Thailand’s Similan Islands and tourist Phuket

The Similan Islands: beaches of the softest, whitest sand; great boulders tumbling into the sea and beautiful vibrant green hillsides. We sailed here with Mark and Livi (an overnight sail from Phuket - not repeated on the return journey as we had by then learned how many floating fishing nets, fish traps and buoys there are out there, impossible to see at night, and that lurk there to wreck imprudent yachtsmen…) and enjoyed these islands enormously.

We snorkeled in the clear turquoise seas of the Similans; enjoyed the view from Sail Rock on Similan 8, enjoyed some great scuba dives and had sundowners on the beach with the family and other friends for Irene’s birthday. The islands boast probably the most beautiful clear waters in Thailand, with excellent snorkeling and diving… still; this comment comes as the Parks Department has recently shut down Similans 1 to 3 to protect them, and there is talk that the temperature of the Andaman sea has increased such that enormous coral bleaching has taken place.

Swimming around the boat became somewhat perilous, however, when Rolf came under attack…. from a young, energetic (hawksbill?) turtle!

One of the biggest killers of turtles at sea is plastic bags: turtles eat them, evidently mistaking them for their natural foodstuff viz. jellyfish. A section of Rolf’s swim fins are an opaque white and the rest of us first discovered the turtle when we heard screams and yells from the water: Rolf was “under attack”! He tried to fend off the turtle by flapping (how fast can a flap be: underwater…!?) his fins in its face… a strategy that got the turtle even more excited as it appeared convinced that the flappy white things were tasty jellyfish! However, turns out this fellow is just extremely curious… on other occasions he came disconcertingly close to investigate what we were. We are reminded of a certain incident in the Seychelles when Barry “came under attack” from a curious giant tortoise… the Ketoro crew appears hare-like in the tortoise race. The Ketoro men are also establishing a tradition of squealing like girls when confronted with such terrors!

The trip to the Similans was made after a few days in familiar territory to us, beautiful Phang Nga Bay, where the bright yellow croc canoe came in handy to explore the steep islands with their hidden-access hongs and caves.

These caves house their own isolated and wonderful ecosystems including dozens of small crabs each with one huge, over-developed claw. Some of us are fearless with animals (unlike the turtle / tortoise club) and Livi took a close look at these lovely crabs.

There are many other things to do on a boat holiday: fling yourself off the roof of the boat playing “fetch the ball”, have arm wrestling competitions, pat dinner-plate-sized jelly fish on the head … or, if a little more sedentary and cautious, play scrabble, swim or read!

Phuket is a tourist island. Although we have been in this area for about eight months, for most of that time we have been working or travelling elsewhere or enjoying the all-weather protection of the Phang Nga Bay area as the SW monsoon season has prevented us from sailing along the beaches on the west coast of Phuket, which is where it is all laid on for tourists. Well, this has now changed! With Mark and Livi, and then Ilana when Mark left us (Ilana being subjected to a crash course in boat-showers, sea baths, boat-loos, dinghy-work etc), we cruised up and down this picturesque coastline and enjoyed all it had to offer: beaches lined with loungers-under-umbrellas, interspersed with low-key, inexpensive but lovely local food restaurants and massage shops or platforms (for your en-masse massage in public); beaches with no road access that were therefore ours alone after the longtail boats left to take their day trippers home; and long beaches that house upmarket resorts and associated restaurants and bars.

All of these had their appeal and provided wonderful experiences, with the only drawback being the jet-skis on the more busy beaches. Jet-ski drivers appear to get bored five minutes into their 30-minute ride, so liven up their own experiences by seeing what yacht people are doing on board or making “doughnuts” around the boats as close as possible (creating an annoying wake). The best moment however came when two young guys on a jet ski, clearly impressed by the two young ladies on board, got really close and proceeded to show off their prowess: which was clearly deficient, as the jet ski spectacularly flipped over! They did not return…

One of the multi-resort beaches provides a huge draw card: two young elephant from the Phuket Fantasea show are walked on the beach twice daily, so we made sure to be anchored off Ban Tao to enjoy this sight ourselves. Lily and Lucky are only about 3 years old, but do all one would expect of show elephants including bow, dance, kiss the tourists and play a mouth organ; the best however was simply to watch them being ellies and giving themselves sand baths.

Of course, we made use of many opportunities to get off the boat and explore the beaches (on foot), the island, all its facilities, its Big Buddha and Temples using motorbikes or tuk tuk; here, Liv and Ilana are at the southern-most tip of Phuket, Phromthep Cape.

So, as one does on these holidays, we ate, we drank, we got massages, we trawled the retail opportunities …. and, as one does, one got tattoos!

The Ketoro arm wrestling champion challenged the rest of the crew to a final contest around a restaurant table, an activity that surprised the customers at nearby tables... but inspired the restaurant owner to take up the challenge too. The tiny but sprightly Thai gentleman however had age against him – and the champion of course – and we feel our champion remains supreme (despite graciously letting him win).

Eating out is always both an adventure and a culinary treat. The latter because Thai food has variety, is tasty and of consistently high standard wherever one eats: at a restaurant, a small café, a food court, a market or a hawker’s trolley. The former because of the menus! Of course, at tiny food stalls there are no menus and only one or two dishes are prepared; at others the menus are only in Thai (sometimes helpfully accompanied by pictures, which seldom resemble reality… in one case, the original caption reflecting the internet source of the picture was still visible!). In many, however (particularly in tourist Phuket) the name (and a description) of the dish is given in English … that is the entertaining part! We have previously put up a picture of a menu where one could eat potato shit (chip); the following shows that when ordering fish you may have it fried, frued or even freed (to cater to vegetarians?). Many restaurants proudly offer Uropien dishes (not my spelling!) particularly Gordon Blue Chicken.

After our wonderful holiday it was again serious business for the regular Ketoro crew: we sailed the boat to Langkawi (Malaysia) and back (with dawn departures along with other yachts doing their visa runs, and full sailing days) to fetch our new rudders and then lift the yacht out onto the hard stand in Boat Lagoon (Phuket)… where she now sits, looking awfully forlorn and out of her element!

We are preparing for a four month, 2500 mile trip along the Malaysian coast… down the Malacca Straits on the west coast, round Singapore, around up the east coast of the peninsula and then across to the East Malaysian provinces on Borneo and finally up to the Phillipines. And then? No answers to that question yet….