Virkler/Horton Adventure - Final Day in Phuket, Thailand

For our final activity before returning to Singapore, we went to a National Park of islands where we took kayaks out through caves and into hongs.  A hong is a word specific to Phuket which describes a hollow island where you take kayaks through caves and come out of the caves into lagoons in the middle of the island.  You are surrounded by the high cliff walls of the islands and you can only access these hongs when the tide is low enough to let you get through the cave but high enough to ensure water in the interior lagoon.  Very hard to describe but very, very cool to see.

Exploring some land by one of the hongs

After exploring we came back to the boat and played in the water for a while.  The highlight was when the guides hooked together lots of the kayaks turned upside down and challenged everyone to run the gauntlet.  The guides clearly had more experience doing this and were more successful than the Virkler family but we had a fun time trying!

After we recovered from our kayak running challenge, we worked with our guides to create our own krathongs.  Thailand celebrates a festival called Loi Krathong each year as a way to ask for blessing for their families.  A slice from a banana tree trunk is used as the base and then is decorated with personalized flowers and hair clippings to help the gods know which family built the krathong.  While we were not there for the Loi Krathong festival (usually in November), we did build krathongs and then waited until dark to light them in the caves.  It was an amazing experience that really made you think about how people must feel as they set their krathong afloat and pray for wealth and happiness for the following year.

Sumner, Henry and I built our krathong with the help of our amazing guide (who spoke no english but was great at gesturing when he wanted us to understand something) - this mother bird and her three babies were made out of unopened orchid buds.  

Ella and Grammy made their krathong with their guide (who did speak english and was very funny - our kayaks stayed side by side so that we could listen to him)

Inside the cave after dark lighting our offering - bats are everywhere!

Ella and Grammy with their offering

Making our wishes for the new year .....

... and watching as the current takes our krathong along through the cave.  Beautiful.