Hello. My name is Mike Riley and along with my wife and son, Karen and Falcon, we cruised the Phang Nga Bay area in the 1999 season on board our trusty Dickerson 41, “Beau Soleil.”
There are good cruising guides to the area like “SAIL THAILAND” but they don’t give much information about the Hongs.
Many cruisers we met had a difficult time locating the Hongs in the bay. So much has been written about the area in different cruising guides that one would expect that the locations would be well known facts. But it is not so. They remain as elusive as they were 50 years ago when they were discovered by the modern world from the air in World War II. Cave men dwelled in them in the dawn of time and have left there mark in cave paintings and burial sites. Now days, it is like they just left and you are the first to see them since.
We visited the Hongs in our 12 foot Caribe inflatable hard bottom dinghy with a 15 horse outboard. This is a really big dinghy with huge pontoons. Many people would have you believe that you need a kayak or a canoe to get though the tunnels. It is not true. With a couple of good paddles and enthusiastic rowers just about any dinghy can make it.
Don’t run your outboard in the tunnels as the fumes will harm the bats. Besides there are many stalagmites and rocks just lurking under the water. (Stalagmites are the mighty mountains growing up from the bottom. Stalactites are holding tight as they grow down from the top.)
The pitch dark tunnels are an important part of the Hong experience so don’t rush through them. The contrast between the inky blackness of a spooky tunnel and the brilliant light of a primeval world out of the time of the dinosaurs is the most memorable part of the experience.
I have also included the descriptions of some caves and lagoons as an example of what the Hongs were before (a cave before the top collapsed) and after (a lagoon after the tunnel wall has collapsed). Plus they are an amazing part of Phang Nga Bay.
A good light is essential for navigating in the tunnels and caves. Most yachties have trouble keeping just one flashlight working so get a spare and extra batteries. An alternative light source is a carbide lamp available at the fishing stores in the central market in Phuket town, (The one with the buses.) The lamp comes in two parts. The bottom part holds the carbide rocks (a common stone) and the top part drips water down on the rock which creates a gas which you ignite as it comes out of the jet. Sounds complicated but miners have used carbide lamps for centuries. It glows with a romantic light just right for a Hong experience.
Good protective shoes should always be worn to protect against oyster shells and sharp rocks but be careful of losing them by walking in the mud sometimes found in the Hongs.
Don’t worry about anchorages. Anchor just about anywhere in Phang Nga Bay. There is never much of a sea and the holding is fairly good. The biggest concern is to anchor away from the wakes of passing tour boats.
The positions are given from Thai chart 333 which disagrees slightly from GPS. Lacking this chart your GPS position is a third of a mile westward and a fourth of a mile northward from the positions given here. No attempt was made give GPS positions of the Hongs entrances. The positions are just to tell one island from the other.
Water depths are extremely variable because of the changing tidal currents from the wet season to the dry. In general expect deeper depths than charted but beware of the exception!
Listed are just the sites that we personally visited. I am sure that many more Hongs exist that I have listed here. Good hunting! Cruising guide writers have a bad habit of describing places that they have just been told about or that they have just read about. But I assure you that we have been to all of the following places.
So without further ado on to the Hongs! Unable to decide how to list them, I put them in alphabetical order. Sorry! I didn’t want to have to decide which ones were the best!
Mark the ones that sound interesting to you on your chart and good Honging!
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