After a superb day visiting the Phi Phi Islands with Sea Eagle Tours, we decided we wanted to see more of the islands around Krabi and Ao Nang, but this time at a different time of day, with the sun setting in the late afternoon and early evening.
At one of the kiosks in Ao Nang promoting boat tours, we found one we liked the look of – called the ‘Seven Islands Sunset Tour’ with a boat tour operator in Ao Nang called GR Rungtawan.
Having been on a speedboat to the Phi Phi Islands, we thought we’d try one of the traditional Thai ‘long tail boats’ for this sunset tour, which would visit seven islands off the coast of Ao Nang.
We were able to spend a relaxing morning by the pool at our hotel in Krabi before the tour operator arrived in their minibus at reception to pick us up and take us to the boat tour meeting point down by Ao Nang beach.
All the tour operators seem to offer free hotel pickup, which is really convenient, even though our hotel was only about 5-minutes’ drive from Ao Nang beach, it was good to get convenient door-to-door transport between our hotel and the GR Rungtawan office, which was where we met with the other passengers booked on our tour.
After a brief wait for other passengers to assemble, our tour guide took us down to Ao Nang beach, where the long tail boat was moored up waiting for us all to climb aboard.
We had to dodge a ton of both live and dead jellyfish floating around the boat as we got on board, which was awkward (and a sign of things to come throughout the afternoon).
Once we were all on board the long tail boat, it was obvious these boats aren’t quite as comfortable or spacious as the speedboat we’d been on the day before – and we were all quite tightly crammed in, shoulder-to-shoulder on uncomfortable wooden benches.
We set off for the first island, which was only about five-minutes away, which we were quite glad of as we were soon looking forward to getting off the uncomfortable, hot, cramped boat.
These Thai long tail boats are popular because they have a real authentic, traditional feel about them and there’s no doubt they look great in photos in the clear water with the stunning beaches and islands in the background.
But in reality they are pretty bad boats to be stuck on for extended periods as, not only are they very uncomfortable, they’re extremely loud with very old, rattling diesel engines that make a huge racket and also (at least on the one we were on) pump hot exhaust fumes all over you.
The speedboat from the previous day’s tour was definitely feeling like the better option.
As we arrived at the first of the seven islands (Phra Nang Cave), looking forward to getting off the boat and stretching our legs and cooling down in the sea, we were quite disappointed when it became clear we weren’t actually getting off – and all we were doing was sailing past this island to look at it from the boat.
Likewise the next island – Railay Bay. We weren’t to stop, only to look at the island and take photos from the boat.
Personally I wasn’t too happy about this as it seemed to me that the promise of visiting seven islands had turned into an afternoon of just sailing round looking at the beautiful golden beaches and inviting water of the Krabi islands from a hot, cramped, loud and uncomfortable boat.
I think the tour guide sensed a bit of dissatisfaction from some of the passengers and they announced we’d wait at Railay Bay a bit longer so people could jump off the boat and swim for a bit.
This was welcome – until we all started getting in the water to realise it was swarming with jellyfish.
Pretty soon we all started getting stung and we were leaping out of the water as quick as we’d got into it, the boat guide pulling out a bottle of vinegar to rub on everyone’s stings (which apparently helps, although I didn’t feel it doing much to soothe the stings on my face and neck – although to be fair they weren’t that bad).
Another stop for some snorkelling at ‘Chicken Island’ (again, no going ashore, just swimming from the boat – and again a vast number of jellyfish meant most people stayed on board the boat).
By this point I must admit I was regretting choosing this tour.
I wasn’t enjoying it and even felt a bit deceived by the promise of “visiting seven islands”, which I naturally assumed meant actually going to them and not just sailing by them to admire them from the distance.
However, things picked up a bit when we headed for our next stop, which was Poda Island – the first island of the tour where we’d actually get to get off the boat and visit the island and it helped that here was where they were laying on the buffet dinner, which was a good quality selection of food that certainly helped lift the spirits.
Poda Island is a beautiful island with soft white sand, clear blue water for swimming and a large wooded area where you can shelter from the hot sun and capture great photos of neighbouring Tang Ming Island, which is a famous landmark mass of rock protruding straight up from the sea (and which they counted as one of the “seven islands” we’d be visiting even though it was just a case of seeing it from the island next door).
Up to this point, we were feeling a bit hard done-by by this tour.
Of the seven islands we thought we’d be visiting, we’d only actually visited one – and just happened to see the others from on board a hot and uncomfortable boat.
But we had a couple of hours on the beach at Poda Island, having dinner and watching the sun start to set behind the stunning Tang Ming Island and the bad feelings about the tour started to disappear.
And – as with every other excursion we had in Thailand – the enthusiasm and friendly nature of the tour guides started to win us over, helped further by our next stop on the tour, which was another beautiful island with a perfect view of the sunset, where we sat in seawater that was literally as warm as a bath on a remote, serene and peaceful beach watching the sun set in the distance.
From here, we had one more stop, which was to see bioluminescent plankton near Railay Bay, which can only be seen in the complete darkness.
If you’ve seen photos of this type of luminous plankton – and are expecting to see a magical display of sparkling white and blue lights illuminating the water’s edge – you may be disappointed.
That’s what we were hoping for – and perhaps in certain conditions at the right time of year that is how it looks – but we arrived at the plankton site to see only complete darkness, the only sights in the water being swarms of jellyfish.
The tour guides shut off all the lights on the boat and began scooping up buckets of seawater and splashing it onto the deck and, if you looked close enough, you could just make out faint hints of light flashing as the water splashed.
Their advice though, was to ignore the jellyfish and the pitch blackness of the sea – and to jump off the boat and snorkel in the sea, where you’d get a better view of the luminous plankton.
Unsurprisingly, not many of the passengers were keen to do this – though we decided along with a (brave / foolish?) few others to give it a go.
Sure enough, if you waved your arms about vigorously enough with a snorkel mask on, you could indeed make out sparks of light in the sea, which was actually quite cool, if not quite as stunning a sight as the photos you might find of the luminous plankton on Google.
After this, it was a short ride back to Ao Nang beach, where we dodged the jellyfish again to climb off the boat, back ashore – and to take a welcome lift back to our hotel.