#2174 4 island tour, part 4: Poda Island

Welcome back! Tonight I'm writing about the fourth stop on the four island longtail boat tour, Poda Island.

We got there around lunch time. My first impression, as with most islands there, was that there were a lot of longtail boats, meaning lots of people, but it didn't seem too crowded. Leng found a spot in some shade and proceeded to set up our lunch.

Wait, there's more to this story. Leng found a shady spot that was near a bench where some people were sitting. Then a monkey came to sit on the bench with the people and took their water bottle. The man reached for the water bottle - the monkey wasn't holding it at the time - but the monkey grabbed the bottle and sort of hissed and showed his teeth. The man, undaunted, reached for the bottle again and the monkey sort of charged at him, hissing. The woman got up and walked away and after a minute and a few photos, the man did too.

I did not want to be close to the monkey on the bench, so I asked Leng to move us a little bit away to a different shady spot. It wasn't a big deal or very far away from where we were, just not right in front of the bench with the monkey.

I kept my eye on the monkey, but I also really enjoyed the lunch.

There were two big cushion-y bean bag chairs for us to sit on. There was a little table, complete with a tablecloth. There was an umbrella. There was a salad, sandwiches, cold water, soda and juice. There was fresh fruit and cheesecake. There was real silverware and cloth napkins. It was deluxe. People were walking by checking out our set-up and I know they wanted some of what we had. It was pretty great.

Side note: I took the above photo when the monkey walked behind us. I didn't want to have my back to it. The monkey was gone by the time I took the photo.

Lunch with a view!

After lunch, Leng sent us on our way to swim, snorkel and relax in the shade. MT immediately put his mask on and got in the water. Again no sunscreen. This is where the burn happened. He snorkeled out quite a way and was gone for about an hour. I don't have any photos of him snorkeling because I was busy staring at the scenery. I did go out in the water too. It was amazing.

I mean...come on! Gorgeous!

MT finally came back and Leng walked with us to another part of the island where there were toilets. It was a Saturday and there lots of people hanging out on the beach and who can blame them? The place is really pretty.

We walked back to our boat and Leng insisted on taking a few photos of us. The karst is kind of a symbol of the Krabi area and in fact, it's on the cover of the guidebook I have AND on the cheesy magnet I bought at the airport.

Iconic (photo by Leng)

Pano shot by Leng

If you want to read a little more about Poda Island, I found this blurb on a website I used a lot while I was doing research on Thailand.

All in all, the four island tour might have been my favorite thing. I loved the longtail boat and the fact that it was just the two of us. We probably spent a little more money than we should have, but everything about the day was first class. Highly recommend this tour - you can get it pretty much anywhere there, but maybe not private with lunch, I don't know. Anyway, if you're in the Krabi area, go on this tour!