Emerald CavePersonal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Emerald Cave, Thailand. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Emerald Cave and navigate the world using Google Earth Show on map
N 7° 23.001
Book your hotelBook a hostelBook a budget room in one of the youth hostels in Thailand Free brochuresOrder your free brochure with offers for travelling to Thailand Other stories: |
| ||||
When the boatman tied up his boat to a rope next to steep rocks climbing out of the deep-blue sea water it was a little hard to believe that this was it. We had come to visit Emerald or Morakot Cave, or Tam Nam, to swim to a beach, but we could see neither of them. Instead, tropical fish were swimming below the boat, the boat rocked to the movement of the waves, and the highrise rocks seemed like an inhospitable place. Nevertheless, the boatman asked us to get into the water, and got his wetsuit and flippers on and took his watertight torch. We jumped into the water, and I took my camera, tightly wrapped in a plastic bag, holding it over my head.
We swam towards the wall of rocks towering above us, and then entered a dark cave. Still swimming on, darkness fell on our shoulders, and we could see absolutely nothing. The boatman switched on his torch, and then it became clear that we were swimming in a tunnel, the ceiling not very high above us. There was some current, the tunnel took some turns, and after swimming for a few minutes, we literally saw some light at the end of the tunnel. Meanwhile, I took turns keeping the plastic bag with my camera above my head, making sure it would not fall into the water.
A last turn took us right inside a tiny bay with a lovely beach. As we walked ashore, we realized how the high walls around us dwarfed us, and that there was no way to reach this place other than swimming through the tunnel at low tide. We relaxed, and could well imagine that pirates used to store their loot here. A truly well hidden place! Unfortunately, more visitors arrived and when the beach filled up, it was time for us to go. Now we knew what was waiting, and when we reached the other side of the tunnel, we were swimming in amazingly green water which seemed to be lit from below.
