Krabi Hong Islands

The lovely blue and green sea surrounding the Hong Islands is a kayakker’s wonderland.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HONG ISLANDS
LAO PI LEH BAY
The beach is right in front of Hong Island. The shade of cliff and trees enhance this pure-white, powdery beach to be a recreational place for most adventures.

HONG BAY
This large pond-like bay is on the back of Hong Island, opposite Lao Pi Leh Bay. A 10 meter channel leading to an abundant lagoon is encompassed with sheer limestone cliffs. Inside the lagoon the water is so translucent that you can see how fertile the marine life is, especially soft and hard corals near the entrance.

PAKGA ISLAND

(Paradise Island) – It is between Hong and Pakbia Island. The small beach in the northern part looks very like Maya Bay. A distance of 100 meters at the beach’s northernmost end takes you to the viewpoint – enabling you to see the panoramic perspective of the back of Paradise island and Phang Nga’s Koh Yao. Many kinds of coral surround the island.

PAKBIA ISLAND

Pakbia Island is North of Paradise Island, and the last northerly island of Krabi jurisdiction bordering to Phang Nga. It is a small island with 200 meter long strand alternating with a gravel beach. The quiet atmosphere of the beach is much appreciated. The neighbouring islands are also spectacular.

HOW TO GO TO HONG ISLANDS
From Ao Nang, it takes over one hour by longtail boat or 30 minutes by speed boat.

FACILITIES
The national park office is in charge of public facilities, e.g. toilet and camping site, but there is no fresh water.

Source : Krabi Tourism Association

Life as I see it
Sa Wa Dii!!  (Hello in Thai)  it is hot and sticky here in the Krabi province of Thailand, we have been here a few days now, relaxing and sitting on the beach.  Actually today was quite adventurous, we chartered a boat to take us to the nearby island of Ko Hong.  the trip took about 30 minutes in a longtail fishing boat, as the islands came into view, (yes islands plural there are like 20 or 30 of them) they just sprout from the sea, huge rocks jetting up hundreds of feet covered in trees and vines.  It is a jungle here people, lions, tigers and bears, wait no lions but insert friken huge monitor lizards instead!  The Islands are unihabited aside from the farang, thats us.  We find a particular location on Ko Hong that is like the core of the Island but accessible by sea, a perfectly sheltered lagoon protected by cliffs 300 feet tall with only a 20 foot wide passage to enter.  Did I say it was paradise?  In this particular area there is no beach just deep green water perfect to paddle about and enjoy the water.  After a bit we head to the more touristy beach location where a group of longtails have made a beach landing, we jump ashore into flour fine sand, easily the softest sand I have ever felt, ridiculous, I am gushing about sand!  The beach was separated by a huge rock that opened into another bay of equal beauty.  Here there were swimmers and sunbathers enjoying the scenery.  As we got closer we saw people giggling in the waist deep water, looking in we saw hundreds of emerald striped fish churning the water near the waders.  They were eating from the hands of the people, it was so cool.  We fed them as well, like little birds they swarmed and cleaned out our handfuls of rice in moments.  We snorkelled here for about an hour, exploring the cliff walls and finding fish with colors we couldn’t even describe.  After awhile we headed inland to take the “natire tail” thai version.  the trail was brilliant, and truly a jungle hike, it felt like about 90 with 80% humidity.  of course somewhere on the path I lost my sunglasses, i swear I need to staple them on or something this is the 2nd pair I lost.  While I went back to look for them Chris stayed at the picnic area, only to be accosted by several monitor lizards!  yeah so these beasties are big and eat meat, scary.  He told me that when they arrived he and all the other tourists promptly headed for high ground which in this case was a picnic table.  It can’t be proven but I’ll bet there was slightly girlie shieks coming from that area as well!  When I returned everything had calmed down, but the lizards were still hanging around, I have got lots of pics.  Big suckers and the crazy part is that they are wild here, no cages, no pens…they go wherever they want to.  We headed off of Lizard Isle poste Haste, and onto Paradise Island.  By this time we were both rather tired and maybe a bit sunburnt as well, so we thought to wave off the next locale, but we endured and let me tell you I am so glad we did.  The beach was pristine and the swimming fantastic, but the amazing part was the approaching storm.  We could see the storm coming in bringing rain and lots of it, like a huge wall approaching a bit faster than I was comfortable with.  Moments later the sky opened up and a tropical deluge ensued.  We headed for the boats, our captain was unfortunate enough to have no covering for himself and he was soked to the bone in minutes.  Our coverings were pretty meager as well and so we abandoned our shirts and cruised in our swim trunks.  The rain over the sea was incredible, pouring down harder than I had ever seen.  A grey mist made it so we only could see a very short distance but it seemed like magic, wet, but magic.  About halfway through Chris had to bail out water as we had taken on lots, a bit sketchy that part but otherwise a fantastic day!  More for later!

An excerpt posted by timontheroad
Thursday, November 09, 2006