One of humankind’s first-ever watercraft, the humble kayak is still the quietest and most environmentally friendly way to get around on the water. Over-saturation of daytrip destinations in Phang Nga Bay, however, has several sea-canoe operators searching out new and farther-flung paddling destinations. In keeping with the true concept of eco-tourism, these companies prefer to give their nature-loving customers a real adventure far from the package tour crowds.

The number of companies offering kayaking daytrips into Phang Nga Bay — 16 at last count — has mushroomed in recent years, leaving some of the more popular hongs overcrowded. This in turn has drawn accusations of environmental damage inflicted by untrained guides and overeager tourists. But, as Dave Williams of Paddle Asia attests, the bay is a big place, and a little education can go a long way: "There are over 100 islands in the bay. Most companies go to the same four, meaning that there’s still plenty left to explore.

"The biggest problem in Phang Nga Bay, in my opinion, is litter," says Williams. "Judging by the stuff we find, most of it seems to come from fishermen — Styrofoam, water bottles and clumps of fishing net. But that’s just a matter of education; don’t hold it against them. We should clean it up and try to get some educational programmes going. As for the other companies, I don’t see any serious environmental damage being done. People aren’t going in there and breaking off stalactites, climbing all over the trees or defacing the environment. There’s noise pollution, but that’s about it. I’d say there’s room for even more companies there, and I’d welcome the competition, as long as they keep safety paramount."

John ("I don’t run tours; I run works of art") Gray, director of John Gray’s Sea Canoes and founder of commercial sea kayaking in the region, disagrees wholeheartedly. Once, the only operator in the lucrative sea canoe industry, this avid conservationist runs his own company on firm eco-tourism principles. He believes the perfect environmental adventure should "leave no footprints". Given the high volume, however, cut-rate operators are now each taking up to 120 people a day to the hongs. The result, says Gray, is wall-to-wall kayaks, no quality control and few professional standards.

There are apparently no industry standards for staff training in environmental policy, customer education or safety. Gray recounts a story of rescuing a group of tourists whose non-English speaking guides had followed him into a cave on a rapidly rising tide. Designed by Gray and manufactured in the US, his kayaks sit low on the water, allowing his staff to access areas that others cannot. "I designed my boats for Thai sea caves using Lexitron," he says, "the toughest inflatable boat fabric in the world." The rival’s bulkier canoes, sitting higher above the waterline, became stuck on the roof of a narrow opening with the cavern fast filling with water. Potential tragedy was avoided when he explained to the panicking tourists that they had to abandon the boats and swim with him out of the cave. "It was really very frightening for those people, with their guides pulling them out of boats in a dark cave with no explanation. They could have drowned."

Sunthorn "Mut" Sakulsan, from Sea Canoe Thailand, agrees that the sea-canoe industry is long overdue for policy reform on the over-saturated daytrips. "We only want to be a model of eco-tourism," he says with conviction. The quietly spoken managing director questions the meaning of eco-tourism on a free market. "Eco-tourism is the key. It’s not just paddling a kayak, but the whole concept — what you do for the environment, education of tourists and staff and taking care of local communities. It’s not just about making money". He believes that the impulse to maximize profit has killed the whole eco-concept, and that a quota should be set on the number of companies allowed to operate in the region.

For over five years, a small committee of operators has pushed the local tourism authority and government bodies to set up accreditation procedures for safety and eco-policy, where all companies would meet the same high standards. Southern Thailand, with close to half a million paddlers visiting each year, is the world’s biggest sea-kayaking destination. The tours depend on tides, which generally allow three hours per day of access to the hongs, so several companies are always jostling for space at any given cave mouth — a hong’s single entry and exit point. It’s no accident that Mut’s ideas are similar to those of John Gray, since they worked together in the early days of the local sea-canoe industry. Both men agree on the urgency for a policy of increased safety standards, no noise, no traffic jams, a maximum of 20 people per trip and no touching anything in the caves and hongs.

"The hongs are as sacred as temples, and should be respected as such," says Gray, a veteran paddler, who claims to have started the first kayaking operation in tropical waters back in Hawaii in the early ’80s before coming to Thailand in 1989. Gray’s eco-minded guests so disliked the rowdy environment of the daytrips that he began a starlight tour that arrives in the bay mid-afternoon, when the last of the operators are paddling the hongs. Even with these few kayaks still in the water, there’s a general feeling of "Grand Central Station". Just when you think you have a hong all to yourself, 8 or 10 well-worn kayaks carrying loud, excitable tourists, close in like a scene from the movie Jaws devouring the peace and tranquillity. This was reason enough, according to Gray, for a whole colony of crab-eating macaque monkeys to abandon their island home and swim to a less frequented island karst nearby.

After sunset, when all the tour operators have left for the day, entering a cave is a surreal experience. Stalactites gleam (unfortunately a few tips of the glorious fluted calcium formations have been snapped off, souvenirs, perhaps, for tourists). Tiny bats move restlessly in the soft torchlight. The paddles stir marine bioluminescence like neon stars in the dark waters. Squeezing through narrow openings, lying flat on our backs, the hongs reveal another world, a star-filled, moonlit lagoon cradled in vertical limestone walls and lush with mangroves and other tropical vegetation. The only sounds belong to night birds and the quiet swish of paddle. This is where John Gray’s words rang true. He suggested before we entered that we take five minutes of silence to reflect on our place in nature, describing the cathedral-like hongs as "going back in time to a place before humans were on the planet, like going through a time machine into an enclave protected from the outside world."

Despite the high visitor rate, Phang Nga Bay still makes an outstandingly scenic region for a sea-canoe tour by the average visitor with time limitations. For a true eco-tourism adventure, however, all three company representatives interviewed recommend longer tours to other areas in southern Thailand. A handful of operators run trips from overnight to a week or longer, co-designing educational tours with the guest for an experience to write home about.

Khao Sok National Park has served as a major trekking destination in the area for many years. This vast swathe of primary rain forest is intersected by many rivers and small tributaries that all flow either from or into the park’s huge 156 square kilometre reservoir. Tropical rainforest fauna is notoriously shy, much of it nocturnal, and a casual hike doesn’t usually reveal much of it. Poaching, unfortunately, hasn’t helped matters. While a day’s jungle trekking offers stunning vistas, there’s usually little to see in the way of wildlife. Nevertheless, says Williams, Paddle Asia’s two- and three-day Khao Sok trips present "wildlife in abundance to a degree that’s almost incomprehensible."

"Every time we go there, we see dozens of monkeys," he says, "Longtail macaques, pigtail macaques and dusky langurs. We frequently see gibbons as well, and a lot of birds. Thailand has over 950 bird species and, during the migratory season, you can see almost all of them in Khao Sok. I’ve seen 5 different species of hornbill alone. And the wild pigs are always a joy. When water levels are low, banana trees pop up on the newly exposed bank and grow really fast. The pigs like to push them over and eat the pulpy roots at their base."

The reservoir area has great potential for further low-impact, environmentally friendly water tourism. The successful floating bungalow operations in the reservoir give local people an important stake in sustainability of the park’s development. Likewise, many longtail boat operators offer short trips around the reservoir banks. A passionate environmentalist, Dave’s only concern is unmuffled longtails that gun their engines in a tactic designed to scare animals out of hiding for the tourists’ viewing pleasure. "Obviously they’re not killing them," he says, "so it’s preferable to poaching. But the problem is that if, for example, you go out in the late afternoon and there’s a big tree that’s in fruit and you scare all the monkeys and other animals off the tree, then they might not return to the tree, and then go hungry. It’s something I’d prefer not to see supported — you can see plenty from a properly muffled boat; it’s just a question of being patient."

Paddling around the Andaman Sea off the coast of Trang is an entirely different prospect to Khao Sok. Trang Province is one of southern Thailand’s best-kept secrets. If visitors go at all, they’re most likely to be cruising through on a yacht, or staying at a resort on one of the few inhabited islands from which frequent daytrips run to the province’s biggest tourist draw: the Emerald Cave. This attraction, on the lovely Mook Island (Koh Mook), is only accessible at low tide, when it’s possible to swim through the 80m, seemingly jewel-encrusted cave into the pristine hong inside.

Much the way it does in Khao Sok, bird life abounds in Trang: Oriental pied hornbills, kingfishers, white-bellied sea eagles, and kites all frequent the islands, which are among the least developed in Thailand. The proximity of Koh Mook to the mainland also gives many novice paddlers the opportunity to complete their first crossing. The hour-and-a-half trip is hardly arduous, but it can be immensely satisfying. After Koh Mook, it’s also relatively easy to paddle to nearby Koh Hai and Koh Kradan — both of which islands are equally picturesque and fringed with coral reefs, making them ideal for a spot of snorkelling. Koh Hai is an especially attractive paddling destination, since it’s easy to circumnavigate in a day.

Farther along the coast, and just 5 miles from the Malaysian island of Langkawi at its closest point, Taratao Marine National Park has been designated an ASEAN Heritage Site by UNESCO. The park itself consists of 51 islands, seven of which are significantly larger than the others. The main island features tidal rivers, primary mangrove, hardwood and nipa palm forests, as well a rich wildlife that includes crab-eating macaques, dusky langurs, and monitor lizards that can grow as long as two metres or more. The ultimate highlight for a lucky few, though, is the opportunity to paddle among a school of dolphins. It’s an unforgettable experience that Williams is always keen to try and repeat when he’s in the park.

It has also attracted increasing attention from the Thai government, which wants to promote the area as a high-end tourist destination — a move that Williams wholeheartedly supports. "We want to be there to set an example of an environmentally friendly, low-volume, low-impact and higher-priced operation. We believe that mass tourism can be hard on a culture and the environment. We believe that people are willing to pay more to go on a quality trip with highly experienced guides who can answer questions. And that comes at a premium — not an outrageous one, but more than a mass tourism trip would run."

It’s areas such as this that John Gray and Sea Canoe Thailand’s Mut would like to see protected from the excessive commercialisation of eco-tourism. With lessons to be learned from the high-volume use of Phang Nga Bay, Gray is concerned that within 10 years, as more companies begin tour itineraries in previously pristine environments, there may be no quiet places left to explore. Mut is worried too that the environment will be damaged by mass tourism and that southern Thailand’s tourism industry will suffer. He urges the private sector and government to work together in protecting the precious natural environment. "The state of the environment affects the whole industry. What will my children promote – shopping tours?"