The Magic of Phanga-nga Bay

April 22, 2016 by admin
Filed under Activities

COLLAPSED CAVES, BAYS, ANCIENT SITES & UNIQUE ISLANDS

Believe It or Not Tabu Island was created because of anger. There is a local story that said : once upon a time, there was a fisherman who normally caught a lot of fish everyday for selling at the market. One day, as usual, he went to net, but it was not his day. He threw his net many, many times but got nothing. With great patience he tried again and again, but still got nothing.
Consequently, he stared at the water looking for a waving pattern, he then threw his net again with a lot of hope. He kept his eyes fixed on the net when pulling it up, hoping some fish would be caught. Unfortunately he caught nothing but a nail. He became angry and threw the nail into the sea. Again with great concentration, he kept his eyes on the sea surface and tried his net once more. This time he threw his net as wide as he could with great hope of getting some fish. Then he pulled it up slowly as it was very heavy. He pulled it up with great care. At the end of the net he found the only thing caught was the same nail. He was so angry, he grasped his long knife and cut the nail with all his strength. The nail was cut in half. The nail was catapulted away and driven into the buttom of the sea standing up as you see it today. The area around Phangnga bay has a long history and is famed for its nature and beauty, especially Ko Tabu, Ko Panyi, Tham Lot and Khao Phing Kan. The rock art in this area has always been an important attraction. The popularity of the Phang Nga bay area led to the designation of the current area as a forest park in 1974, this was named Sri Phang Nga Forest Park. The Royal Forest Department then began to survey the area and realised it’s heritage should be further protected by increasing the areas status to a national park. Ao Phangnga was created by Royal decree and gazetted under proclaimation number 98 section 64 of 29th April 1981. The park created covers an area of 400 sq.km, protects the largest area of this original primary mangrove forest remaining in Thailand. The park stretches from Muang Phangnga District to the coast at Takua Tung District. Over 80 % of the park is covered by the Andaman sea, with over 42 large and small islands, including such as Phra At Tao Island, Maprow Island, Boi Noi Island, Boi Yai Island, Rayaring Island, Phanak Island, Hong Island, Panyi Island, Phing Kan Island etc. The topography of the park is strongly influenced by several faults, particulary the north-east trending of the Klong Marui fault.

This offsets the eastern terrain from the central mountain ranges by a right lateral movement. This fault movement resulted in the formation of a large graben parallel to the fault. This graben is marked by the present bay. The high ground is produced by massive limestone blocks displaying classic karst scenery. These blocks extend southward into Phangnga bay where they form islands with vertical cliffs, mainly orientated in a north-south direction. Phangnga bay slopes seaward and is filled with tidal sediments. The bay itself is composed of large and small tidal channels which originally connected with the fluvial system of the mainland. The main tidal channels for instance Klong Ko Panyi, Khlong Phangnga, Klong Bang Toi and Klong Bo Saen all run in a north-south direction. They consist of several tidal creeks or tidal channel distributaries. Most of the tidal channels are meandering with well developed point bars. Mangrove forests grow around the whole area of the Phangnga bay, they differ in species depending on elavation and relative tidal range. The landward boundary of Phangnga bay is marked by a gentle erosion slope, limestone cliffs and transition forest between mangrove and upland forest which extends beyond the bay margin.