All Summer Long

There are human remains on display at Khao Khanab Nam. Skeletons have been found throughout the cave; they’re thought to be the bones of islanders who were present when its chambers filled with water. What we saw exhibited at its entrance may have been re-imagined in rubber or stone, but we don’t know for sure. Officially, it’s bone. And a carcass of any kind is unsettling to find on an island entrenched in silence.

We were brought to the island on a longtail boat, its captain offering us a “very good” tour of the rivers. It glided by the side of a mangrove forest with its trees’ roots in skeins and visible above the water. It was exhilarating to be travelling in such a small boat; its motor sounded like it was about to give up and when it was switched off temporarily, the whole thing would rock from side to side as if it had been hit by a wave, even in still waters. We were taken as far as we could go into a narrow channel between the mangroves, then the guy turned and drifted us, its only passengers, back towards the iconic views of Krabi and the mountains at Khao Khanab Nam. You can see the mountains from the waterfront when you first arrive in town, and it’s definitely worth finding someone to take you on a tour of the water just to get closer to them.

We got off at the pier and there was practically nobody on the island. The steps to the cave’s entrance were crumbling and we weren’t invited by the usual signs for tourists so just had to assume this place wasn’t off-limits. A small hole had been smashed through the rock at the back of the cave that let in some light, but apart from that we had to use a torch to see anything in its recesses. Stalactites and stalagmites grew together like impacted teeth on its ceiling and floor. It was cool to be alone, and because of this the whole place felt undiscovered, even though everyone eventually goes there. There were some exhibitions around the cave paintings that slightly broke the spell, and some other people later showed up, but it still remained remote and fascinating. On the way out we saw a monkey eating a pack of crisps.

And this is where it went a bit wrong. After the caves, we were taken to the most isolated parts of the water and told that to continue the tour we would have to pay more baht. We’d already paid 300 baht each for the hour tour which had in all fairness fulfilled his promise of mangroves, caves and a monkey. He was now saying that we were 59 minutes in and that we would basically have to pay for the second hour to get back! “The British always take the full tour.” We haggled to get the price down but were unhappy to have been taken 10 minutes in the opposite direction to the pier to get scammed. As far as we were concerned we had simply paid for the mangroves, caves and a monkey. But what was the alternative? Another pair of skeletons washed up at Khao Khanab Nam? At least we know for next time.

The remainder of the tour went pretty quickly, despite my underlying fear that we were to become subject to a series of further costs and that the tour was destined to be extended indefinitely. The last stop of any importance was at the fishing village at Ko Klang. A line of floating shacks reminded me of the bleak Korean horror film “The Isle”, but thankfully there were no ominous looking fish hooks in sight. At the village we were shown some catfish feeding frantically on smaller fish which caused us to become soaked. Then we were shown some “real fish” (think this may have got lost in translation) that spat onto the side of a plant pot to dislodge some crab meat that the guy had stuck there. The final highlight was a horseshoe crab that he compared to a Pokemon but it looked more like it belonged in the Jurassic Age. It was pretty cool to watch, but I’m unsure whether the fate of these fish was to forever perform or if they wound up on a plate at the restaurant next door. Either way, it didn’t look like they would be liberated into the open waters anytime soon.

Thankfully, after the fishing village, we were liberated from our tour. He took us back to the pier by way of another mangrove forest even darker, twisty and more ominous than the last, and we paid the amount that had been agreed as a result of our skillful haggling. There was no hand shake (Nicola says there was a high five) and I think I broke a part of the boat with my foot on the way off.