Phang Gna

The Phang Gna Inn was by far, the nicest place we stayed in all of Thailand. Air conditioning, bottled water, a fridge, our own bathroom with a hot shower, western toilets, WiFi, and even a tv! Seeing at doing stuff is oh-so-important when traveling—actually the reason for travelling, but man, staying in a nice place once in awhile is not too bad either!
The next day, we took Mr. Keene’s Tour to the Phang Gna Marine National Park. In a little covered long-boat with a professional scuba instructor (good dude who reminded us of Adam Pollett) and some Russians, we headed through the largest mangrove forest in Thailand. It reminds me a lot of the mangroves in Cairns and less like the Everglades. I don’t know, just the feel of it, I guess. I also wouldn’t surprised the some of the same species were in Cairns as well. It was cool to see some mangroves with red roots shooting down like fingers and others shooting up like prickers. True-to-form, the “red mangrove” were in rougher waters. Similar ecosystems in different parts of the world aren’t that different once you get the systems down. It’s one of the parts of traveling I like best! Finding the connections with and differences from other places, people, plants and animals- just so cool.
After about an hour in the mangroves, we turned a bend and entered the turquoise waters dotted with spectacular karsts jutting out from the sea floor. (More accurately, they are what is left from millions of years of erosion, but I digress.) We first stopped at James Bond Island- a known tourist trap- but you still have to see it… ‘cause it looks cool. I met some Muslim school girls and it was pretty special to me to practice each other’s language. I was flattered when they said I was pretty and nice. We got some pictures together, but unfortunately Mike and I missed out of getting the classic “James Bond” photo. By the time we got around it, the scuba instructor (who is also a good photographer) was back in the boat.
Next we parked, in this isolated beach with a long cave. No one else was there, the tour guide didn’t even accompany us into the cave- just pointed the direction. With our torches in hand, we felt like explorers and adventurers! When we encountered all the mysterious cave’s secrets, we decided we were hungry to so we had lunch on our little beach, swam around a bit, and Mike jumped off a cliff. It’s what he does! For the rest of the day, we rode around the bay, stopped at a Muslim village (admittedly forgettable besides the fact that the entire town was on stilts), and saw our first kingfisher in Thailand (YEAH!).
The next day, we hiked through Phang Gna National Forest. It was pretty much us and the locals… we liked it that way. This place has tons of caves and is admittedly a little spooky. Really… Batman and Robin should set up shop or maybe someone could make a really cool haunted house (or forest). Unfortunately, I dropped Mike’s sunglasses from my bag when I was getting the camera out and didn’t realize until it was hopelessly lost or picked up. So this is the beginning of our quest to find a pair of replacement sunglasses that Mike likes and doesn’t break (still looking 2 months later).
The rest of the time, we watched movies (yes, I got a movie rental membership, with a card and everything) and talked with our loved ones on Skype. It was very much needed for all of us.