at all.
The question the next morning was whether to go back to the mainland right away, or snorkel one more time first. That would take about an hour of additional time. Some people were insisting we snorkel, as they had already paid for this trip and felt like they weren't getting their moneys worth. Others wanted to skip it because they were trying to get on a boat to Similan that morning. Tim wanted to snorkel, but I wanted to go back as I didn't want to spend one more minute than necessary around the tour people.
I found out later that a few people were able to leave with a different tour the night before. One had a medical condition and the others had a flight they would miss. The other tour boat came out of a different pier, and apparently the trip back was rough, but not as bad as our attempt had been. I'm not sure why our boat didn't go to their pier and pick us up with buses, but by the time I found out it was moot.
The guide was explaining that we would vote so no one could complain about the decision. That is complete and utter nonsense. I can certainly complain that I want to go back, as I never signed up to spend the night and get back whenever the heck the rest of the people decided I could. I actually went up to the guide and told her how I thought how she handled it was very poor and explained why. Some other American tried to explain what I meant. Finally Tim told her.
The guide said she did it because their were kids on board. It was bullshit. She asked for a vote because people were pressuring her to go home and she didn't want to upset someone. Utterly unacceptable. She later said it was because of kids. I think she said that because she thought it would shield her from criticism. Do you get the impression how much I really despise Chair?
So fate intervened on my behalf and no vote was taken. One of the people who worked on the island overheard the snorkel debate and said if you go snorkeling, you'll spend the night here again. He was looking at the color of the sky and said there would only be an hour or so window open today, and if we missed it we'd have to wait again. At that point, Chair pulled her head out of her butt a few inches and decided we'd go straight back.
We arrived back at the pier at 9:30 or so. By the time we made it back to our hotel at 10:15, we figured we would miss the breakfast buffet which ended at 10:00. Tim explained what happened, and the staff kept it open another thirty minutes after we arrived. It was really nice.
We left a few hours later, making it to the airport only forty minutes before our flight. The flight was nice. We didn't have a block of seats right next to each other, but everyone was on the aisle in close proximity. It worked out well though. I'll post more photos here and there will be even more on flickr.
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