Andaman coast Thailand

From Phuket we traveled around the coastal areas on both sides of the peninsula that leads to Phuket from the mainland. The area was well known as a pirate hangout and as being fairly lawless and a tad dangerous. We had no problems at all. We hired boats and went out to see the coastlines. They are fantastically carved limestone islands and coasts full of coves and passageways that are undercut along the water's edge. We went into some huge undercut caves in our little boats that were filled with bats. Some of the caves had beaches with nice white sand and crystal clear water where we could watch all the fish in the water just by looking over the side of our boats. Our guides were all very nice and friendly. We went swimming together and shared food together and everything. I enjoyed the people tremendously. Their vicious reputation seemed undeserved to me.

We did have one problem. A film company had just been filming an episode on one of the little islands. They filmed their scene using a small model airplane to fly into it so that the island would look bigger and did their little explosion that was meant to be a huge onscreen explosion and then they left Thailand. Unfortunately they left a mess that needed to be cleaned up and they ran off without paying their bills for the hotels and boats they used. The local police tried to make us pay for some of the losses. We got into a long drawn out debate about our liability for their crime and also about other ways that these people could try to collect their monies owed from the film company. We were all very civil in these discussions. In the end the police and local citizens that started out so angry at us were good friends with us and helped us see the area. I never found out if they were ever paid by the film company but for the film company to just run out like that was despicable in my opinion.

We spent a night or two out on some of the islands. It was so nice. Warm tropical weather and beautiful beaches and crystal clear water all together and almost no people anywhere in sight for the entire time. Once in a while we came across another boat with fishermen working and we would just wave or sometimes we would go over to their boat and the Thais would trade back and forth for fish or whatever. All of our time was very pleasant with these "pirates".

Today of course this area is well traveled by lots of people. Phuket is crowded with hotels and resorts or I should say was crowded until the big tsunami hit it a couple years ago. Even though almost all of it has been rebuilt the tourism is way down due to the world economy and some internal problems going on in Thailand.

There are riots right now in Bangkok and military marshal law has been declared. There is fighting in the streets. Thailand has also been hard hit by the AIDS epidemic. Their economy is lagging and they are almost in major default to the international banks. I hope the country can pull out of all this turmoil going on. I loved the people. They are all so sweet and calm and friendly. I just do not understand all the fighting.

We headed back up to Bangkok after our time on the Andaman coast. Chang Mai was our next planned destination.