From the start of journey, I was looking to get my photo clicked from the front of the ship which was at the lower deck of the ship. While moving from one destination to another, I got this chance when one of the crew member stood there and as he looked back I waived my hand in the form of request to allow me to stand there for a click.
He accepted my request and allowed me to come on the front deck. I handed my camera to the fellow passenger with a request to click photo and hurriedly went towards him.
After this click, there was flood of such requests which they had to allow following the rule of no partiality.
But soon they refused to allow all passengers since as per the rules no passengers on board are allowed to stand on front deck of moving ship as it can be risky for the passengers. Also, many times marine guards’ are moving around who can spot such activities and can impose penalty on the boat owner.
Our next destination was Hong Island, which was also in mid sea but in order to reach there we had to drive canoe as way to island was very narrow and small. We were lucky that it was time for low tide and the way to island was accessible. In case of high tide the way is blocked by water and one had to wait till the water retreats.
The canoe which was supposed to take us had the capacity to take two persons at a time excluding one guide. Guide is mandatory, no question about this, to tell direction and to brief about the place.
So based on the number of persons on board there were 7-8 canoes, this was all pre-arranged.
The guide made pair of all passengers, married couples were made pairs without any question or hesitation, two Korean girls on vacations were made a pair, two friends from New Zealand were made a pair, now it was my turn and a man who was almost twice of my age who were left.
Problems solved, we were made pair for canoe ride.
So, I allowed him being a senior person to sit at front and I took middle position with my guide at last who was also our captain for the ride.
I requested captain to allow me to drive canoe, which he accepted in a humble manner.
I tried my hands on canoe but soon realized that it’s not a job of a fresher, when my canoe took wrong direction every time I tried to move forward.
So, I handed over the stick to the guide and sat quietly to enjoy nature rather than to get exhausted.
Drive to the cave island was almost ten minutes and meanwhile there was formal exchange of introduction with the fellow tourist on canoe.
The fellow gentleman was from Australia and he was on vacations in Thailand. We exchanged bio-data so as to mark the beginning of new relationship of friendship.
Slowly our boat moved inside cave which was dark, so we had to switch on the safety light to find our way and also to avoid hitting the rocks. In order to enjoy the ride I used to shout “Huuuuu” “Peeep Peeep” in a tone that resembled a vehicle horn and it also alerted boats passing by. I started shouting and others followed my path. As more and more people joined, the tunes got funnier and environment inside cave was like my school classroom which used to be full of all naughty tunes on some occasions.
The end of cave was visible and the curiosity mounted to know what next we were going to see.