Handpicked experience · Krabi
Krabi, Thailand
A paddle through a limestone tunnel that closes at high water, past cave walls painted in ochre three thousand years ago above metres of shell midden left by the painters.
See more of Krabi in this exhilarating kayaking tour from The Trip Club.
Explore the town of Ban Bor Thor and visit its natural gems including a mangrove forest and several caves.
Tag a friend or a loved one along and paddle your way around Klong Pring.
You're sure to gain a new appreciation for this island after this one-of-a-kind adventure.
A limestone passage open at both ends and paddled right through
A ceiling of stalactites a few feet above your head
Figures in red pigment, older than most standing architecture
A floor of shell debris left by the people who painted them
Brackish channels that turn green where the springs rise
Flat sheltered water that needs no experience
A kayaking day from the village of Ban Bor Thor, inland from the Krabi coast, through mangrove channels and into limestone caves that you paddle through rather than merely to.
The best-known passage here is open at both ends. You enter from the water on one side of the hill, the daylight goes behind you, and after a few minutes of paddling under a low ceiling hung with stalactites you come out into a channel on the other side.
Headroom is the thing to understand. The passage is only navigable at certain states of the tide, and at high water the entrance closes entirely. This is why the itinerary is timed against the tide table and why a fixed departure hour cannot be promised.
Inside, the noise of the paddles changes completely. That alone tells you more about the size of the space than a torch does.
A second cave in the same system holds ochre paintings on its walls: human figures, fish, and animals, painted in red pigment and generally dated to somewhere between two and three thousand years old.
Underneath them, and much less photogenic, is the layer that tells archaeologists more. The floor holds metres of shell midden, the accumulated rubbish of people who ate shellfish here over a very long period, and that layering is what allows the site to be dated and read at all.
The Thai name of the cave refers to a big-headed ghost, and comes from human skulls found inside. The remains have been removed for study, but the name has not moved with them.
The channels run brackish, and where fresh water rising through the limestone meets the tidal flow the water can turn a startling green.
That is mineral rather than biology: calcium carbonate carried in solution scatters light in a way that reads as colour, in exactly the way the inland pools further south do. Lift it in a hand and it is clear.
The paddling is flat and easy, and no experience is needed. Cave passages require sitting still and low while somebody else steers, which is the one part that unsettles people.
Take a head torch if you have one. The guides carry lights, but a hand free of holding one is worth having.
There is no shade on the channels between caves, and the middle of the day is punishing. Sleeves and a hat beat sun cream on an open kayak.
Anything you bring into a cave gets wet at some point. Cameras belong in a sealed bag until you want them.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Through one of them. The main passage is open at both ends, so you paddle in on one side of the hill and out on the other.
Because headroom in the passage depends on the tide, and at high water the entrance is closed altogether.
People, fish and animals, drawn in red earth pigment by whoever was living there long before anything else in the province was built.
Metres of shell midden: the accumulated remains of shellfish eaten there over a long period, which is what makes the site datable.
Because human skulls were found inside it. The remains went away for study; the name stayed.
Fresh water rising through limestone meets the tidal flow, and dissolved mineral scatters the light. Lifted in a hand it is clear.
No. The water is flat and sheltered, and guides handle the steering through the cave sections.
Sitting still and low while someone else navigates the dark passage, which unsettles more people than the paddling does.