Hongs & Caves

One of the more interesting things about the Phang-Na Bay in Thailand is the limestone cliffs that come straight out of the water, which are fully of nooks and crannies. In fact, some of them look more like swiss cheese. Lots of caves and tunnels can be entered at varying tide levels, and quite often there is a light at the end of the tunnel which leads to a so-called "Hong" - a lake inside the island that can only be reached by tunnel and that has up to 50m high limestone walls on either side. These are very very peaceful places!

When inspecting unknown cave entrances we soon learned to look for the telltale sign of a current flowing in and out of the tunnel, which generally suggests that there is more to it than what meets the eye. Some of the holes are over 100 m long and lead around numerous corners, so the light can not necessarily be seen from one entrance. Our favourite place by far was this island, where there are at least four hongs (you can see some on google maps!) which are quite often straight behind high and (seemingly) compact limestone cliffs.

Some pictures of caves, hongs, and limestone tunnels are already below, here I just want to show two more where we absolutely could not resist ...

... this was a two-level tunnel. We had been through at low tide on a previous occasion, paddling into the inside lake. At high tide, the lower tunnel is completely blocked as it was only ever accessible by boat to start with, but one can tie up and explore an upper tunnel which leads to the same place.