the latest in marine craft design

the ingenuity of the thais at its best. the long tail boat for example, is a piece of art. a very traditional wooden canoe propelled by a peculiar engine. The motor can be of any type (auto, generator, even lawnmower) as long as it is NOT marine. This engine is then mounted onto a pivoting system with a long shaft (of at least 15 feet) where the propeller lies at the end. maneuvering these boats can get quite tricky and you should definitely keep away from them when they are turning unless you want to meet the flying out of the water and spinning blades. in addition to all this mechanical ingenuity, the boats are decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright colors. they are loud and go fast and the names of these boats as well as other types are just out of this world!!

location, location, location

isn’t this the key to any business? well in thailand this is not the exception and we found the best business ever. in the middle of a maze of mangroves after entering a mountain through a cave and very far from civilization, in the middle of the heat… the only refreshment boat stand: with fresh coconut to quench the thirst!!!! Ahh…!

phang-nga bay

this bay is full of very pretty islands and islets. many of the islands have "hongs" which are collapsed cave systems accessible from the sea at low tide. we entered some of them. it was like going through a whole, then a cave and finally seeing the sky again on the other side, but inside the mountain!!! forming and enclosed lagoon. this was rather impressive. certainly something we had never seen.

some other caves have no open end and they are long dark tunnels. we entered some of them with the dinghy as far as 200 meters and with a flashlight. we could only see and even smell the hundreds of bats hanging upside down the cave ceilings. every island in this bay has at least a few caves so there was enough to explore for as long as we stayed there. the shapes of the islands are so different to what we are used to. tall limestone pinnacles covered in jungle and surrounded by green waters.

the currents ran strong in the bay because of the many rivers to the north. even with winds over 15 knots the bow was not pointing to the wind, ever. It was sideways or even against it. the boat was awkwardly being pushed by the current all the time. Once again the place was a bit crowded but this time we found it a great advantage. sometimes when we could not locate the entrances to the caves we would just follow the kayak tours and voila!! there they were, breathtakingly beautiful all the time.

good to cook with pum

what a better way to start the year. a cooking class in thailand, to learn to cook thai food of course!! bonnie was the teacher and ilienia the other student. an unforgettable afternoon of cooking and eating afterwards. i really cant’ get enough of this thai food.