Reminders:
Photo Galleries: The pictures you see embedded in the post are only a subset of the pictures in the galley for this posting. If you are reading this in email, you need to click into the website to see all the pictures. You can click on the first picture in the gallery and then arrow through reading the descriptions. This is also true for all the past postings in case you missed them.

Videos: We try to avoid doing videos but there are a few. Some people who get their posts by email have trouble viewing them from there. In that case, you may need to click into the website to see them.

Soundtrack: Neil created a playlist of instrumental music on Spotify to help us get in the proper mindset for writing about our recent adventures. You may enjoy listening to it while you read. Accounts on Spotify are free and you’ll need one to listen at this link: Bali Soundtrack.

Sunday, October 1, Day 5 continued

The boat anchored at Ko Hong island after our afternoon tea. The guides were all in the water with the canoes by the time we went down the steps for our next canoe exploration. As a couple would reach the bottom of the steps, their guide would paddle up to the fantail for them to load. We were happy to be near the end. Wonderful cooking aromas were also wafting through the boat. Mid-ship on the lower deck was a kitchen with two conventional gas stoves where 3 women were cooking in woks almost continually through the trip. As we watched them while standing on the fantail waiting to board our canoe for our exploration of Ko Hong island, one of the cooks tossed a handful of chilies into a wok and the pungent spicy steam hit the air. It was like someone kicked an anthill. Everyone started coughing, even the crew, as they rushed around seeking fresh air. The cook looked at us apologetically but we gave her the thumbs up that it smelled great even as our eyes watered and we coughed. We quickly jumped into our canoe to get away.

Nga National Park ranger station across from Ko Hong island has a radio tower and a small cabin barely visible on the beach. Tour captains report by radio their daily passenger counts and the tour companies are charged accordingly (our entrance fee was included with the price). Because of watery eyes and coughing, Neil barely had the camera ready as we paddled under a large limestone archway into the hong. The tide was still receding and mud was appearing at the edges of the lagoon. We stopped to look for mudskippers and fiddler crabs. Centered at the opposite open entrance to the lagoon is a large pillar of limestone. Bau named this as “James Bond 2”. The James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun made this limestone island bay famous with the villain’s lair located inside one of these limestone islands. (The lair was really on a studio stage but the external shots are real.) The island was nicknamed “James Bond Island” and it receives over 1000 visitors a day. We gave it a miss. But I didn’t know there was another “pillar” used in the filming, or maybe this one is just a look-alike that was nicknamed. Now I have to watch the movie again. We cruised around the outside of the island under the “elephant rock” and headed back to the boat as we watched the Sea Eagles circling and fishing in the wake of a departing boat.

Before dinner, our guides educated us about the Loy Kratong Thai traditional festival held to pay homage to the goddess of rivers and waterways. It is traditionally held on the night of the 12th full moon of the year. Bau explained that the Kratong are launched down rivers and into the sea. Bau helped us build a Kratong out of flowers and banana leaves attached to a buoyant segment of banana stalk. I love that John Gray Sea Canoe is an eco-friendly company and they avoid the use of disposable plastic and work to protect the ocean from trash. For instance, they provided us drinking water in glass reusable bottles instead of plastic bottles. Since we were using metal nails in our Kratong to expedite the construction we would therefore collect ours back from the ocean after the candles burned so we would not contaminate the ocean with the nails. Bau pulled out the shiny stainless steel nails for re-use.

After we viewed the sunset colors, it was time for our final feast. It was a fun production to watch a human chain of crew members handing all the dishes up the stairs from below deck. Let’s see if I can name all the dishes we were served for dinner: Tom Yum Soup, Masaman Curry and rice, Satay and peanut sauce, Fried Rice, Pad Thai, Cashew Chicken, Minced Beef,  Whole Fried Fish, plus Bananas in Coconut Milk for dessert. In addition, there were four vegetarian dishes on a different table to accommodate the vegetarian passengers. As we stuffed ourselves, we were warmed by the laughter from the crew’s lounge downstairs as they relaxed and enjoyed their dinner. We never figured out which dish was the one that made everyone cough.

Once again, the crew launched the canoes and we carried our Kratong down the steps to load in the canoe with Bau. Neil didn’t bring the camera for this trip because it was pitch black, and he didn’t want to disrupt the occasion with flash photography. All the canoes headed to a dark overhang cave under the island and Bau lit the candles and incense for us. Neil and I launched the Kratong after thinking of a wish and sat to enjoy the peace. Later, as we pulled the Kratong back in the canoe in the dark, our eyes had dark adapted enough to see the bioluminescent plankton sparkling as the water was disturbed by our hands and the paddle. 

We had a clear starlit sky overhead for our return trip allowing us to enjoy the unusually bright Milky Way from the bow. It was a beautiful end to the day.