Koh Ngai
Thailand, 2014-01-21 12:17 by Laerke
From cold Pai in the north we headed all the way down south to the limestone mountains of the southern Andaman coast. We flew to Krabi and from there took a taxi and a longtail boat to a small island off the coast of Trang called Koh Ngai. We had Martin’s parents with us so we’d booked into a nice hotel that had the added bonus of a swimming pool that was located a fair bit up the cliff side resulting in fantastic views from the infinity pool.



Our rooms were also up the cliff side and it was lovely sitting on the balcony looking at the rich birdlife that surrounded us. Often we would be looking down at the big hornbills and small eagle like bird named Kites past right by us! We spent our days swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing…



On one of the last days before Martin’s parents went home, we went on a great boat trip; we stopped and snorkeled at two different islands and entered the emerald cave! The Emerald Cave is a secret lagoon hidden inside the island of Koh Mook. The only way in to this amazing location is to swim 85m through an underwater tunnel that opens out into the secret bay with limestone cliffs soaring high above you on all sides.
The underwater tunnel turns through about 90 degrees, so you descend into total darkness for a few seconds. Once you complete the turn, you can start to make out the emerald-green light coming from deep within the island. As you exit the tunnel and enter the lagoon, the water glows a deep emerald green and it’s rather like being inside a big, green volcano. There’s a large sandy beach to relax on, that’s open to the sky inside the cave. It would have been really fantastic if there hadn’t been that many people around. It really was very crowded! It is probably not something I would want to do again, unless I came in the off-season where, presumably, there are a lot less people around. It was fun to swim through the dark cave though :) Martin’s parents were a bit freaked out by it, but they managed really well.

We saw quite a few pretty fish when snorkeling and I shared a bit of a moment with three puffer fish I discovered between some large boulders :)