I think we all felt pretty confident in the abilities of our eight year old long tail boat captain with the t-shirt that read "Real Men Don't Need Viagra".

Steve, Alex and I were stowed in the back of the boat with the kayaks.

Without even stopping the boat, our guide Andy jumped aboard as we motored by a dock.

Andy sprung into the kayak and prepared to lead us around the island, I was paired up with Andy in this boat. I found out from chatting with him that he was a part time kayak guide and he used the extra money to supplement his income as a shrimp fisherman because of declining catches.

Steve and Alex were ready to head for the high seas before the rest of us were even in our boats.

Andy tended to lead us close to the dramatic limestone cliffs of the island so we could get a better look at everything.

Throughout the day of sea kayaking, we meandered in and among the towering limestone cliffs of Koh Lanta's islands. Photo by Alex Iams.

It was a really nice day to be on the water.

As part of the adventure, Andy led us into some hard to reach caves. To get inside this one, we all had to duck down to avoid the overhanging cliff wall. We hoped the tide wasn't going to get any higher and trap us inside.

We put our sandals back on to get out and explore the caves.

It was tough to see in the dim cave without a flashlight.

Further up inside the cave we found this small ledge that turned out to have a covering of bat poops on it.

That was it for the first cave adventure, so back to the boats.

It was easy to see where the high tide level was; it had eroded a very defined ring around the bottom of the island.

Some of the gaps between the limestone monoliths were just wide enough to maneuver a sea kayak through.

For lunch, the long tail boat crew met us on a small beach that was hidden between two cliffs.

Lunch was a spicy Thai seafood dish that I didn't catch the name of. I chose this Thai soda to drink, it had a pretty unique taste althought I'm not sure how to describe it.

Andy led us into another cave after lunch, but this one didn't require us to duck down to get in.

Along some of the walls inside the cave you could see bamboo ladders where the local people would climb to collect the bird nests that they used for bird nest soup.

We didn't actually get out of the boats inside this cave, but just paddled around for a few minutes before going back out into the sun.

Andy ended our sea kayak expedition in this nice lagoon.

Before we knew it, the elementary school aged long tail boat captain had taken over Steve and Alex's boat.

We all swam back to the long tail boat for the trip back to the mainland.