S/V Indian Summer 1

We need to spend some time in Chalong bay as our canvas work is taking a couple of weeks to finish so we decided to do a few trips over to the islands in Phang Nga bay.  The first one we decided upon was south – Racha.  We arrived about 5pm just as the tourists were leaving and we were just stunned at the colour of the water. It was turquoise and really clear.  We grabbed a mooring and jumped straight in.  It reminded me of the Abrolhos  islands off Western Australia – masses of fish swimming around and the colour of the water……….. incredible.

We wandered into the middle of the island and found dive shops, restaurants, clothes shops etc, but we were the only people left so they were closing up.  We actually walked through to the other side of the island and found a bay which was not very clean –

We spent a couple of days in Racha, which was bliss until I decided to have a quick swim under the boat.  We had noticed lots of brown jelly fish in the water and I brushed past one and it stung me all along the top of my shoulder.  Vinegar and Stingose and a stiff drink later – we set off back to Chalong.

We had many different boat jobs to finish while we were in Chalong, so we ended up at Rolly Taskers – a massive sailmakers and chandlers.  Ian was in heaven – they had such a good inventory including flags.

We spent a couple of days over at a bay called Panwa – which was really lovely.  No tourist boats and a few resorts along the beach.   There are a couple of nice restaurants, a pancake bar, a couple of massage bars and a few dress shops.  We had lunch everyday at The Beach Bar – and they did a mean green curry!  I was a bit worried about swimming as I could see the dreaded stingers, but I did swim everyday which was great.

Back in Chalong, we decided to do a couple of the touristy things so we hired a motor bike and visited the Big Buddha.  It is enormous @ 45 metres tall made of white marble and placed at the highest point of Phuket dominating the skyline and visible from all over the island.

We also went round the island – visited a few beaches and Royal Phuket marina.  Phuket is a lovely island, very green and lush.  But plenty more to see yet ……………