ADsactly Travel - The Treasure of the Emerald Cave
The Treasure of the Emerald Cave
The Treasure of the Emerald Cave
Koh Ngai or Ngai Island is one of the many hidden treasures of Trang, Thailand that's often overlooked. It's known to southern Thais as the romantic island where two young lovers may go to forget the world for three months. Most visitors who come to southern Thailand are instantly attracted to Phuket's expensive commercial appeal or Phi Phi Islands' paradisal reputation, not aware of islands like Koh Ngai.
As with most islands in the Andaman Sea, Koh Ngai's waters are crystal clear and has endless white sand beaches. There are only a few resorts (under 10) which have helped the island's natural defense keep the ecosystem and coral reefs still intact and healthy.
On the Island of Romantic Paradise
We arrived at the resort's private dock and realized that there weren't that many other visitors.
Which meant we basically had this amazing resort to ourselves and would probably have to kayak to the next beach to socialize with people.
We were accompanied by our great friend and international FMX superstar Daice Suzuki, so we had countless drones at our avail.
As Daice started sending up his drones (he's got some crazy drones, like Autobots), I started socializing with the island's hermit crabs before I jumped in the crystal green waters. Seeing the hermit crabs was what made me realize the island's ecosystem was still healthy and not yet ruin by careless and selfish human activities. They were an awesome sight to see and something I haven't seen since a child due to some of the impact nature has taken during my lifetime.
We spent the rest of the day on what seemed like our own private white sand beach because of the number of guests the resort had that day.
We woke up refreshed and ready to tackle a day of kayaking and snorkeling.
To my surprise, as I was eating breakfast, a Thai monitor lizard casually walked by. To see one that close-up and for it to not be afraid of us, was amazing. I finished breakfast inquiring with the resort staff about these large monitor lizards that I rarely see in Bangkok. As they told me stories about living on the island with these magnificent creatures, the rain decided to come by for a brief visit.
It made the weather a bit more ideal than the scorching sun we had been experiencing.
After breakfast, we kayaked over to the next beach and found a resort bar we used as a base to put our belongings as we snorkeled. Koh Ngai is known as one of the best snorkeling islands in the world because its coral reefs are close to its shores. Sadly, the closest coral reefs were graveyards for its inhabitants. I'd like to point out that this is from lack of education about coral reefs. If one person steps on any part of a coral reef, it acts as a negative butterfly effect if you kill any organism. That's just one person. Now imagine 100,000 tourists on every island, in every country with islands. If you aren't strong enough to free dive then perhaps a great idea is wearing a life-jacket while snorkeling to avoid stepping on any coral reefs.
While kayaking back to Koh Ngai Resort, I felt both excitement and sadness. I was still excited to be on such a heavenly island but the sadness struck me when I realized, if we didn't change our ways, this heavenly island's ecosystem may be severely damaged like many commercial islands are today.
Entrance to the Cave
We had another splendid breakfast and Daice and our friends wanted to enjoy the beautiful day flying drones and getting massages on white sand. I decided to take the opportunity to take the family & kids on an unforgettable adventure. We booked a speedboat to take us to the exotic Emerald Cave. Prior to this trip, I've been trying to experience the Emerald Cave for 10 years but every time I came to Trang, the waters weren't favorable. Southern Thailand rains most of the year and at certain times, the Emerald Cave must close due to the dangers of high waters and/or high tides. I knew that it was a cave where the waters inside glisten off the sunlight creating an emerald-like phenomenon on the cave's walls, 10 am to every day. That's all I was expecting to see but the cave had other plans.
I attached my 3-year-old grandson's life jacket to mine using my Alpenlore belt before jumping into the water and entering the cave. We swam through the cave's darkness following our guide until we finally saw it. The amazing emerald like walls didn't disappoint and as I was ready to head back to the speedboat, I ask the guide why the big tour groups were still swimming forward. He quickly told us that these are only the walls and to follow him deeper into the cave.
As we exited the cave on the opposite end we entered, I realized, we just found the treasure of the Emerald Cave. The Emerald Cave is actually an entrance to one of the world's most beautiful crystal green water lagoons, enclosed by astonishing high cliffs.
The gorgeous lagoon's white sand beach was so impressive that I had to sit on and reflect where I was and how I got there.
Beyond the beach was a small jungle like area before reaching the tiny cave in the very back of the lagoon. We decided to enjoy the rest of the time on the lagoon's beach, taking photos, capturing the priceless moments.
The greatest part of the Emerald Cave was that my family was there with me to experience it.
We took countless pictures and enjoyed the time there with all the other tourists who were there also there.
Even though all of us were there either with family, friends or a tour company, I couldn't imagine what was going through the first person's mind who found this lagoon. They probably just didn't go back to where they came from and stayed indefinitely.
The Love for the Andaman Sea
People who come to the Andaman Sea fall in love with it and we're no different. I come down to southern Thailand at least once a year but there was never a precise date so over the years I kept missing the Emerald Cave. I'm feeling really happy that this is the year I finally saw the game plan play out. Southern Thailand has a lot of rain forests so it may rain up to 10 months out of the year. The best time of year for the Emerald Cave is in March and April due to tide levels so if you're in Trang these two months, then you may be in luck.
We spent the next few days enjoying spas and more snorkeling. By this time, there were more guests at the resort and we had a blast socializing with them. Islands always find ways to be the perfect social atmosphere where everyone can be themselves and do some Earthing on white sands. It rained just enough for the temperature to be moderately hot, but we definitely knew it was Thailand's hottest time of the year. After this season, the farmers across Thailand begin planting their crops, awaiting the rain so I'm grateful we all got to finally experience the Emerald Cave.
Authored & photographed by @stewsak
Click on the coin to join our Discord Chat
![Go Adsactly](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbjaMgp9TG7ZCasYVn2ATTzRPoWCeSkFjwhSUMvdkMJLA/FINAL-LOGO%20smallest.png)
Witness proposal is here:
Go To Steem Witness Page
In the bottom of the page type: adsactly-witness and press vote.
![witness vote.gif](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmbcCBNZZMzBANk1mJz94DHCawdaoBUBigR3Tk8FNr473L/witness%20vote.gif)
Use small letters and no "@" sign. Or, click here to vote directly!
Thank you!
A nice place, we were gone for the day from Koh Ngay, we made several spots of snorkeling each as nice as the others. The cellars are swimming, we took the life jackets but without putting them on it is more convenient. We are entering a tunnel in the dark. After a few minutes we arrive on a small beach in the center of the earth. We are in a circus surrounded by high vertical cliffs. The vegetation is abundant, it is a place apart. For the return when we arrive at the exit of this tunnel, we understand why the cellar of emerald, the light of the day and the sun gives this beautiful color to the water.
Yes, Koh Ngai still has coral reefs that are really close to shore so free diving is easier than most places. A good rule of thumb is if you smoke cigarettes, use a life jacket to snorkel etc. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
It seems like you owned a paradise Island in just few days. A journey to Koh Ngai is one of the best adventure. Based on the pictures captured, your right the place have healthy, nutritious, heavenly Environment there live a beautiful creatures, where sea is crystal blue and the fresh air would definitely plunge us to quench. I never had an experience to visit caves and it seems to me a scary place, but as what I have seen in this content it's just like where treasure hide. Treasure is not always about precious limes and stones, for me it is the heavenly nature that would take a lot of story to be there, that's why we should protect the nature for it allow us to experience the world's wonders and the future people could still experience what we have seen. It is a very sad thing when we tell a story to our future son/daughters of how beautiful nature is, when we can't afford to have it literally. We are lucky bout how we experience to climb on forest tress, dive and drink in fresh crystal water, breath fresh air, pick fruits, see the healthy underwater water corals, and many more. What we do now makes an effect bout tomorrow. We could help save the world through small ways that count's when all of us would work for it. We should stop on doing selfish activities will lead nature to death.
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUWYEZ2SSc9UnEn6of5yjRY55wxnhrw3mtWnCr3rPzxNd/dying_nature__1_by_femto_pjd-d9e86zi.jpg)
Happy Mother's day to Everyone <3
The whole trip was an amazing experience. The Emerald Cave was something I've been wanting to complete for years. Finally got to it so I got home knowing what Lara Croft "Tomb Raider" feels like now...LOL. Thanks for coming by and have a marvelous week!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
wow, a really cool trip @adsactly, the place looks very beautiful too, i really like the place like that, again i say, the place is really cool, i really want to go there, but impossible because it is so far away, and i do not have the money to get there. But I am also glad to see this beautiful place you share, thanks for sharing, and wish you a wonderful day. Hopefully whatever project you are doing will be more successful for the future, and I will always support you, because you have a very high social life...
So happy to see you liked it. It was a beautiful island and the wildlife was amazing. I hope that Steemit and cryptocurrencies will allow all of us to visit each other's countries soon :) Hope you have an incredible weekend!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
Wow, that would definately be my dream come true, especially nature being involved. I love these places where people are not aware of. The spirit is different (more private and much better) and the place doesn’t become overcrowded as well “the whole resort for yourself” (just live and not die). Usually the places people don’t know about are the most spectacular places. The moment you mentioned “crystal clear water 💦 and healthy coral reefs” you just got me. There is just no way I wouldn’t put Koh Ngai or Ngai Island on my bucket list. Reading about lizard 🦎, it feels like you are part of them, not them being part of you. That’s what I love about these places, people and animals respecting each other. Animal feels a good spirit. Great lesson for everyone not to step on coral reefs, many people may not know about them being living organisms. I recently watched document “Chasing Coral”. It’s an eye opening, emotional and also devastating. Your cave journey must had been amazing especially emerald like walls and then this entrance to the beautiful crystal green water lagoons. You are really lucky 🍀 to visit and experience this place at least once a year. My wish after reading your post is to visit it at least one time in my lifetime. It’s already on my bucket list.
Great 👍 post @stewsak and @adsactly!
Trying to make sure that humans don't disrupt ecosystems too much is no mean feat, as you note by the coral reefs being graveyards - it is so hard to educate hundreds of thousands of tourists on basic manners because those manners can be life or death for some aspects of nature. But at least wild animals haven't totally fed - those are great shots of the monitor lizard and hermit crab! And it shows that at least there is still hope in reconciling tourism with nature. Nature probably can't evolve fast enough to pick for "can survive being stepped on by humans" as an evolutionary trait, so tourists themselves must adapt.
This is another great write-up of the beautiful places of Thailand, it truly does look like a romantic spot for say a honeymoon. I think a couple posts ago you wrote about the temples of north Thailand, now we have the islands of south Thailand, I'm certainly getting very convinced about picking Thailand as a tourist destination now! (I've heard about elephant sanctuaries in Thailand as well; have you been to those?)
Congratulations on finally seeing the Emerald Cave! I guess it's one of those amazing things that you always mean to visit, but just never got around to it even though you probably always have the chance to. Even more fortunately, it wasn't raining, that's crazy how it'd be raining 10/12 months in those pictures that you took? Excellent planning and luck!
Incredible colors... Beautiful...
Thanks a million and glad you like it!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
Well done ..
I liked your work .. wonderful words from you
Thanks for sharing this with us..
Thank you so much. I super appreciate the kind words and hope you have a marvelous week!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
This is such a beautiful place @adsactly my bucket list get longet every time i read these posts. Soon itll be so long ill have to live 1000 years to complete it!
So happy that you like it and hope to be reading your post about visiting Thailand one day soon. Have a great week!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
Very exotic
It was very relaxing and stress relieving :) Hope you have a great week!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak
Man travelling is the most enjoyable part of life.I also love to travel.It seems that you guyes had enjoyed a lot.
The best part about traveling is meeting all the wonderful people along the way. Hope you have an awesome week. You deserve it!
"Thanks for coming on this journey with us..."
Wishing you all the best, @adsactly & @stewsak