Top Ten Southeast Asia Classic Adventures

Top Ten National Park Lodges Photo Gallery

advertisement

Picture this: sheer limestone cliffs ringing a Thai bay, while unlikely karst towers carved into extraordinary shapes rise up from the azure waters. Now picture yourself in a kayak, paddling into these towers. Just over 60 miles (95 km) from the fabled island of Phuket, the area around Phang Nga Bay is startlingly beautiful. It's also ideal for kayaking. Canoes can enter narrow crevices inaccessible to larger boats, sometimes passing beneath overhangs so low that the canoeist has to lie flat to enter. Once within one of the many sea caves or hidden bowls scattered throughout the bay, absolute silence reigns, save for water dripping from a nearby stalactite. The caves often open into large hidden bowls, inaccessible from above, which fill with sunlight during daytime hours and are home to an extraordinary range of flora and fauna. Sea canoes are ideal for such explorations, as they too are absolutely quiet, gliding through one hidden cave after another, the sound broken only by the occasional splash from a paddle.