For three nights and four days, we sailed around islands in the Gulf of Thailand, near the border with Cambodia, while we anchored each night off the coast of -and visited – Koh Kood, Koh Mak, and Koh Chang. Being on a boat for 3 nights was totally new to my family.

We weren’t quite sure how this would go, how we would adapt to limited bathing combined with lots of sun, sunblock, and salt water. Very limited privacy and one bed short, so that at least one person and the captain had to sleep on the seating.

Add to that one child proactively medicated for seasickness, and our limited knowledge of the places we were going ashore – we actually were taking a number of risks here. As I type that out, I’m amused at our laid back attitudes about all of it and willingness to just do it anyway. We may be a little insane.

However, in the end I have to say, I am so very won over. It was beautiful and calm and relaxing in a way that no other vacation has been. There is some thing about not being able to go anywhere or do anything that makes you let go of all those worries on land and fully soak up the now.

I watched my kids fall asleep in the ‘trampoline’ and on cushioned bench seats. They lay on the roof in the shade of the sail and I watched the sun set with them, and so very many stars come out at night. It was amazing. Once we cut the engines at night, it was still and quiet, with only slight lapping of wave on the side of the boat, and the occasional touch of rocking. Once the moon came out it was surprisingly bright, even thought it was only at about 60% full.

We really were ruled by the sun in ways we just haven’t been before. We only had a couple slots for phones to charge, and those would drain battery if the engine wasn’t running – so phones were kept off, power guarded carefully for times on land and in case of need. Nothing else was charged during the trip. Once the sun went down, we would finish out dinner and then shut down the lights. We would enjoy the stars, the lights from shore, and once we watched from a distance as a fire dancer performed on the beach. But then we would, person by person, turn in on our bunks or fall asleep on deck. Once the sun began to lighten the sky in the morning, one at a time we would begin to stir, slowly coming out on deck. Our captain and the youngest on board always wanting to fish as the sun came up, everyone else coming on deck one by one as they awoke.

The most common sight as we cruised along were people laying around, awake but unmoving – or sometimes asleep – all over the boat. Sometimes there was an Uno or Phase 10 game going at the inside table. Sometimes we had music playing off someone’s phone and filling the boat. With nine of us on board, plus our captain, Dmitri, small groupings ebbed and flowed in different corners. Conversations starting, blending and fading, as we would organically join and shuffle.




If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it. Husband has been trying to convince me for years we could live on a boat. Now he’s worried I might just call his bluff. A semester as sea – I think that sounds rather nice, actually.

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For this trip, we sailed on Meridian, an airbnb rental, with our captain, Dmytry. <<<CLICK HERE>>> to go to the listing for the Meridian.
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Great experience soak it up
Thailand seemed to be haunting me lately… Been planning to visit and never complete it. This post of yours is pretty convincing, such a relaxing trip you got here!
God bless!
JM Kayne | #InMyHeart♥
I was really impressed, there was so much to do! We spent some time in the islands, sailing around, and then at a resort on Koh Chang. That was wonderful relax & hang in the sun time. Then we spent some time in Bangkok and got to see the city side of Thailand. Great trip, I highly recommend it!
What an awesome boat!!! Sounds like a fab adventure 🙂
Cannot speak highly enough of Dymytry and the Meridian. We had an absolutely wonderful time. For our first time sailing, couldn’t have asked for a nicer trip.
Looks like a lovely thing to do, and yeah one does get accommodating when one cant do much about it. Like the limited space in this case.
😀 We just had to decide we were going to be happy with all of it, and relax and enjoy. It really wasn’t as big of a deal as I was worried it might be. Thankfully we were all good friends!
How cool experience! Have to be so amazing live an experience like this in a wonderful place like Thailand. I did many holidays in boat but more little so I know the problem of the space haha anyway cool adventures, especially for your kids.
Can we stay in touch! kiss kiss from Italy!
Aw! You’re in Italy! My husband teases me that if I ever run off, the first place he’ll look is Italy, so there’s no hiding from him. 😀 Italy is one of my favorite places, and for our 20th anniversary, we spent time in both Venice and Florence. For our 10th anniversary we were in Capri & Rome. Such a beautiful and diverse country!!
Looks wonderful. We have something similar here in Turkey. It’s called Gullet tours.
Always wanted to join.
Thanks for awesome post