Home » Reading » Caveman's Media » Thailand-Peddler's Paradise

ARTICLES, SPEECHES AND OTHER READING
CAVEMAN'S MEDIA

THAILAND-PADDLERS' PARADISE

Guide To Millennial Trips, 1999

It was a difficult landing onto a boulder-strewn beach in eight-foot Hawaiian surf. The wind was pushing the kayaks on shore, so I asked my clients to wait offshore and approach one by one. While I swam the shallow impact zone to assist the kayaks through waves which were exploding on the rocks, our guide team brought in the kayaks individually.

After one successful landing, my sweep guide shouted. I spun around, face-on to a building wave. There are better situations than standing on a rock bottom as a cresting wave sucks out the shallows, but this was even worse. The next kayak sat on the cresting lip of the wave, about to get pitched forward 'over the falls' directly down onto the rocks. My easy exit was to dive beneath the wave, but with disaster looming, I swam up the vertical face to the peak, put my hand on the bow of my client's kayak, and pushed the boat down onto the back of the wave. I knew that a cushion of water would crash beneath them, and the momentum would push them onto the beach.

	Paddling among the limestone 'karst' islands in Thailand Photo courtesy of SeaCanoe

My clients were safe, but my momentum tossed me backward with surprising force. Free falling backwards, I knew I would hit the rocks. If I hit flat on the wide rock I was using as a 'channel', I would land flat, and might survive. A foot to either side and I would break my back on the boulders.

As I tumbled down the froth, I thought 'Either I die, or I'm going to Thailand.' I landed prone, jolted but uninjured. It's been ten years since I left Hawai'i's rough waters behind, and I'm still in Thailand, exploring the calm, lake-like waters of the Andaman Sea. Despite excitement of surging water, strange sound effects and sturdy lava walls of the sea caves in Hawai'i, nothing compares with exploring Thailand's tidal limestone caves by kayak.

Elsewhere sea caves are commonly created by surf battering a cliff, digging a tunnel down a fault line for a few meters. Such caves usually have high ceilings, hard walls and rarely extend more than a hundred meters. Asia's stalactite-filled limestone caves, however, are completely different. Unlike the drama of crashing surf, the creation of Thailand's sea caves is quite subtle, virtually unnoticeable. The changing tides find a crack and eat it away over the eons but only within the tidal range. The ceilings are low, but the tunnels can extend for miles inside an island.

The complicated sparkling beauty of sedimentary caves has always fascinated humans. Rainwater percolates down through karst, gathering and depositing minerals to form the flowstone sculptures. But limestone caves are delicate. A misplaced footprint or gentle bump can damage a cave forever. However, a properly trained kayaker can explore limestone sea caves with no impact not even a footprint.

	Sit-on-tops make for easy ins and outs Photo courtesy of SeaCanoe

As an added bonus, many Asian tidal sea caves open into a cliff-lined lagoon formed by collapsed potholes. Connected to Our World only through the caves, these chambers become perfect examples of what the Planet was like before we came along. Once we started discovering them, we called these chambers 'Hong's', Thai for room.

However, be warned that this pristine experience is lost on Phuket day trips. The success of my company spawned almost twenty untrained copycats who simply don't understand or respect limestone. The 'Labor of Love' concept that forms the heart of true ecotourism is totally absent. Their uncontrolled high volume greed killed the pristine ambiance of the caves closest to Phuket and got our manager shot when he complained about a scheme that locked us out of the sites we commercialized financed by a 'surcharge' of 'only tourists'. Our sin was advocating professional training and realistic volume controls.

But don't be discouraged. Away from the day-trip crowds, South Thailand is still a paddler's paradise. From November to May, the waters from Koh Tarutao to Koh Surin are as calm as they are blue, and the islands are stunning masterpieces of limestone, granite and coral, often packed with wildlife. Somehow, Tarutao National Park has escaped poachers, chainsaws and dynamite fishermen. The hardwood forests and mangrove swamps harbor bountiful wildlife. On a recent one-week trip, we saw mouse deer, macaques, two-meter sea eagles, pythons, jumping sailfish and porpoise, water monitor lizards and Bramany kites.

There's more, rock gardens so much fun they eat up the days. Whenever there's a scattering of rocks sticking out of the sea, there's a lot of fun in a kayak. Add a surge to this natural obstacle course and there's extra fun, although the skill level also rises. The top two rock gardens I've found in 20 years of sea kayak explor- ing are near Tarutao.

None of this requires the skill of tidal cave kayaking, and many folks either rent or bring their own kayaks. In season, the seas are that benign. Off-season, the Andaman gets rough. Half the days are 'Tradewind' calm, breezy with whitecaps. However, the Andaman gets downright nasty, with short frequency overhead troughs that make navigation a survival experience fun for experienced sea kayakers, but downright dangerous for the typical family outing.

In the low season, we hunker down close to the coast, sticking to mangroves and rock gardens, and the protected waters of Phang Nga Bay. High season crowds are down, and with the addition of Ta Kao Bungalows on Koh Yao Noi, we take our overnighters under a roof when rain drives us from our tents.

Low season has an undeserved reputation. Locals love the cooler weather that's better than High Season Hawai'i, and we've found an odd bonus. Rainy season is when the rivers run in the South, so we developed a program that combines protected coastlines and inland rivers. There's even one river that runs through a mountain. Only in Thailand can you paddle through a cave and run a rock garden in the same day.

Who knows, I might be here a few more years!

Golden Series  |  Thailand  |  Vietnam  |  Fiji  |  Puerto Princessa  |  Hawaii

Home | Company Profile | F.A.Q. | Reading | Photo Galleries | Make Inquiry | Online Payment
Guest Comments | Tsunami Media Kit | Torpedo Tube | Terms & Conditions | Prices | Sitemap | Links