Thai Escapade

January 3rd 2012, our third day in Phuket. Plan for the day, sail boat tours. The insides of my body, like a mashed potato salad, with acute food poisoning still lurking around. So of course, spending the day on a boat and in the water was a bad idea.

On arrival at the docks, Captain Mark, an Australian living in Phuket operating the Phuket Sail Boat Tours, greets us. Commence the Aussie and Kiwi banter, all in good fun.

First lesson for the day, how to get on board, a dingy. Put one foot in facing the way you want to sit, balance your body, and put the other foot in. Second lesson, how to board a boat from a dingy. Stay seated till the dingy is right next to the boat ladder. Hold on to the ladder, whilst seated until you’re confident you’ve got a tight grip on the ladder, and climb.

All aboard, we have, Captain Mark, his crew of two locals, who operated the boat and cooked for us, a young family from New Delhi with their 3 year old son, my family and a young lady making her way back to the United States after spending some time working whilst she travelled.

Afloat the waters of Thailand, the scenery was spectacular. The Sapphire blue waters, the lush green trees, the small islands. After spending 4 hours sailing, we disembark on a small island. Fourth lesson, how to climb down a ladder on a boat to a dingy. Climb down the same way you climbed up. The dingy took us to the shore. Fifth lesson how to get out of a dingy when ashore. Stay seated and put one foot out on the sand, get your balance right, stand up and then take the other foot out as well.

We toured a cave, explored a goon (‘small room’), encountered species of insects and animals we’ve never heard of and headed back to the point where we disembarked. Lunch prepared by Captain Mark’s lovely crew was served. Chicken satay, authentic Thai chicken curry and rice for us with beers and other drinks to cool it down with.

Once on board after lunch, rumour had it, that my brother was celebrating his 26th birthday and the crew baked him a scrumptious vanilla cake. Along with that, we docked at a ‘cool’ spot, for those that wanted to swim and cool down!

Soon it was time to head back a shore from where we started, because all good things come to an end. The 8 hours of the day vanished amongst the beautiful Thai scenery and not once did I complain about being sick. Moral of the story, sometimes the best stories come from the worst points of your life. But hey don’t follow that mantra too much.