Khai Islands Hopping

3rd Day

There are many choices if one want to go for island hopping. The most famous islands are perhaps Phi Phi Island and Khai Island. Our first choice was actually Phi Phi Island. However the agency people said it's not very suitable for small children, especially in the Monson season. In view of the long travel distance on sea (around 1 hr plus by speed boat), he said many small kids suffered sea sickness and spoilt the whole trip. So, we better take the advice. We choosed the nearer islands, i.e. Khai Islands that includes Khai Nai, Khoi Nok and Khai Nui. Our package was a half day pattern.

We woke up early the next morning. After taking a quick breakfast in the hotel, we went to the lobby to wait for the driver to come to pick us. Again, the driver came very punctual, at 8am.

We departed from Sin-Sangrat Pier around 9am. The pier is rather old and dirty. The toilet is the kind I-won't-want-to-go-if-not-necessary type.

Thai-style fishing boat. Most of them are painted in striking colors, like yellow, blue, red, green. From far, they look very beautiful.

We got aboard the speed boat together with 2 Autralian and 2 European. There is an English-speaking Thai tour guide came along too.

Majority of the speed boats look the same, like this.

It took about 15 min to reach our 1st destination, Khai Nai Island. The island is very small that it only consist of 3 bumps like this. The distance from East to West should be less than 1Km. The boat stopped near the island but the guide said we would not land on it. We have no objection cause really, there aren't anything on the island.

Lonely tree at the top.

The water is quite clear over there. I can imagine how clear it is if the water is pure calm. The guide said we could snorkel here for 30 minutes before we left for the next island.

Even before the guide threw in banana skin to lure them swim nearer, we could see cluster of fishes everywhere. Err...I don't know fish like to eat banana skin?

The guide could easily catch some fishes out from the water to show us. I think he did it mostly to entertain William and I who stayed on the boat while all the others has gone snorkelling.


William was looking at his brother who's busy putting on the swim suit and snorkelling goggles. I asked him if he wanted to try too, but he was too anxious to get into the sea. In order to comfort him, I told him wherever he goes, mommy will stay there to accompany him.

Again, asked care-free Vincent if he want to try snorkelling? He said ok. He quickly put on everything, it's funny to see him in this suit.

However, he suddenly chicken out. No matter how we persuaded him, he just won't want to leave the deck. But he didn't want to go up and sit on the boat neither. I guessed he need time to gather the strenght and guts. So, we left him alone there.

So KS went into the water alone. The tour guide warned him to watch out of the sea-urchin. Anyway, he said no need to be too worry about it, cause the depth is 2m from the sea level.

10 min later, KS swim back. Said it got many sea urchin down in the water, and it's very pretty down there too.

By then, Vincent had been sitting there for 15 min already. He seems to want to look down into the sea world too. So, we pestered him to go down the water again. This time, he finally agreed to do it. He submerged his face into the water, with his hands still grabbed on the rail tightly. Some kind of snorkelling, haha..Anyway, we felt so proud that he finally made his 1st snorkelling attempt no matter how.

Just when he has guts to move further away, the guide said weather was getting not stable, and we got to move to the 2nd destination, Khai Nok Island soon. So, we have to pull him up. He was so fussy and unhappy about it. I can understand that. Just when he thought he can do something confidently, he got pull away. Sorry, boy.

Khai Nok Island is the biggest amongst 3. And it is the most developed island too.

Although under the hot sun, it's totally holiday ambience everywhere on the island.

The beach is very beautiful too. I'm impressed.

Many tourists gathered there to feed the fishes or snorkelling. They were talking out loud in Cantonese. So, I guess they must come from Hong Kong.

Same like the others, we fed the fishes with the white bread we brought along. However, the fishes were not very keen to swim near to eat it. Must be fed too full by the crowds, I think.

So, we lost our interest to feed the fishes very fast. And, we didn't feel like want to snorkel either because of the sun was burning hot at that time. Really scared of the terrible pain aftermath.

The time was around 11.30am. The tour guide told us he got to cancel the trip to the 3rd island because the weather forecast said heavy rain was coming, and it's dangerous to go there. He said that island is quiet small, just like the 1st island we went. So, it's not a pity we couldn't go there, blur blur blur. Well, for us, safety come first. So, we didn't say anything.

Instead, the tour guide said we could stay longer in Khai Nok Island. He said we would leave in 1.5-2 hours time.

We still have plenty of time left. So, we've decided to walked around this beautiful island.

The beach is sandy white, fine and smooth. We felt very comfortable to walk on it with bare foot.

Saw this pretty girl, posing for the photograhers on the beach there. She is really so beatiful, I stood there to watch her for a while. When she saw me taking her photo, she is so friendly and not stingy to give me a very sweet smile. Ah, I like her already. Unfortunately, I have no idea who she is. Maybe she is an actress or model, I think.

We walked further away to the other side of the island...

There got some stalls selling souvenir. Most of the time, people was watching than buying. I can see that their business is no good at all. Sigh, tough world.

There is one thing I don't get it. Supposingly, there should be many beautiful sea shells along the beach. I was hoping to collect some to make my own souvenir. But all I could see is that kind of stones and broken shells. Kind of disappointed.

Within 30 minutes time, we walked back to where we've landed.

KS found a small cave that he had no chance to go in.

Having nothing else to do, we simply took photos for each other to kill time.

I've got bored of the normal pose. Out of my mind, I said I want to do something different and asked KS to get the camera ready.

We laughed like mad cow when we saw those shots through the LCD screen. Well, doing something silly had at least kept our brain active under the hot sun.

I insisted KS to do the same too. He made some silly poses. This one is the best.

The boys were getting bored and lazy. The weather was really too hot to run around. Luckily, I brought their favorite biscuit stick along. For quite a long time, they remained calm and quiet in this position.

They really enjoyed eating it so much, like nothing is matter to them...

While they were eating, we rested under the beautiful umbrella ourself too.

After they've finished eating, they gained some energy and their mood was back. Though still hot, they tried to build a sand mountain under the sun.

Finally, the time was up. The same boat took us back to Sin-Sangrat Pier. The wave by then was getting very big. Our boat bumped up and down like a mini roller coaster. The boys were so happy and they laughed so loud to embrace the wild movement. They didn't have the fear I have. What if that 2-engine speed boat broken down somewhere in the middle of the sea?

We were back to the hotel at about 3pm. William by then was so tired that he felt asleep in the car. We didn't go back to our room, but went straight to the pool instead. We let him continue sleeping on the couch there. As for Vincent, his 2nd fun time was just begun.

While KS and Vincent was playing in the pool, and William was sleeping, I hired one of the hotel's based masseuses to 'torture' me. I heard traditional Thai massage is about joint-stretching and bone-clicking. Although I don't like physical contact with stranger, I had decided to give it a try. The woman gave me a list for the services with quotation. I choosed the Thai body massage. It cost 300B, charged under hotel account. Before we started, she put a thin mattress on the grass near the pool side, and I put on my private towel on it.

This woman told me it's the slow season now and visitors are not too many. In fact, I was the 2nd customer for her that whole day. Maybe because of this reason, she did it very slow and detail until I almost dozed off. It's not painful at all. Maybe she scared to break my tiny bones too, haha...I was not sure hong long she took to complete massaging my body. KS said it last for almost 1 hour. As conclusion, her skill is ok. If the skin of her palm is smoother, the feeling would be better.

When I walked back to the pool to join KS and the boys, I saw this whole coconut fruit was put on the small table next to our couch. Hey, it's wearing my sunglasses. Apparently, KS'd ordered my favorite drink to quench my thrist. Wonderful, thanks.

We played until 5 something before we finally went back to the room. We bathed the kids and ourself leisurely. Then at 6 something, we hired a tuk-tuk car to take us to the nearby town for dinner.

*

*

(To be Continued)