Reader Story: Canoeing in Thailand

by Lee Fung

We went to Huay Tueng Tao Lake near Chiang Mai to enjoy paddling along the shore and go swimming a lot.

It was a hot, sunny morning. By the time we unloaded the boat and carried it to the lake, clouds began to cover the sky. We pushed the boat into the lake, waded in knee deep and climbed onboard.

My friend hopped in too fast and promptly fell into the water on the other side. Big laughter all round. He was the first to get soaking wet. Nevermind, canoeing is a watersport after all. We knew that soon we'll get wet one way or another. That's where the fun comes in.

We finally got going and paddled along the shore, splashing a lot as we went along. Soon we were soaked to the skin, all our clothes were dripping wet. We reached a small beach on the far side of the lake, with trees all around the shore. We jumped out of the canoe, pushed it ashore, and went for our first swim of the day.

Paddling in the Rain

During the rainy season it is not so hot, much better for canoeing. I enjoy canoe camping trips in the rain unlike most people. Like us, there are a number of folks who choose to go canoeing despite downpours of rain.

Paddling in the rain is beautiful, especially if there aren't any waves or lightning. It is mesmerizing to watch the rain drop onto the surface of the water and beautiful to see drops fall from the trees. The smell is fresh and everything looks greener in the rain.

Poncho Swim

We had some rain clothes floating in a puddle on the bottom of the canoe. To relax, we put on our ponchos and sat down in shallow water to enjoy the rain.

After a while of laughing and having fun we went for a swim along the shore. You'd be surprised how easy it is to swim in ponchos. They just glide along.

Whenever we saw something interesting, we left the water and checked it out. Then we went back in and swam a bit more. At one point we could go no further, so we got out and walked back to the canoe in the pouring rain. The ponchos were no longer waterproof, so enjoyed how the rain was soaking our clothes.

A lot of water had collected in the canoe which made it a bit unstable as we pushed it back into the lake. We climbed in and moments later fell into the water as we capsized. That was huge fun.

After we've emptied the canoe we paddled on in the rain along the shore line, exploring every little beach. It rained a lot harder now. Our clothes were heavy from the water running through, but we really enjoyed this.

Capsizing is such exciting fun. At every beach we stood up and leaned over until we fell in. We love swimming fully clothed, but falling in adds a lot to the thrill.

We went for another swim and splashed around until the rain stopped, just to relax. Ponchos are great fun for that. They feel so cosy in the water. On sunny days the ponchos give good sun protection when we go swimming.

Finally we put the canoes back on top of the car, spread the ponchos out to dry and changed into nice dry clothes, polo shirts and jeans.

One More Time

Relaxing in the sun we talked about our wet adventures and what we wanted to do next time. Maybe we would go up the mountain and get soaked under a waterfall. This got us quite excited again. We got a bit hot under the sun in our dry clothes, thinking about our wet adventures.

You probably guessed by now that there was only one solution, another swim. We had already changed into our dry clothes for the way home, but the urge to go into the water again was intense. We looked at each other, nodded with a knowing smile and ran back into the lake, soaking our jeans and polo shirts.