rough waters and jungle adventures
With definitely not nearly enough sleep the previous night from our Friday tradition of Games Night in the villas, I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning to pack for our 3 day kayak trip to Koh Panyee, not the most organised I’ve been I must admit. I managed to pack everything into my school backpack, much to my surprise considering I was always known for overpacking. Then again, it was not like we were planning on having showers. After all, we were out for that ultimate camping experience.
I managed to catch an extra hour of sleep before heading to school for what was going to be my last big breakfast for a few days. I treated myself to a mushroom and double cheese omelette, knowing very well there was no way I was going to be squatting on the grass cooking eggs in the middle of the jungle. Once the whole team had arrived, we delegated tasks, with Phoebe and I preparing the snacks and lunch for the day while Isaac, Zane and Alejandro loaded the kayaks into the trailer. Preparation was simple enough for Phoebe and I, but oh boy preparing the boys sandwiches involved screaming from the canteen down to the skate park, very specific orders of 3 cheese and tuna and PB&J with just the right proportion of jam folded in a specific way. We got all our life jackets, put the box with the ingredients for our meals for the next 3 days and hit the road, bidding goodbye to campus for what promised to be an adventurous 3 days.
We got to Laem Sai pier and unloaded our stuff from the trailer to put them on the long tail boat (yes we kind of cheated and got a long tail boat to carry our stuff so we wouldn’t have to put them in our kayaks). We dished the sunscreen out and went full on with it, having learnt our lesson from the mean sunburn we got last time around. We got on the water at about 10am after trying to decipher the map and our route, with Kru Jason and Heidi not helping by planting seeds of doubt in our heads. We had trouble figuring out where north was, having sort of forgotten how to read the compass despite having like 2 training sessions devoted solely to map reading. Anyways we got it sorted, appointing Alejandro as official map reader for the journey, and with that began our expedition.
The waves were pretty strong, but we rode them with relative ease after learning a few tricks from our practice journey. After 3 hours of kayaking, we found a cute island and decided to stop for lunch. As a result of our decision to camp in the forest instead of stay in a luxurious resort, we were left with a generous budget for food, which could only mean one thing - ice cream at every opportunity we had! We each bought an ice cream, with flavours ranging from mango to coconut to mango AND coconut. We then sat under one of those Tumblr trees with a swing attached and devoured our lunch. Once complete, we checked the time and realised we had to get kayaking ASAP. The campsite was in sight, much to our delight. We had kayaked about 7km, and had approximately 4km to go, with a storm fast approaching.
Without further ado, we hit the water. We made sure to stick near to the coast in case the storm arrived and we needed to get out of the water. There was a slight drizzle that decided to join us for the last leg of the kayak, but nothing we couldn’t handle. My arms began to ache and I fell slightly behind, but I soon caught up to Phoebe and Isaac. We talked about the stupidest things, but funnily enough the stupidest things got my mind off the pain and made the final leg so much easier. In no time we arrived at the campsite, but the challenge was not over. We had to load our stuff out of the long tail and put our tents up as soon as possible as the storm was approximately 5 minutes away. Phoebe and I had it up in no time, throwing our belongings into the tent as we chuckled at the boys struggling. We proved once again our quality and efficiency trumped the boys quantity any day. It was only 4.30, but wanted to start cooking while it was still bright out (our hungry tummies couldn’t care less what society’s conventional dinner times were at that point). We boiled the water in preparation for our traditional DOE dinner - pasta with any sauce we can throw in. We decided to play it a bit safe for the first night, throwing mushroom and cheese sauce into the mix, topping it with some black olives just for class.
There wasn’t a beautiful sunset or much of a scenery, but there was a certain beauty in sitting on the ground, eating a meal cooked in the jungle after a long day of kayaking. Something about it all was simply satisfying.
We discussed our route over dinner, analysing tide times and deciding the optimal time to kayak with ease. I noticed tide times were best at 2am, and suggested we leave then. But for some odd reason, no one agreed with me, much to my disappointment. We eventually decided to start our journey at 6.30am, which for some reason sounded more reasonable than 2.
We washed up the dishes, decided to freshen up and headed to the boys tent for some down time. It soon became dark, and we were left to our devices (literally just flashlights), to devise some entertainment. We tried with a game of UNO, but soon realised our efforts were useless as it was too dark and none of us could really see our cards. We played music and had some really insightful conversations, learning more about each other.
Our words floated into the night, and by night we mean about 9.30pm, before we all knocked out, knowing we had an early start the next day. The rain wasn’t exactly kind, with shouting across the tent at about 2am for Phoebe to close the sides of the tent as we could feel the rain pouring into the tent. It was a pleasant shift to a cooler atmosphere, but the shouting wasn’t very well received by my slumber, which I dived right back into as the shouting seized.
Zane’s blaring alarm rang in our ears as we were awoken at 5.30am, longing for just a bit more rest, but there was no time to waste. We got our stuff packed, tents down and a wholesome Koko Krunch breakfast (which we later realised during the day was not the best breakfast). We were ready to hit the water at 6.30am, just as planned to meet the tide times. But what’s a DOE expedition without some sort of scarring experience (literally)?
We had parked our kayaks under a tree and turned them over so if it rained, which it did, our kayaks wouldn’t be filled with water. We turned them over the next morning to find them infested with huge red ants. We were near the water, so the logical thing to do would be to drown them, right? We pulled our kayaks to the water, tipped them over and drowned the ants, or so we thought. Simple? No where close. As I was cleaning my kayak in the water I felt an excruciating sting on my foot. I pulled my kayak to shore and took a better look at my foot, only to find it swelling up pretty severely. It took me a couple of seconds, but I soon pieced together - I had been bitten by these red ants, in the water! I showed it to Kru Jason and Heidi, who advised taking an anti-histamine to neutralise the acid and bring the swelling down. Kru Jason had been bitten too, and said never in his years in Phuket had he seen brutal acidic red ants like these ones. Zane was the next victim, and his foolish scratching made the acid spread giving him a much larger rash and swelling than mine.
Once the ant situation was under control, we sprayed the kayaks to kill the remaining evil ants and set off for our second day of kayaking. It was a little late than what we wanted, but we learnt that situations like these couldn’t really be planned and we therefore had to adapt.
The kayak on day 2 was by far the most scenic. We kayaked between islands and rock formations as well as under beautifully naturally-constructed stalactite. Halfway through our journey, we were hit by rain and strong tides by nature of our late departure, which put us in a tough position as we had to use all our energy to tackle the tides. At times it felt like we were moving nowhere, or worse, backwards, despite our best efforts. It felt like fighting a losing battle, but we spotted a nearby island and decided to stop there for our long lunch until the tides turned in our favour. We powered through right to the end, and the delight of arriving at shore was indescribable.
The tides treated us to a 4 hour stay by the beach, so it gave us ample of time to go for a swim, have a nap for an hour, have lunch (or rather snack through the 4 hours) and have a second go at UNO in the daylight (though it ended in disagreements over the different rules we each played by). We concluded our 4 hour break and began the 5km kayak to our next campsite, which surprisingly felt a lot shorter than normal (we attributed it to the ample food we consumed by the beach). We arrived and went for a swim to a nearby island (which is a great story for another time).
We got back and realised we had about half an hour to sun down, with no dinner or tents up yet. We frantically got the two done in great time. Our starving stomachs convinced us to throw every sauce we had into the pot (and melted cheese just for that extra flavour). We sat on our kayaks by the beach watching the waves - it was the best dinner of our trip. The same protocol played out as the previous night. We got into the tent, this time ours, and put on some chill music. Our tiredness got the better of us, so we lay there with a few conversations slipping in here and there, taking in the music and each other’s company as sufficient to feed our souls, as we knocked out early in the night.
The next morning was greeted with a much more soothing alarm, and the packing up process moved along with greater ease. We had our breakfast, a bit more filling with Koko Krunch AND sandwiches, and were on the water within 45 minutes. It was our final day, and while we had enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, we couldn’t wait to be done.
The water swept us along, tides in our favour, as we kayaked past James Bond Island and headed for Koh Panyee, Thailand’s famous football floating village. We arrived after about 3 hours, sorted our stuff out and met the other Project Week group who were teaching there! We were fortunate to get the opportunity to teach a class English, but it also got me thinking on how sustainable service of this sorts is.
Yes it is nice and a genuine gesture to want to impart your knowledge on others, but I also don’t think we wholly understand the impact, possibly even psychologically, us (and other outsiders) coming in for a few days to teach them can impact the consistency and stability of their education. I think it would be much more impactful to use the Project Week to analyse their current conditions, and work alongside a leadership team there to devise a possibly better syllabus for English or maybe an extra-curricular or critical thinking course they could adopt. Such skills could actually make a significant difference to these kids lives instead of a couple of hours of one week learning English and Math from students who don’t speak their language.
Pictures from our time at Koh Panyee on the famous floating football field.
Anyways, that aside, we had a restful stop at Koh Panyee and it was a delight to meet the other group. We were also treated to a great lunch from our generous budget, filled with fried rice and calamari and stir fried vegetables. It was 2pm, and farewells and well wishes were bid to the other group. We knew we had just a little more to go till the port, but we completely underestimated how much more energy and heat we had to endure, it was honestly the most difficult 7km of the trip. Reaching the beach at the end of the 2 hours tasted like pure joy and victory, and I’ve never been more glad to get out of that kayak in my life.
Without time to waste, the trailer and van were loaded with all our kayaks and bags, and in no time we were on our way back to school. Exhaustion got the best of us, managing to catch a much deserved nap in the van till we reached school. That night we had the most rewarding showers of our lives, appreciated the canteen dinner 10 times more and greeted our beds with a wide smile as early as 9pm.
The rough waters of the trip and the silence of the jungle taught me to find love in silence, comfort in friendship, determination in endurance, but most of all fun in this family. I vividly remember lying in that tent, however warm it was, listening to the music playing and realising how blessed I was to be on this trip with this group of people I love so much.
There’s no one else I’d rather kayak 29973158km and get attacked by red ants with than these people.
Duke of Edinburgh Final Expedition Kayak from Laem Sai to Koh Panyee UWCT ‘19
A video documenting our three day adventure