A friend recommended John Gray’s kayak tour and when I read that it included seeing dinoflagellates (bioluminescent plankton) I knew that we had to go. (You may have noticed my love of glowing things from Japan.)

So off we headed to see Phang Nga Bay’s marine limestone karstic islands. These dramatic islands burst vertically out of the sea and have been used in movies like James Bond’s The Man with the Golden Gun.

We were assigned a guide for every two passengers, who would be paddling our kayak and telling us about the caves and the animals. When the tide is low, you can go inside some of the small islands through openings in the side. This is where the guides show off their skills by navigating the very low caves and telling you about the islands. At times we had to lie back flat in the kayaks to make sure we didn’t hit our heads, so we were quite happy not to be doing the paddling.

One thing I really appreciated about this tour was that, even though there were 15 kayaks, the guides were great at spreading out and we never felt crowded at all, even though the inside of the islands is pretty small. And it was nice that the two guides for our family made an effort to stay together, so we could chat and take pictures of each other.

We spotted a few monkeys and lizards on the islands. Impressive that they manage to survive there given the distance from land.

We did get rained on at one point and it was surprisingly cold! We sheltered under a rock ledge and found some crabs, including a small one that tickled Z’s foot 🦀 (not pictured!)

Late in the afternoon, we made kratongs (floating lanterns with candles). Each guide had their own design, some very extravagant, that we got to help with. These are usually floated as part of Loy Krathong festival (link) but on this tour they are made every night.

There’s been a push in recent years to make kratongs out of more environmentally friendly materials. Ours were mostly flowers and leaves but did we cheat a bit by using nails, rather than bamboo, to hold it together, but we are going to bring ours back to the boat and not let them float away as you would traditionally do.

After a lovely dinner, we get back into the kayaks for the last time to head into a cave to float our kratongs in the darkness and make a wish.

Once the candles are blow out, finally it’s time to see the dinoflagellates!! These creatures are about the size of a pin head that glow when disturbed, for example, when the paddle or your hand hits the water. Just imagine sweeping your hand through the water, leaving in its wake is a trail of stars. That’s what it’s like. Just sooo pretty 😍 I’m so glad I got to see again and that the rest of the family got to experience it too. (I’d swam with these creatures a few years before in Myanmar but they were green and these ones were white.)

I did try to take pictures of this but they didn’t come out. These little creatures glow gently and a standard camera can’t capture it. So you’ll just need to experience it for yourself!