Krabi to Phi Phi by Paddle Power

One Friday afternoon on the 7th of November, I visited Ao Nang Beach in Krabi. I lived in Ao Nang from ’93 to ’95. The place has changed drastically since then and in my opinion, none for the better. Ao Nang has become yet another over-developed and over-priced sightseer's snare. It is unsettling to see it go the way of Phuket and other formerly charming Thai villages. There is now nothing unique about Ao Nang. It could be any tropical beach town anywhere in the world. I saw no handicrafts, no hint of Traditional Thailand, plenty of plastic, nothing biodegradable... just shelf after shelf of monotonous shirts and flowery trousers.

How do the locals benefit from this? One of the most disappointing aspects of uncontrolled growth in a tourist area is how it affects the locals who aren’t directly involved in tourism. Some become servants and cheap labor to the more affluent, while others are cursed with having to pay higher prices for the necessities of life. Food prices soar and non-food items (junk food) becomes readily available. There is now a McDonalds in Ao Nang… enough said.

Now, on the more positive side of things - heading to the outskirts of Krabi, you can once again find Traditional Thai culture and values, including the infamous smiling locals.

Ao Nang was merely the starting point for an adventure. A group of four athletic Bangkokians flew down to meet Zae and me. Our goal was to paddle from Ao Nang to Phi Phi Island. This is a 23 nautical mile paddle. We planned to depart at midnight.

It’s been a while since I've done this paddle. The last time was with a couple of guys who were training for an epic 6,000-mile paddle from San Diego to Columbia. The objective for this attempt was nowhere near that ambitious.

Two of the trip participants were in training for an upcoming adventure race. Tab and Becca Bond have been down to participate in our Phang Nga trip, Khao Sok trip and they’ve also completed our paddle school. They have their own kayaks and paddle on a regular basis.

Tab and Becca are serious athletes and being such, they have serious gear. They had just purchased a couple of super lightweight wing paddles. They couldn’t wait to put them to the test on this lengthy paddle. Tab was kind enough to hand over her new paddle early on in the paddle. Well, I was certainly impressed with the feel, though it was very strange at first, it didn’t take much time to get used to it. Being non-materialistic, I tried my best not to desire a wing paddle of my own.

The other fit twosome was Chad and Peggy. They live in Bangkok and are friends of Tab and Becca. Neither of them had paddled any real distance. In fact, they had only kayaked one other time. It was with us and it was a quite a while ago. Tab and Becca ensured me that they were physically capable of paddling for many hours. Neither had spent any real time learning an efficient forward stroke. My challenge was to coach them, in the dark, and convert them from raw recruits to efficient paddling machines. Zae ended up doing most of the training with Peggy.

She started out being fairly slow. To be perfectly frank, I was concerned whether she would be able to continue. My concern was not ungrounded as she was merely working out the details that Zae and I were barking at her. A little while later, she assumed a position up with us seasoned paddle dippers and never looked back. Zae had spent a lot of time at the back with her. He saw a need and went into action. This is the type of guy Zae is. He’s alert and always on the prowl to make sure that everyone is comfortable and happy.

Zae had never really paddled any long distance at night. He, of course, jumped at the opportunity to join this exceptional journey as a necessary supplement to his extensive paddling experience.

The final paddler on the team was Pat Reilly of Pennsylvania. Pat had rented one of our Sea Lions and was in the middle of an wide-ranging tour, covering the better part of Phang Nga Bay. Pat races kayaks, so having him along was good for safety reasons. If anyone was too tired or ill to paddle, between Zae, Pat and myself, we could certainly tow a victim any distance necessary.

Our first rest stop was at Chicken Island. This island is called that because of a unique rock formation that very much resembles a chicken’s head. We could see fish swimming in the turquoise-colored clear water. The moon shone so brightly, that we could see Phi Phi from our rest beach. Seeing into the jungle was easy as well. It was more like having very dark sunglasses on, rather than being in the middle of the night. Now we realized we wouldn't be paddling into the pitch blackness of a typical night.

As we paddled through the night, everyone commented at one time or another on the astonishing amount of light. The moon gave us well over fifteen miles of visibility. So, not only could we see the lights of Phi Phi, but we could also see the outline of the islands… silhouetted against a monochrome background.

At one point, an eight-inch fish hurdled itself over my boat and directly into my waiting lap. To be honest, I wasn’t all that shocked. If you’ve never had a fish jump in your lap, you ain’t paddling enough. It’s happened to me several times. It’s always funny and of course, totally unexpected. There is a strange phenomenon that occurs in the fish world. It is commonplace to see small fish jumping back and forth across floating leaves and twigs. Perhaps this fish thought it would jump back and forth across the red floating thingy. It didn’t judge the distance accurately.

On the previous Ao Nang to Phi Phi night paddle, we took a break on Ko Mai Pai (Bamboo Island). There is another island beside Bamboo Island called Ko Yoong (Mosquito Island). I don’t know why it’s called that, as we didn’t find any mosquitoes. What we did find was crystal clear water and some lovely undamaged coral. There is a long beach covering the entire east side of the islands. It was the perfect setting for watching the sunrise. We sat on the beach, chatting away as the sky before us ever so slowly turned from a faint blue into a postcard. Phi Phi was just a mile and a half away.

We wiggled into our kayaks for the home stretch. The sun acted quickly on the temperature. It was a gentle reminder of why we did this twenty-three mile crossing at night.

Unfortunately, Phi Phi is on the road to ruin… or should I say, the expressway to devastation. Still being touted as a tropical paradise, hordes of tourists from all walks of life jump onto endless streams of ferries to visit this small cluster of islands. It could be one of the most special places on earth, but over-development, greed and a lack of planning have turned it into yet another Patong or Ao Nang... or Cancun. There is constant construction going on and the tourists just keep on coming.

If it wasn’t for Phi Phi’s geophysical location, making it perfect for a crossing of a very doable distance, I’d never set foot on the islands again. It represents the worst side of unregulated tourism and what it can do to the environment. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still stunning, but if you look carefully, you’ll see a lot of damage to the environment and a degree of building that should never happen to such a small area. It’s truly sad. To each his/her own. It appears that there are enough people in this world who either prefer or don't mind uninspiring straight line buildings and monotonous shopping opportunities. Still, the island is beautiful.

Words cannot convey the contentment that one feels while paddling at night on a full moon, in warm water with a group of capable paddlers. We plan on offering this wonderful journey to experienced paddlers and those who are physically fit during each full moon during the winter months. If this sounds like something you’d like to do, send us an email