Our friend Ron was going to arrive today to meet up with us. Ron is living in Bangkok now. He said he expected to arrive between 1130 and 1230. We agreed to meet at Charlie’s restaurant. We headed over at 1100 and ordered lunch. Now that there was only two of us, hitting the minimum was much harder. Christi ordered the safe Pad Thai, which is noodles in a peanut sauce with zero spiciness that she knows she likes. Eric ordered a steak and vegetables dish, which wasn’t spicy, but had an overwhelming garlic taste. Christi also got a “Thai pineapple pancake”, which was a buttermilk pancake with slices of pineapple in it. The ones in Indonesia are made with a lighter batter, closer to a crepe, and she prefers the Indonesian ones. We also ordered a couple of “to go” pizzas to get to the minimum order.

Ron arrived shortly after we finished eating. As soon as he arrived, Fafner joined us and we took our dinghies up to the entrance of the famous Emerald Hawng. Hawngs are caves in the limestone rock where the top of a portion of the cave has collapsed, allowing sunlight in. In most cases, you go through a opening in the rock along the sea, into a dark corridor, and at the end of the corridor is an area where you can look up and see the sun. There are lots of Hawngs in this area, and several people have told us that the Emerald Hawng is the very best of them all.

There were 4 or 5 tourist boats outside the entrance. It looks like all the tourists were swimming in. We waited for the tourists to thin out, worried about hitting a swimmer in the dark. When some of the boats had left, we ventured in. Eric and Jeff were rowing the dinghies. If you run the dinghy motor you would asphyxiate yourself. The cave is pitch black, but fortunately we have a good light. There were some bats on the ceiling of the cave. The corridor is 80 meters long. We weren’t in the dark for very long before we could see light from the other end.

We pulled up to a small, round, beach with white, soft sand. All 360 degrees around us, there were cliffs going straight up vertically that are at least 300 feet high. Lonely Planet describes the hawng as a chimney. The sign inside says it is like standing inside a volcano. There is greenery climbing the walls all the way up. This looks like a rock climber’s paradise. There is no way out of the little “room” other than climbing or going back out through the cave. It really is kind of awe inspiring being inside the little “room”. You truly feel like you are in a tropical paradise standing in the white sand jungle, while simultaneously feeling insignificant next to the gargantuan walls surrounding you. We just wish we had it all to ourselves without the groups of tourists coming and going. Since the sun wasn’t directly overhead, we were in shade, so it was cool and pleasant inside, which made us want to stay forever. The first shot is the Fafner crew in the cave, the second of Eric and Christi where the cave lets out, and the third is the Fafner crew, Ron and Eric standing along the back wall.

The sign said locals used to climb up into the trees to steel the swallow’s bird’s nests, and Ron says bird’s nest is a local delicacy. The sign also says that pirates used to hide their treasures in this hawng.

We stayed there for a good 45 minutes before we decided it was time to move on. Ron, Christi and Eric decided to go to shore to explore. We pulled back up to the beach at Charlie’s, and walked through the resort to the road. We walked to the opposite side of the island, and round trip it took less than an hour. And we were walking very slow. Most of the road is concrete, though parts of it are dirt. The road is very narrow and there is some scooter traffic, but no cars at all. There are a couple small restaurants along the road, but it is mostly rubber plantations and jungle. The houses are mostly small shacks. Here and there you will see sheets of rubber hanging out to dry.

It was low tide when we arrived at the other side of the island, and there were several small fishing boats grounded in the shallow bay. The bay was so shallow they probably could only get the boats back out at high tide. It looks a lot like the northern part of Langkawi, and reminds us a lot of the South Pacific. There were a couple of roads we could have turned down to explore more of the island, but we think we got a good feel for what life is like for most of the islanders.

The crew of Fafner joined us and we went to one of the small restaurants for dinner. Ron treated, since he was the only one with Thai money. Christi had green curry, which is very mild with coconut milk that was quite good. Eric got sweet and sour prawns, which is the same as we get at home. We got an order of pineapple and an order of banana fritters, which were yummy. The fruit is dipped and batter and deep fried and served with honey. They tasted like hot donuts. The bill for 7 people with beer and dessert, came to USD$30. We also had another gorgeous red sunset.