There's really something of a spiritual experience in hoisting the sails and cutting the motor on your very own yacht. On Phuket, it's even more dramatic because of the exotic scenery. Hundreds of idyllic islands and towering limestone formations are enough to take your breath away as you glide by on the wings of the wind.

I went out with Thai Marine Leisure (TML) aboard sailing vessel Destiny for a daytrip around Phang Nga Bay. TML has a number of vessels available for charter and, if you're a qualified sailor, you can skipper, crew and stock the boat and simply take off into the morning sun. On the other hand, if you don't know starboard from port, TML can supply a skipper, crew and cook for your yachting pleasure.

Over a delicious lunch on deck, TML's Jo Cooney explained the business of sailing: "It's not unlike renting a caravan. By making a simple contract, you can chart your own course and simply take off into paradise. We get a lot of people who love to sail but don't have a boat here in Thailand. It's really an exciting place to navigate. There's a lot of impressive wild scenery here, the islands, and marine life. It makes for a great adventure."

Although you can charter the boat for any length of time from a single day to several months, a typical charter route extends for about a week and winds down and through Phang Nga Bay over to Krabi, onward to the Phi Phi Islands, over to Koh Ratcha Yai and Noi, and back to the Yacht Haven. Some prefer a three-day trip through Phang Nga Bay to Krabi and back.

The boats range in price, but it's surprisingly economical. The beautiful Destiny can accommodate 8 to 10 guests, and charters for about US$350 per day. Add a skipper, crew and a cook for about $160 more. And remember, split among your group, it beats the cost of a hotel room. That's everything including food. You can sail year-round in Thailand, but the very best times of the year for wind and weather are January-February and September-October.

This activity was hosted by Marina Divers, based in Kata. I brought along my friend and Thai divemaster Nui Gaidho. Right off Chalong's tourist harbour, we explored three amazing dive sites: the fabulous King Cruiser Wreck dive, Shark Point and Anemone Reef.

The guides explain that King Cruiser was a huge ferryboat that sunk under suspicious circumstances. It actually hit Anemone Reef, a well-known and easily avoided obstacle, and limped a couple of kilometres farther before finding its watery grave. It makes a great wreck dive to 32 metres at the bottom, and multiple decks present themselves for exploration as you ascend. We swam with a dazzling array of schooling fish including skipjacks and barracudas, and saw giant groupers and lionfish. Wreck dives always give me a haunted chill, a superb sense of adventure and mystery.

Anemone Reef itself was decked out in a robe of brilliant colour, with the swaying undersea flower-animals lending the reef its name. I moved slowly towards a beautiful (and harmless) leopard shark resting on the bottom, and hung with him for several minutes. Later, in a rare display, a male and female shark performed an underwater ballet that was clearly a mating ritual. A giant fish called a cobia swam only a couple metres in front of Nui. These fish are often seen swimming with whale sharks, and, although we didn't see a whale shark, many of Marina's guides were clearly excited that one was probably in the area.

Shark Point was our last dive of the day. This site is a chain of several small seamounts that gradually get smaller towards the south — something like the buried vertebrae of a giant sea monster's tail. Nui and I circumnavigated several of the mounts on a hunt for nudibranchs, small but exotically coloured sea slugs, and found four different varieties. On the way, jewel moray eels poked out of holes, seahorses bobbed about, and endless swirls of brightly coloured fish parted in our path. Marina offers live-aboard trips to the Similan Islands and other package holidays designed especially for divers. The Similan Islands are rated one of the top 10 dive destinations on the planet.

Here's a chance to visit secret places where the fingers of the sea disappear into dark caves. At high tide, we paddled into ancient lagoons, hidden rooms encased in towering walls of limestone. My ears were massaged by the prehistoric music of the jungle. The sound of my paddle in the water carried forever, but my whisper was an obscene distraction. Better to let the hornbills, sea eagles, monkeys and cicadas carry on in harmony.

My host, John Gray, shares his knowledge of local ecology along the way: "These sparse mangrove trees infuse the food chain with their decaying leaves, and without them this fragile ecosystem would be forever lost." Along the way, he points out many hidden treasures. "Here's a species of tree that so far remains a mystery to the world's botanists — none like it found anywhere else." Mud-skippers scoot along the banks. Perhaps the first of the sea's evolutionary experiments to explore the terrestrial world, these strange little fish walk out of the sea on their fins. They bear our own faces as they were millions of years past.

We kayaked into several of these lagoons during the daylight, entering through sea caves. Each cave is different and spectacular. One has hundreds of insect bats hanging about, another offers beautiful formations encrusted with what appeared to be millions of tiny diamonds glimmering in the darkness. To get through some of the passageways we had to lay flat on our backs, which induced a state of intoxication as the guide paddled into the lost world.

Using a big motor yacht as home base, we returned at sunset from our stealth explorations to a delicious supper. After the feast, the crew taught us to make krathongs — a floating decoration made from banana tree trunks, leaves, flowers and candles. This was the starlight cruise, and were kayaking back into the bat cave to see the changes in the tides. Inside, the water glowed with bioluminescent plankton — a simulation of the night sky above. We lit up our krathongs, made our prayers to the sea and set them afloat in the serenity of the jungle night.

If you don't want to bother with dive training, but would like to stay underwater for longer than one breath of air allows, then power snorkelling is a fun option. In this undersea sport, your air is fed to you from a line that goes up to a small compressor that floats on an inner tube on the surface. You don't go deeper than six metres, so it's quite easy, comfortable and safe. With minimal training, anyone can enjoy the underwater world. We boated out to Phi Phi Don, where the waters are crystal clear. I opted to grab a sea scooter and zipped about under full power — a human-battery powered submarine — staying well above the fragile coral beds below, and observing the power-snorkellers in their new world.

Try parachuting without the fall. Catch a little air parasailing behind a speedboat. You strap in and a Thai boy (who doesn't strap in) goes up with you. He's the landing gear, and is there to keep the experience safe and pleasurable by communicating with the boat drivers. Really fun! This activity is available right off the beaches in Kata, Karon and Patong. It costs 800-1000 baht (US$20-25) for a ride.

River Rovers represents a new design of purpose-built boat for exploring the rivers and estuaries of the area. Partner Gordon Williams and builder Roger Diggelmann invited me to participate in the boat's initial launch and maiden voyage off Chalong Bay. As Roger explained, "With its shallow hull, this new craft will take people to places that other luxury boats can't. There are a host of routes and possible itineraries, some reaching far up into the river mouths on into the watersheds that feed into our seas here."

The best part is that it allows visitors to experience a new view of southern Thailand's natural beauty, as it cruises up the interior waterways and mangrove systems. A different and exciting choice, the company's slogan is appropriate: "Experience another Thailand".

If you're not into gas-powered thrills, the wind can provide plenty of speed. Cobra International, in Chalong, can get you set up with the latest windsurfing boards and lessons as well. Newly available in Phuket and gaining in popularity is kite surfing. I must say it is probably the most far-out sport I've ever tried. Towed on a surfboard by a giant kite, it's a combination of parasailing, kite flying, board-surfing and (until I got the hang of it) swimming. It's a demanding physical activity, but you can't really have any greater fun. I was literally ripping through the water, getting airborne off the crest of a wave only to splash down, rip back in the opposite direction and surf down the face of the same wave. Nai Harn Bay provided great winds, and is a favourite spot on Phuket for this sport.

There's really something of a spiritual experience in hoisting the sails and cutting the motor on your very own yacht. On Phuket, it's even more dramatic because of the exotic scenery. Hundreds of idyllic islands and towering limestone formations are enough to take your breath away as you glide by on the wings of the wind.

I went out with Thai Marine Leisure (TML) aboard sailing vessel Destiny for a daytrip around Phang Nga Bay. TML has a number of vessels available for charter and, if you're a qualified sailor, you can skipper, crew and stock the boat and simply take off into the morning sun. On the other hand, if you don't know starboard from port, TML can supply a skipper, crew and cook for your yachting pleasure.

Over a delicious lunch on deck, TML's Jo Cooney explained the business of sailing: "It's not unlike renting a caravan. By making a simple contract, you can chart your own course and simply take off into paradise. We get a lot of people who love to sail but don't have a boat here in Thailand. It's really an exciting place to navigate. There's a lot of impressive wild scenery here, the islands, and marine life. It makes for a great adventure."

Although you can charter the boat for any length of time from a single day to several months, a typical charter route extends for about a week and winds down and through Phang Nga Bay over to Krabi, onward to the Phi Phi Islands, over to Koh Ratcha Yai and Noi, and back to the Yacht Haven. Some prefer a three-day trip through Phang Nga Bay to Krabi and back.

The boats range in price, but it's surprisingly economical. The beautiful Destiny can accommodate 8 to 10 guests, and charters for about US$350 per day. Add a skipper, crew and a cook for about $160 more. And remember, split among your group, it beats the cost of a hotel room. That's everything including food. You can sail year-round in Thailand, but the very best times of the year for wind and weather are January-February and September-October.

This activity was hosted by Marina Divers, based in Kata. I brought along my friend and Thai divemaster Nui Gaidho. Right off Chalong's tourist harbour, we explored three amazing dive sites: the fabulous King Cruiser Wreck dive, Shark Point and Anemone Reef.

The guides explain that King Cruiser was a huge ferryboat that sunk under suspicious circumstances. It actually hit Anemone Reef, a well-known and easily avoided obstacle, and limped a couple of kilometres farther before finding its watery grave. It makes a great wreck dive to 32 metres at the bottom, and multiple decks present themselves for exploration as you ascend. We swam with a dazzling array of schooling fish including skipjacks and barracudas, and saw giant groupers and lionfish. Wreck dives always give me a haunted chill, a superb sense of adventure and mystery.

Anemone Reef itself was decked out in a robe of brilliant colour, with the swaying undersea flower-animals lending the reef its name. I moved slowly towards a beautiful (and harmless) leopard shark resting on the bottom, and hung with him for several minutes. Later, in a rare display, a male and female shark performed an underwater ballet that was clearly a mating ritual. A giant fish called a cobia swam only a couple metres in front of Nui. These fish are often seen swimming with whale sharks, and, although we didn't see a whale shark, many of Marina's guides were clearly excited that one was probably in the area.

Shark Point was our last dive of the day. This site is a chain of several small seamounts that gradually get smaller towards the south — something like the buried vertebrae of a giant sea monster's tail. Nui and I circumnavigated several of the mounts on a hunt for nudibranchs, small but exotically coloured sea slugs, and found four different varieties. On the way, jewel moray eels poked out of holes, seahorses bobbed about, and endless swirls of brightly coloured fish parted in our path. Marina offers live-aboard trips to the Similan Islands and other package holidays designed especially for divers. The Similan Islands are rated one of the top 10 dive destinations on the planet.

Thai Marine Leisure (in the Boat Lagoon Marina)

20/7-8 Thepkasatri Road, Tambon Koh Kaew, Phuket

Tel. 076 239 111

www.thaimarine.com

E-mail: info@thaimarine.com

1/11-12 Chaofa Road, Chalong Bay, Phuket

Tel. 076 381 065

Email: cobrapkt@loxinfo.co.th

Big C Supercenter

Phuket Town

Tel. 076 248 278

50/4 Moo 5 Viset Road, Rawai, Phuket

Tel/fax 076 280 239

www.powersnorkel.com;

Email: steve@powersnorkel.com

Kite-surfing instruction

Tel. 01 090 3730

Email: rogerkamala@hotmail.com

1/16 moo 9, Chaofa Road, Chalong Bay, Phuket

Tel. 076 280 420

www.riverrovers.com

Email: info@riverrovers.com

47 Karon Road, Karon Beach, Phuket

Tel. 076 330 272

www.marinadivers.com

Email: info@marinadivers.com

124 Soi 1 Yaowarat Rd. Taladyai, Muang, Phuket.

Tel. 076 254 505

www.johngray-seacanoe.com

Email: info@johngray-seacanoe.com