Kayaking at Tarutao Island

A six-day canoe trip in Thailand’s national marine park. An adventure on the Andaman Sea to Tarutao and its pristine, uncharted neighboring islands.

Day 1 (Dinner)

The first paddling trip starts from the pier. "Pak Bara" means mouth of the Bara River in Thai. A thriving mangrove forests lines the far shore. We often encounter a good variety of birds in the mangrove including little herons, Whimbrels, Collared kingfishers, Brown-winged kingfishers, and occasionally others. Muds kippers, small fish that walk out of the water, like to climb up on the mangrove roots.

Note: The tour starts at Pak Bara in Satun Province. We suggest you stay over night in Satun, Trang or Had Yai. We'll do a short crossing to an island called Koh Khao Yai, which literally means "Island Mountain Big" or Big Mountain Island. There are beaches all the way around the island that we take advantage of frequently.

Long-tailed macaques (monkeys) and sizeable monitor lizards also frequent these beaches to forage for food. We'll stay in Pak Bara this evening.

Day 2 (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

An escort boat will take us to Tarutao Islands. There's a tidal river flowing through a dense mangrove forest, which exits into the sea near the national park campgrounds/bungalow. Brahminy kites, White-bellied sea eagles, a variety of kingfishers, woodpeckers, hornbills, monitor lizards, Long-tailed macaques, Dusky Langurs (monkeys), and a lot of different exotic birds add character to an already lovely area. We'll paddle a stretch of coastline to finish the day.

The evening will either be spent at the park bungalows or back on mainland in Pak Bara.

Day 3 (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Our escort boat will take us out to the gypsy island called Koh Lipae. There are many different bungalow operations on this island. Sometimes, we use the national park bungalow on Koh Adang (depending on the group) .

The big attractions on these outer islands are crystal-clear water, verdant rain forest that grows all the way down to pure white sand beaches, birds, monkeys, and superb snorkeling. We'll paddle around Koh Lipae, stopping periodically to go snorkeling.

Day 4 (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Our escort boat will take us to the far side of Koh Adang. We'll take our time paddling back. The jungle on this stretch of the island is trick with tall tropical trees. The snorkeling is very good.

Day 5 (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Koh Butang and the other small islands in the area provide us with a different feel from the previous days. These islands are small enough to paddle all the way around easily. This is perhaps the best snorkeling day. We've found huge areas of completely undisturbed coral. The marine life is abundant. Huge Moray eels are very common.

Grouper can still be found if you're willing to look under some of the larger coral heads. One area has nice variety of sea anemones. They cover a large portion of a bay.

Day 6 (Breakfast, Lunch)

We'll pack up and get onboard our escort boat. Heading back towards Pak Bara, there are a couple of islands that again are very different from the ones we have visited already. There's a natural arch on one island that makes for a wonderful photo opportunity. We'll take our time exploring, paddling, and snorkelling before heading back into Pak Bara.

source photo :

jitenshaman and Puff's Daddy