Phang Nga TOWN | First Impressions

Morning from Phang Nga, Thailand, in southern Thailand near Krabi. Halfway between Krabi and Phuket is Phang Nga Bay, and that's a very popular tourist area for boat tours through the Karst Islands and the Hong Islands. But we're actually in Phang Nga town, which is north of that bay, and there's actually surprisingly very little tourists here because most people book those boat tours out of Krabi or Phuket, which leaves Phang Nga Tao, I think, a pretty cool undiscovered gem. I haven't seen any other tourists here. We've only been here for a day, but it's pretty cheap and really authentic. And the cool thing is there's a lot of free things to do, like these other Karst caves that are not on the bay, all throughout the Phang Nga town. They're free. Some of them are actually wats inside, temples inside, so you have to make a small donation, I guess, to go in. But we're going to be exploring Phang Nga town today, and I have to say after just being here one day, I think this place is awesome. It's super laid back. There's not a lot of traffic, not a lot of chaos. It's really clean. It's easy to walk around. Actually, this park on the southern side of the southwestern side of the town here, we had a nice little workout this morning, a couple little workout areas, and now we're going to explore this cave right here. And I'm really excited to be getting off the beaten track today after spending so much time in Pattaya and Bangkok. I had a great time there, but it's nice to be in a little bit more secluded part of Thailand with nice natural geological features and not a lot of tourists. So right now we're near the western entrance to the park, and I thought these were steps coming up, but it looks like it's a man-made waterfall that's not flowing. Looks like they haven't turned it on in a while, but I thought there were steps going up to the top of this for a viewpoint, which you could probably get up there. Might be some sketchy climb parts, but this way looks doable. Probably not going to do that right now, though. Really interesting little nooks and crannies along this western side, and then working our way back to the main cave of this park here. So they actually have in this park a hong. One of the things that Phong Nga Bay is actually known for is this hong. It's a hollowed-out karst, a hollowed-out limestone karst. The middle of it is, through years of erosion from rain down the middle, there's kind of, they call it like a secluded lagoon, although this isn't in the ocean, so there's no lagoon here, but this is the same type of thing that's in Phong Nga Bay that people take boat trips to, that we will probably end up taking a boat trip to, and then you you kayak in on the water, and then you're in this the middle of one of these eroded limestone karsts, and you have your own secluded little lagoon here. Not a lagoon, but still this is a hong, which is pretty cool on the edge of Phong Nga town here. It's funny because the entrance to this park, the western entrance, is right along this main road here, and you would think like a ton of people would be here checking it out, but there's nobody else here. This cool hong, this whole area has been carved out through erosion, got some great limestone stalactites and rock formations. I actually saw several bats flying around, super interesting, and this main road's right over here. There is, across the street, there's like a little shopping center with a 7-eleven, and they do have like a food court over there, so we had a nice cheap lunch for the two of us, 130 baht, so that's like four bucks for lunch for the two of us. Pretty cool. I'm really digging the vibe here in Phong Nga. Laid back, nobody else around, just soaking in this awesome natural beauty. If any of you are coming to Asia to check out these amazing caves and hongs they have here in Southeast Asia, you probably know this already, but you always want to make sure that you thoroughly clean any gear that has been in a in North America because they have the white-nose syndrome that's killing off all the bats there, and so since these places are inhabited by bats, you want to make sure we don't transfer any diseases from North America. So even if it's just a casual excursion, your shoes, a headlamp, whatever it is, make sure it's all thoroughly cleaned before you go between any caves really, whether it's between caves in North America or between North American caves and here. So another hong here further east. We're getting closer to the main cave. I thought this was part of the main cave initially, but this looks like a separate system. Some pretty aggressive monkeys here. I think they like my microphone. What's up guys? You guys looking to jack me? So the monkeys are very aggressive here. Not quite as aggressive as some that I've seen before, but I think that a lot of people feed monkeys here, and that just habituates them to humans. Humans equal food, and so when you're not feeding them, they get kind of aggressive and look to jump on you and grab stuff and steal stuff from you. And actually before, when we were working out, a monkey rolled up and jacked our water bottle and ran off with it. Don't feed wildlife. I mean, it's not good for them or you. I mean, depending on which wildlife you're feeding, you know, a bear or alligator or something like that could end up killing you. But something like a monkey, not a good idea to feed either, because it takes away their natural instinct to look for food on their own, and then it just habituates them to get food from humans. So you're doing a disservice to yourself and to the monkey by feeding them. Infamous.