Phuket

We crossed the Cambodian Thailand border after leaving Seam Reap at 6:30 in the morning to avoid getting caught at the border for hours when the toirist buses show up.  We had only a short wait.  But were caught by a tout (some selling minibus services) and ended up paying more than we should have to get to Bangkok and the airport.  I should have written down the rates before hand when I read about them.  He also sold us a taxi to take us from down town Bangkok were the minibus dropped us off to the airport and we ended up paying double.  Then the taxi driver said they did not pay and we had to pay him, I saw some money Bing exchanged but I did not know how much so we ended up paying 3x the normal rate of about 4 dollars.   Any how we made the plane to Phuket on time and arrived in Phuket about 8:45 pm and stayed in a hotel near the airport.  In the morning we were picked up at 7:30 and taken to a fast boat taxi and taken to the island of Ko Yao to begin our kayak tour.  We changed in our bungalo and boarded our kayaking mother boat ( about 30 foot long) this boat carried the kayaks to the different areas we were to kayak in.  It was powered by one of the engines that is mounted on a swivel and runs to the propeller.  We did a series of island straight out from our resort.  We got there late as we did not realize we were supposed to have been dressed to go kayaking straight from the water taxi, the other couple in our group were not ready either.  When we arrived at the island there were a lot of other people there already.  We paddled around then had lunch on the beach, good Thia food. Then paddled to some other islands, then back to the resort fro dinner.  Dinner the first night was sort of bland so we asked for more spices for the other meals.  There was the other couple in our group and another man.  The couple was from England, about 65 years, Andy and Barbra, real travelers and the man Sigmand, was from Australia and had just

turned 60.  All were experienced Kayakers.   The next day we headed up the bay to the mangrove swamps and it was really pretty and no other tourist.  The next day we did another set of islands and a fish farm, again no tourist.  The last day was real windy, but our guide tokes out to an area he thought would be calm but when we got there the wind changed and it was blowing straight into us.  We gave it a try but we're forced to turn around as were not making headway plus it was getting a lot rougher.  The mother boat came back for us and tried to anchor but the anchor was dragging and they were heading fro the rocks. Our guide Burt went out to help and tied his kayak to the boat and when the boat was dragging the anchor the boat ran into a small piling and smashed the guides kayak. It had a good crack on top of the kayak, we later found out it was totaled. When the boat skipper tried to back up he got the anchor rope rapped around the prop shafted.  We had to grab the forward anchor line to try.