Exploring paradise
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Sailing among the islands of the Gulf of Thailand
Sandra Kiesel has finally realised her dream. After gaining her sailing licence in South Africa and on Lake Constance, followed by testing the waters off Melbourne, the 26-year-old has found her yachting paradise – the Gulf of Thailand.
“It is the greatest thing, being able to turn your hobby into your job,” she says, gesturing across the waters to all the islands.
“Out there, adventure is waiting for you: an idyll of virtually deserted islands, romantic beaches, a fantastic scuba diving and snorkelling community and local fishermen full of hospitality.”
Kiesel and her colleagues at Sunsail Marina on the island of Samui are busy getting provisions on board their catamaran for a four-day tour, giving their clients some time to explore the 250-square-kilometre island, Thailand's fourth-largest.
With the introduction of air connections to the island in 1989, Koh Samui was transformed from a destination for only the most dogged backpackers into a booming tourism region.
The number of visitors doubled after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. Because it is located in the Gulf of Thailand, adjoining a different ocean, Koh Samui was spared any destruction.
Hotels and vacation homes sprung up everywhere, and tiny fishing villages such as Chaweng and Lamai quickly became cities, places that today live mainly from tourism and trade.
Back at the marina, everything has been prepared for the journey. The spacious, 11-metre catamaran, powered by two 30-horsepower engines and with four twin-bed cabins, is at once a vehicle and living space for the next four days.
Kiesel has chosen the 102-square-kilometre marine national park Ang Thong as the first destination in the gulf to be explored. The park’s islands were the inspiration for author Alex Garland's novel The Beach, which later was made into a feature film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Whether a paradise or not, the islands are spectacularly beautiful.
The tiny island of Ko Mae Ko offers a fantastic lookout point to take in the rest of the islands with their steep and towering cliffs of karst rock.
The 42 islands form a perfect spot for kayakers who can spend days paddling from one idyllic beach to the next, while also exploring grottoes and observing such wildlife as tortoises and sea eagles.
The next day there is hardly any breeze at all. A searing sun is beating down on the waters, and visitors of all complexions are advised to use sun lotion and don hats during the five-hour trip to the northernmost island, Koh Tao.
Once the catamaran has used its engines to navigate away from the rocky islands, Kiesel has time to provide her passengers with at least some basic sailing instructions.
Knowing how to hoist and then trim the mainsail and foresail, and what to watch out for while tacking, will come in handy in the days ahead. In any case, the time passes quickly and soon the majestic granite cliffs of Koh Tao come into view.
To Sandra, the coral reefs around the island are the best diving and snorkelling waters anywhere in the gulf.
Parrot fish and napoleon fish are feeding among the delicate corals while zebra fish swim about the snorkellers. Schools of countless tiny fish curiously swarm around from all sides as the group plunges from the catamaran into the water.
Irony awaits at a restaurant on shore, as a waiter helplessly shrugs his shoulders when asked what fish is on the menu.
Even this far north, far from the mainland, fishermen are faced with rapidly diminishing fish populations.
To help make ends meet, they can earn money renting small bungalows to tourists. And, about 40 diving schools have set up operations on Koh Tao. What had once been Thailand’s prison island is only slowly developing into a tourism destination.
Solo travellers can still find here the kind of idyllic small vacation houses that provide an escape from the mass tourism elsewhere.
Further south, the island of Koh Pha-ngan was also a place that backpackers and hippies gravitated to in the 1980s, and so it comes as no surprise that even today, one can run into exotic-looking characters on the beach clad only in a Tarzan loincloth and carrying a guitar.
The sound of chill-out music fills the air from the old-style bars dotting the shoreline. Nowadays, the “full-moon parties” in the resort town of Haad Rin are all the rage.
“And the place is not only rocking on the full-moon nights,” Kiesel says.
The next day, a slight breeze is blowing and the sails are set.
Even though the catamaran’s small engines do not make much noise, the passengers note the contrast. The stillness of sailing under wind power alone, gliding majestically across the water, is an unforgettable experience and another highlight of the catamaran tour.
