A still lagoon seen through heavy green foliage from a resort walkway

A journey by Taaj

Islands
in the Rain

Six of us, one green season, and a bay that only showed itself a few metres at a time. Scroll to walk it end to end.

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Standing at a wooden rail looking out over the still green lagoon behind the rooms — First look

Two of the kids walking down the sand towards a bright silver sea — Straight in

01Landfall

Bags down, and straight to the water

A still green lagoon behind the rooms, and the open sea a short walk the other way. The unpacking could wait.

Limestone islands fading into grey mist across Phang Nga Bay, a Thai flag at the stern

A single forested limestone karst seen over the white bow rail of a boat — Off the bow

02Phang Nga Bay

Forty islands, and we could see three

Green season does this. The karsts arrive one at a time out of the white, hold for a moment, and are gone again behind you.

View from a blue kayak up a jungle-covered limestone cliff — Into the hong

Two young paddlers in a blue kayak inside a sea cave, daylight in the arch behind them — Through the arch

A patch of white sky framed by dark jungle canopy, shaped like a heart — Looking up

03Sea caves

Lie flat, the guide said, and we did

You paddle at a ceiling until it opens into a room with no door — a collapsed cave floor, jungle on every wall, one ragged window of sky.

Ko Tapu, a narrow limestone spire rising out of jade water, framed by jungle and a longtail boat passing behind

Two of the kids posing back to back on the beach below the limestone cliffs — Golden Gun, allegedly

04Khao Phing Kan

The rock that has been famous since 1974

Ko Tapu, the nail. Every boat in the bay arrives at the same beach for the same photograph, and everybody takes it anyway.

A grinning selfie in zipline helmets and harnesses, green jungle behind — Platform four

05The canopy

Someone has to go first

Harness on, helmet on, and that particular face people make in the half-second before they agree to step off a platform.

Feeding an elephant over a wooden rail, bucket in hand, in a blue woven poncho — Breakfast duty

Four of the kids in red and blue woven shirts standing either side of an elephant on grass — All four

06The sanctuary

They are so much quieter than you expect

You get a bucket, a woven shirt two sizes too big, and about ninety seconds to stop being nervous before the trunk arrives.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor holding a bottle up for a lion cub — Held very still

Close-up of a lion cub on a cushion taking milk from a bottle — Not a cat

07Off the itinerary

Nobody planned for this one

Paws already far too big for the rest of it. The whole room went quiet and stayed that way for twenty minutes.

The white marble Big Buddha of Phuket seen from the foot of its steps at dusk

Green hills rolling down toward Phuket town and the sea under heavy cloud — The view back down

08Nakkerd Hills

Forty-five metres of white marble, and a lot of steps

You climb for the statue and stay for what is behind you: the whole island going soft and green all the way down to the water.

An enormous plaza covered in neon peacock-feather light patterns at night

All six of the family squeezed into one selfie in front of the carnival gates at dusk — All six

Three of them standing together in front of a blue and gold lattice arch — Blue and gold

09Carnival Magic

And then the whole island turned its lights on

After a week of soft grey weather, an entire kingdom of colour switched on at once. Restraint was not the point of the evening.

Sitting at a restaurant table at night, knife over a chocolate cake with lit candles — Candles, finally

10The last night

A birthday, at the end of it

Open sides, warm air, the sea somewhere out in the dark again — the same sound as the first night, only this time you know exactly where it is.

That was the green season

Mist on the bay every morning, rain that arrived sideways and left in ten minutes, and light so soft the photographs barely needed anything doing to them. Thailand does not perform for you in the wet months. It just gets on with being extraordinarily beautiful in the background.

21Photographs

10Chapters

6Of us

1Birthday cake

Phuket & Phang Nga All photographs our own Scroll-driven, one page

Islandsin the Rain