Exploring Andaman Sea Article from www.bangkokpost.com  

Phenta found a family shivering in the 40-degree evening air, and they stood in line to each gratefully claim an article of clothing. Throughout our visit, the kids recognized their clothing on happy children, and they knew that article would be valued and passed down for many years. Sierra said to me, "I can't believe how much we have compared to them."

The next day on our hike, our guide made bamboo hiking sticks for our kids, bamboo pop guns using rolled-up wet newspaper as ammunition, and large thermoses utilizing the two cross sections of the versatile plant. When the kids began to wilt from the heat, he showed them a wide-leafed plant to use as a sun umbrella.

EATING FLOATING LOTUSES:

After our three-day back-country adventure, we drove to the Golden Cottage in Mae Sot. Maesot Conservation Tour owners, Boong and Boon Kasomsan, have opened their family farm for a taste of a traditional upper-scale Thai farm life. The large bamboo house has a central eating place at large round tables with wedge-shaped floor pillows. We ate little balls of sweet potatoes in coconut milk called ``floating lotuses,'' while wild lizards called chinchooks squeaked in the night. Like every other night spent away from a hotel, whether camping or in a guest house, we slept beneath mosquito netting. We rarely encountered the pests, however, and did not get a single bite, for it was the dry season. So our fear of contracting malaria was nearly nonexistent.

In the month that we traveled in Thailand, we also toured the fascinating remains of ancient cities like Ayutthaya and Sukhothai historical parks, visited Buddhist temples (with the monks in their saffron-colored robes and flip-flops), hiked through their national parks, visited Susan in Chiang Mai and used the centrally located capital city of Bangkok as our regrouping site. Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest hotel in Thailand (88 floors), welcomes children, and the breakfast buffet on the glassed-in 78th floor was always a delightful way to start the day.

There is another whole world in the southern part of this long diverse country - the sun-drenched tropical islands. We flew to the large island of Phuket and took a high-speed boat to the remote Similan Islands off the west coast in the Andaman Sea.

The Similans are considered Thailand's gems for there is no development and the string of nine islands is owned and operated by the national park system. Only two have camping and bungalows and a tiny restaurant where a few Thai women stir up delicious food in their woks (for about $1 an entry). These islands are popular with divers for the coral reefs are rated among the ten top dive sites in the world. But most divers charter boats that remain close to the harbour. That leaves the islands virtually deserted.

Our family does not dive, but the snorkeling is unbeatable, so we rented gear from our escort boat for the duration of our three-day visit. Some say the Similan Islands offer better snorkeling than most scuba diving sites in the world. The reason for this is the abundant and shallow reefs that allow natural sunlight to penetrate the clear water (with a visibility depth of 30 metres!), so the colors of the fish and coral are lit by natural light.

The reefs and marine life begin only yards from the white sand beaches, so even young children and novice swimmers can enjoy an underwater world usually reserved for only divers. Todd and I kicked through the silent world with the kids, pointing to giant clams, brightly colored parrot fish, eels, huge sea turtles. At one point we swam right through a school of silvery blue fish.

The dozens of hermit crabs on the beach each evening, and giant 5-foot-wide fruit bats hopping around high in the trees, along with the swinging gibbons that hollered in the early morning, caused my son to remark, "This is my favorite place in all of Thailand."

BIZARRE ISLAND:

For Sierra and me, that honor went to our final destination, the Phangnga Bay on the east coast of Phuket, made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio's movie, "The Beach.''

Some 160 islands explode out of the sheltered Phangnga Bay. These are not typical islands but limestone pinnacles that look like inverted mountains. They stand like giant sentinels, row upon row, making this one of the most bizarre seascapes on earth.

Many of the islands have hidden lagoons, called hongs, that are surrounded by rock cliffs. The only way to get into many of them is through caves that open and close with the tide. Some openings are so narrow you must flatten horizontally in your kayak while the ceiling dramatically passes inches from your nose.

Our tour operator was John Gray's Sea Canoe, a Thai-owned kayaking company started more than 20 years ago. The company is founded on sound environmental principles. The guides study the radically changing tides and pick the best islands to explore; they are well-rounded naturalists as well.

We spent three days circumnavigating islands with limestone cliffs, overhangs and undercuts. The extreme low tides expose table coral, sponges, giant jellyfish and sea urchins. Endangered white-bellied sea eagles, with their six-foot wingspans, worked the reef, diving for fish. We paddled up estuaries and explored wild, rare mangrove forests, we studied rock paintings on 1,000-foot island walls and delighted over mud skippers, a strange terrestrial fish. We stayed overnight on Ko Panyi, which has a Muslim village with a Thai restaurant and bungalows run by locals.

When we kayaked the perimeter of the islands, we each took a child in our rigid sit-on-top boat. But when we entered the caves, we used inflatable kayaks, and our only job was to shine a flashlight on the glittering stalactites and the thousands of bats on the ceiling. The guides do the paddling so the delicate formations are not harmed.

Inside the hongs, the beautiful songs of the vibrant bird life hushed my children. Then a family of young monkeys hopped down onto the lower branches of a tree, eager to take a closer look while their parents scolded them high on the cliff above us.

One monkey couldn't judge his own weight and bounced on a flimsy branch, breaking it and plopping him into the water right by our boat. Another curious monkey slowly spread the leaves apart with his little hands and peered down, only a few feet from the kids' faces.

After the kayaking trip, we sped across the Phangnga Bay. The islands receded in the mint green light; the full moon rose orange over the water. The kids hung over the bow, squealing when they saw flying fish alongside our boat - a parting gift from amazing Thailand.

[The Bangkok Post is a great resource for travel in Thailand. Please check the site and the "horizon's section" for many informative articles].

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