Andaman Sea Anomaly Set to Boom - Part 2
Fah Thai (Thailand, November 1999)

Cruising, Kayaking, Diving and Forest Explorations

On the first day, we found elephant spoor at the high-water mark just 25 meters south of our beach campsite. Over the coming week, we found signs of bear, leopard, civet, wild pig, monkeys and more. We explored labyrinthine rivers among giant mangroves on Lampi, an island almost as big as Phuket, paddling for hours at a time and never seeing a sign of other human activity.

Riding the current in as the tide rose, the only sounds were the dip of paddles, the took-keh... took-keh of lizards, anonymous splashes, equally anonymous shrieks from forest birds, the popping of mud crabs, the whriff-whriff of hornbills passing overhead and hoo-hooing of doves perched in a dead tree. Except for those occasional interruptions, there was nothing but the cathedral calm, butterflies fluttering in patches of sun, stilted mangrove root systems like crazy pediments for the 30-meter columns. Later, as we went back out into the sea, we saw longtoms jumping, two pufferfish splashing about, apparently mating at the surface, and pygmy dolphins.

We paddled around uninhabited islands, investigating sea caves and hugely scenic coves with nary a human footprint, although there was evidence of many other creatures, some of them rarely if ever seen in other parts of Asia. We watched monkeys breaking clams open on rocks at sunset and and sea otters playing in the surf. We found tracks where, only minutes before, a leopard had rolled in the sand at the water's edge. We walked through lush rain forest, admiring forest giants festooned with tangles of lianas, others dying in the embrace of strangler figs. From the boat, we dived on on rich coral reefs; we snorkeled from the kayaks. In our encounters with colorfully ramshackle nomad vessels festooned with bright flags and pleasant people, we bargained for lobsters and other seafood. One afternoon, while sailing from one anchorage to the next, we took a nice Spanish mackerel, in some opinion the best eating fish there is, on the starboard line from our own boat. We enjoyed lavish beach barbecues under the stars. We visited a colorful sea-nomad village... in short, it was an eventful week, even though it made a perfectly relaxing break from Bangkok.

Phuket- and Kawthaung-based SEAL have been the pioneers in this area (as they were with liveaboard diving), running a very comfortable trimaran sailing yacht, a monohull sailboat for deeper-water diving, and a super-fast navy-surplus patrol boat on trips to the Mergui Archipelago.

These trips, especially the sailing-kayaking-diving trips offer something for everyone. If more people feel like kayaking around the islands or up the rivers on Lampi Island, then fine. If more are in the mood for diving, or snorkeling, or forest-walking, then so be it. In the course of a week-long cruise, if you like, you have time to do them all. Gaea, the sailboat, offers comfortable liveaboard accommodation and great food. SEAL I, the speedboat option, offers very fast access to Lampi Island, with its four scenic and little-explored rivers, along with excellent campsites and fine al fresco dining at three location.

On an early off-season survey trip, we made the trip from Kawthaung to Lampi Island in SEAL I at night, an interesting experience. A week later, we returned a moderate-to-rough Beaufort 5-6 sea, against 30-knot winds and waves. Wet, airborne half the time, it was easier to stand than sit and suffer spine-jarring impacts. Still, we did the distance from the highest campsite in 2.5 hours (in the November-May season you never have to worry about rough seas). Along the way we encountered a traditional Mawken liveaboard towing 12-18 dugout canoes full of women. We also saw a sail in the distance that turned out to be Gaea, on her way up to the islands. The encounter only heightened anticipation of the diving-sailing trip we had planned for three weeks later.

World-Class Scuba Diving

Dedicated scuba divers will prefer Phuket-based trips aboard liveaboard boats that range the deeper water around submerged pinnacles and rocky islets lying 12-25 miles outside and running around 200 miles up the main archipelago. In the inshore waters of the archipelago, the diving is less interesting to veteran divers. The sites are shallower, there's less deep-water fish life, and underwater visibility suffers from runoff sediments.