On Monday, January 26, 2026, we flew from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand way down to Krabi (GRAH-bee in English, or grah-BEE in Thai. But not "crabby").
When we arrived at the airport, a screen was showing "Chicken Island", known for its chicken head rock formation. We would pass by that in real life during our visit.
We stayed at the Panan Krabi Resort, which was very nice.
Sharon took a picture of the magnificent cliffs of the nearby hill that glowed from the city lights.
I didn't notice the cliffs until the next morning in the daylight.
Our big adventure that day was a trip to Hong Island. A couple of vans took us to this little dock.
The mate was a mighty sailing man.
The skipper, brave and sure.
19 passengers set sail that day for an 8 hour tour.
The weather was actually perfect as we glided through the mangroves.
We saw some beautiful scenes as we headed towards the open ocean.
The area around Krabi (and the even more famous Phuket [poo-KEHT]) has lots of cool little islands.
Before long, we arrived at Hong Island. We would hike to the top of the tall part on the right, and the main beach is nestled just to the left of that.
The beach was beautiful, and the water was nice.
You can just see a little platform in the upper left corner of this picture. We hiked up to there a bit later.
It is hard to capture how beautiful it was there because it was so pretty in every direction at once. But we had fun getting some pictures.
The tide was low when we got there, so the lifeguards made sure nobody tried to snorkel, as this would put you too close to the coral (and the black sea urchins with their needle-sharp venomous spikes).
Meanwhile, we enjoyed a prime spot under big shade trees.
While we waited for the tide to come in, we hiked to the observation deck at the top of the nearby cliffs.
We were rewarded with cool views on the way up.
There was a steep stairway that took us to the top.
From partway up, we could see our beach spot way down there.
And here are Darren and Valerie at another viewpoint. As a reminder for those who don't know the group, Darren was my old college roommate. He is also the sibling, high school friend, roommate or mission buddy (or -in-law) of everyone else on the trip, so he was the "hub" of the trip. And he is also Valerie's hubby. So I guess he was the hubbiest of all.
At the top, there was a fantastic overlook, where we could see dozens of islands all around. And this cutie.
The islands remind me of the floating islands in Avatar.
We took a bunch of pictures from the top, including this group picture.
Jen got a picture of us from way down on the beach.
The pathway had this little tree growing right up in the middle.
Then we headed down the long stairway.
There was a fun swing hanging from one of the trees.
These trees are called Sea Pandans (or "Pandanus") and have classic "walking roots" with blade-like leaves that are used to flavor desserts and for weaving mats and baskets.
Tyler had arranged for some great mats we could sit on in the shade. It made it an awesome place to hang out.
We got there at about 8:30am to beat the crowds. Other people arrived a little later, and you could tell everyone was anxious to go swimming once the tide came in a bit.
Meanwhile, we took a walk along the Hong Island Nature Trail.
We saw a good-sized monitor lizard as we hiked along.
We gave it some space as it crossed our path. I thought its blue tongue was cool.
Linette really liked this tree. It is called a "Spung tree" or "Buttress tree". The soil tends to be shallow and nutrient-poor, so instead of growing a deep tap root, these trees create big, wide roots that provide structural support so they don't fall over in high winds. The surface roots also absorb nutrients from decaying leaf matter before it washes away in the next heavy rain.
I thought the restroom sign was funny. It was also funny that the urinals were outside around back, wide open, so you just sort of hope people don't walk around there and see you.
People swam a little in the shallow part until the tide came in.
Finally, the tide was in enough to allow snorkeling.
I went out with my GoPro for an hour and saw a lot of fish.
Here are images captured from the video footage of around 30 kinds of fish and other creatures that I saw. The captions tell what Google Lens thought each fish was, in case you're interested.
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| Blue-barred Parrotfish |
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| Indo-Pacific Sergeant Major |
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| Yellowtail Snapper |
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| Neon Damselfish |
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| Honeycomb Grouper |
This is a Farmer Damselfish. They will create a "garden," cultivating their own patches of algae on dead coral. They will "weed" it by removing debris and algea they don't want, and they will vigrously defend their garden from larger fish (or even snorklers!) by darting at them and nipping them.
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| Farmer Damselfish |
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| Lumphead Rockskipper Blenny |
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| Eightband Butterflyfish |
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| Hairtail blenny |
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| Whitebar Surgeonfish |
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| Streaked spinefoot |
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| "Slippery Dick" (wrasse) |
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| Blackeye Thicklip Wrasse |
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| Damselfish |
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| Chevron Butterflyfish |
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| Bannerfish |
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| Blue and Gold Fusiliers |
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| Needlefish |
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| Green Chromis |
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| Yellow Demoiselle |
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| Whitestreak Monocle Bream (aka Silver-line Spinecheek) |
This white one almost disappeared against the white sand. These sometimes sit on the bottom, propped up by their two fins, perfectly still, and pounce on their prey.
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| Speckled Sandperch |
These black sea cucumbers were near the shore. They are sometimes called "lollyfish", and they are like living vacuums that are very helpful in keeping waters clean around places like Hong Island. They swallow sand, digest the algae and other microorganisms, and poop out fresh, clean sand. They keep the sand from getting gross over time. So hurray for the helpful sea cucumber!
You don't want to touch these, though. as they can secrete a toxin called holothurin through their skin. If you touch one and then rub your eyes, it can really sting.
One gross fact (it's like a fun fact, but grosser): If a predator messes with it, it can eject its guts out its rear. The guts are sticky and sometimes toxic, entangling the predator while the sea cucumber slowly crawls away. Then it grows new internal organs.
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| Black sea cucumber |
You really don't want to step on one of these black sea urchins. The needle-sharp spines will deliver a venomous sting and can break off inside your foot.
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| Long-spined black sea urchin (Diadema). |
There were various kinds of coral throughout the bay.
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| Plate coral (genus: Montipora) |
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| Branching/table coral (Acropora) |
This little creature is a "Venus's Girdle", which is a type of "Comb Jelly". They don't have stinging cells, and so they're supposedly harmless to humans. I did end up with an upper lip that stung for a couple hours after snorkeling, but I've read that this might be due to "sea lice" (really jellyfish larvae) or real jellyfish tentacles floating loose that still have their stinging cells. Sharon had a similar sensation.
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| Comb jelly |
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| Venus’s Girdle (a type of Comb Jelly) |
This one, on the other hand, you don't want to get too close to.
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| Nomad Jellyfish |
I watched these giant clams slowly close as I swam by, which was creepy.
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| Maxima Giant Clam |
Snorkeling was pretty good there. Now that you've learned what to look for, here is a 9-minute video for anyone who wants to get a sense of what it was like.
Finally, we boarded our boat and headed back out.
Hong Island was a gorgeous spot, and I liked the combination of hiking, exploring, snorkeling and relaxing there.
Everywhere we went, there were new cool islands.
We anchored near the beach at Yao Noi Island, which is about halfway between Krabi and Phuket.
There we had lunch at the "Ciao Bella" restaurant, which is run by an Italian guy who married a Thai lady, so they serve Thai food and pizza.
The Penang Curry Chicken was aroi (delicious).
The pizza was molto bene (very good).
I added some curry chicken to the pizza, and it was actually outstanding. (Molto aroi)
After lunch we headed back to the beach and climbed back on the boat.
Tyler asked us if we were up for more adventure, and we were indeed! So we headed to Nok Island for a hike to the top.
It was very steep and you had to use ropes for part of the way.
Finally, we reached the top and had a great view.
We took a bunch of couple pictures.
Down below we could see dozens of big jellyfish in the water. I didn't want to swim there.
Then it was time to head back down, which is sometimes trickier than up.
But we all made it down safely.
There were several jellyfish washed up on shore.
The water was so smooth that nobody had any issues with seasickness. What a beautiful day!
We could see the roots of the mangroves as we neared the dock.
Then we rode in an open-air vehicle with facing benches.
When we got back to the hotel, we were all still in our swim suits, so most of us sat by the pool for a minute and swam around a bit.
After getting cleaned up, several of us joined Tyler for dinner at one of his favorite places.
We rode in the same open-air vehicle again, but this time Linette and Roger used me and Sharon as pillows.
In the other vehicle, they had some fun people following them.
We ate at the Lae Lay Grill, and it had a gorgeous view of the sunset as we ate.
The food was amazing.
I topped dinner off with some fried ice cream.
Jen wasn't at dinner with us, but wherever she was, she captured an awesome sunset picture.
She also caught a horrifying scene.
As the sun set, the cliffs again reflected the city lights.
I could see fire dancers from our hotel balcony, so I watched them for a while.
Here is an 8-minute video with video clips from throughout the day. It doesn't show much that wasn't included above, but captures a bit of the feeling of being on three islands, and includes a couple street performers, for those who are interested.
In the next episode there is some monkey business and we party with pirates.