After looking on the internet in Australia I was very keen to do a three day, two night canoing and camping on island trip with a company formed by a man called John Grey. He is reportedly the expert in this area and runs the best trips. However my conversions from Thai Baht to Australian Dollars was clearly way off. I thought it was a bargain at $100 dollars each for three days but it turned out to be just less than $1,000 for the two of us. Must have had some trouble with the 0's. Important to be spot on with your maths!!
We opted therefore for a one day Starlight experience. We travelled by boat out to some islands. There were only nine tourists on the boat. Upon arrival at the island we had a guide for each canoe and tTom had a kyak with his own guide paddling on a windsurfer board. We paddled around islands and then could enter into hongs, or open spaces within the island entered through cave enterances. There were monkeys in the jungle vegetation and I was lucky enough to see a monkey dive into the water and then swim back to land quickly. These monkeys live on fish and other small animals and insects.
The Bahiminy Kites flew after the boat when enticed by chicken scrapes and put on quite a display.
We were also shown how to make an offering that is traditional for Buddists. These are made out of folded banana leaces pinned onto cross sections of banana truck and decorated with flowers, incense and candles. After dark we paddled back into a hong and the offerings floated in the darkness of the caves after appropriate wishes had been made. We also saw the phosecence (spelling mistake) from the plankton in the sea. This was all very spectacular, even more so because it was a full moon.
