Our last full day excursion was with the John Gray Canoe company. Everyone touted it as this romantic boat ride with canoeing through caves and a romantic dinner cruise. It was totally not that, but was so much cooler.
It was an hour drive to the harbor to catch this boat, but luckily it was a 10:20 am pick up! When we got there, there is the usual let’s sell you stuff. FYI, look in the shop! Hubby and I kicked ourselves for not buying the awesome John Gray shirt once we found out what the phrase meant! (More on that later.) we figured we would be able to stop once we got back from the boat trip and pick up a shirt or two. NOPE! You get off the boat and straight into your transport van!
I digress. Once you get on the boat, you see the “canoe” and you wonder what you got yourself into! Just breath, I promise it is going to be worth it.
It takes a hour to get to the first island and the first cave. On the way there, they give you a “light lunch”. One thing about this excursion, the food is FABULOUS!!! Hubby and I both decided it was the best food we are the entire trip, and it is all cooked on the boat for you.
Once you get to the first island, you are introduced to your paddler, or Captain. Our Captain was names Allen. He was Great!!! Then they are going to tell you now to get into the canoe and how to lay down I t he canoe because some of the caves are really low. It was this discussion that made me wonder what the hell we just paid to get into!
Let me tell you about these “canoes”. They are not real canoes. They are flipping blow up lengths of plastic. They seriously remind me of the torpedoes that we would fly around the Minnesota lakes on behind a boat, without the big bump on top. I really wanted to just call the whole thing off and hang on the boat, but I sucked it up and went with it. I’m SO glad I did. The first cave to even get into you have to lay down. I was freaked for like two seconds and then I realized it was fine! You only had to lay down for a minute, and then you are in one of the most beautiful lagoons. Once there, we saw an baby monitor lizard. We kept an eye out, but didn’t see his mommy (thank goodness!
Then it was a long paddle to the next cave, which is called Bat Cave. No, Batman wasn’t there, but the ceiling was covered in hundreds of bats. Let me tell you, I HATE BATS. I once made hubby drive home when he was working late because there was a bat in our house. Thank goodness the kids were in bed asleep, because I shut myself up in our bedroom! So to go, purposely, into a cave full of bats seems like the craziest thing to do. But once you make it through the smelly, freaky cave, you come again to a beautiful lagoon. There we saw the owner of the company, John Gray. Allen then explained that he discovered all these lagoons and started the company to help preserve the environment. Allen then explained the front of their shirts, saying it is a picture of John Gray, and under it is Thai for Big Monkey. Apparently that is his nickname. That is what sold the shirts for us!!!
Also in the lagoon we saw the mudskipper fish. This fish can be out of the water by in essence holding it’s breath! It was amazing to see this creature that Hubby and. I had only seen on National Geographic! In that lagoon we also saw a family of long tail Macaw Monkey. It was like being back on. Monkey Beach, but without anyone feeding the monkeys.
After we left that lagoon it was back to the boat for a 10 minute trip to the next cave. This was by far the most popular cave and tons of other canoe companies were there. There though Allen showed us some soft sponge coral in the most beautiful colors, a bunch of rock crab, and then this huge pink Jellyfish. Allen explained that this jellyfish is one of the poisonous ones in Thailand. Hubby and I both looked at each other because when we were done with a that lagoon, it was free time to swim there! We opted not to swim after seeing that jellyfish! Instead, hubby took over paddling and paddled us to this beautiful beach. Not to be outdone, I paddled back. Let me tell you, that was totally my work out for the day!!
Finally it was back to the boat, where we cruised to our next destination. While cruising, Allen helped us make our Karong. I joked that it was arts and crafts time, but Allen did a great job explaining what each part meant and showing us how to build it. (Ok, Allen did most of it, but don’t tell anyone!).
After making the Karong, it was dinner time. Again, the food was better than anything we had eaten yet. The soup (Tom Yum) alone is something we decided we would get again!
Once dinner was over and we had our fill, it was back into the canoes to float our Karong. (For more information on Karong, check out the post here.) Hubby and I made our wish and watched it float in the water. Then we saw the fish come and try to eat it! Allen just laughed and said our wish much be going to come true then! After letting it float for 5 minutes, we flew out the candle, and then saw the most beautiful bioluminescent plankton. Whenever the water was agitated, these white firefly like lights covered the water. Allen even got into the water and showed us how they cover his shirt and let us touch them. It was truly a magical experience.
Then it was back to the boat for the hour long ride back to the pier and another hour long ride back to the hotel. By the time we made it back to the hotel it was 9:30 pm, and we were both exhausted and needing a shower! It was a day I will never forget.
So, if you get a chance, do a John Gray canoe tour! Here are a few helpful hints I wished I knew before I went:
- You are going to get wet. Wear a swimming suit there.
- Before you get on the canoe, take anything off you don’t want to get wet. I wore my shorts over my suit on the first canoe trip. They were still damp when we got back to the pier, and I had them hanging on the railing of the boat all day.
- Bring dry clothes to change into. If you are like me, I really hate being in damp clothes all day.
- If you think it is going to be a romantic dinner cruise, think again. U less your idea of romantic is sitting on a bench eating dinner around 60 other people! The sunset was amazing though.
- Bring your go pro. We were so glad we did, although we probably could have gotten away with using my iPhone since Allen said he has NEVER tipped the canoe.
- You won’t be wearing shoes once you get on the boat. Hubby and I had both keens and tevas with us. It was totally pointless as you take them off and leave them on the boat. We put our shoes back on right before we got to the pier.
- Go in without expectations and enjoy the ride. The people there are great and definitely have a fun time!
