Sunday July 23, 2006: Ang Thong Marine National Park

We were up very early getting ready to go snorkeling- in fact we almost missed the shuttle van... okay, I almost missed the van. We had to have all our stuff out because we were going to miss check-out, so we left our bags with the front desk and left for our tour. We met up with about 25 other people at a dock on the north side of Koh Samui. We were given blue ribbons to wear around our wrists while the rest of our group had pink ribbons. I surmised we were the only ones to opt-out of the kayaking portion of the trip. We had a quick breakfast and boarded our motorboat for a 45 minute journey to Ang Thong Marine National Park. The boat ride was full of amazing views. Ang Thong (pronounced Ayeng Tong) is a group of about 40 small islands, most of which are uninhabited, and uninhabitable. We stopped at one such island and were allowed to go snorkeling. There wasn't much instruction other than to stay off the coral and only stand on white sand. We donned our snorkels and masks and jumped in! I had only been snorkeling in a swimming pool in high school, so this was amazingly beautiful! There were so many different species of fish swimming around, I reall felt like I was in an aquarium. The water wasn't blue-green, but it was definitely clear. The coral almsot looked fake. There were huge mounds of caramel colored coral with bits of sea life all around it. The fish were every color of the rainbow, and some even looked like a rainbow. A few times I dove under and got a real close-up of the fish and some anemones. There were large, black spikey 'plants' that looked sharper than a needle. The water was aout 10' deep or more near the boat, and about 40 yards to shore. I was very suprised how effortless snorkeling is. I remembered from high school that you don't need to kick, only breath regularly and move yourself along with your arms. It was quite peaceful and the fish hardly noticed I was around. We snorkeled for 45 minutes- 1 hour and then boarded the boat again. Upon boarding, a large school of silver fish hung out underneath the boat. That was pretty cool to see from underwater. Also, as we were running out of time snorkeling, two or three other rour boats came to our exact location. I'm so glad we were there first and had the whole area to only share with the fish. The last 10 minutes or so was unbelievably crowded. Children in life-jackets clung to their parents and were excessively loud and boisterous.
We then continued through the Marine National Park to another island. This particular island was special because the water came up through the inlets in the rock and created a lagoon in the middle. We climbed a bunch of stairs and found connecting wooden stairways up to a little view point. From here we could see the surrounding islands and a beautiful view of the lagoon below. We climbed back down and went to another view point, really close to the lagoon. We were able to see where the water fills in the lagoon. There were fish and coral and the like in the inlets as well. The water in the lagoon was a magnificent sea-green and the lush jungle all around it made for beautiful pictures and memories of paradise. We then boarded our boat, I had the help of Timmy, our Thai tour guide, and set off for the third island of our trip, translated to mean "Sleeping Cow". Here we enjoyed a buffet lunch. The rest of our tour went on a guided kayaking trip, while Liz, Todd, and I set off on a hike to the top of the island. What started off as a nice stroll through the woods, quickly became a daunting task. the trail often featured ropes to assist in climbing. We were all wearing flip-flops, so that also didn't help. I was really amazed there were no warnings about the difficulty or dangers involved on this "hike". On some portions of the climb, thre was little to hold on to and below were very dangerous rocks. Little children and families with elderly grandparents were climbing the trail to the top. The temperature was also extremely hot. Along the way we saw monkeys climbing in the trees. One mother clutched the baby monkey and just stared at us. It was too cool seeing monkeys in the wild. The very top was exceptionally difficult to climb. We made it to the top, but were very sweaty and very surprised at how hard we had to work. At the top the view was astonishing. We could see so many of Ang Thong's islands, the white sand beaches, and the open water. It was just gorgeous! We relaxed a bit at the top to catch our breath, cool off, and take in the archipelago below. The top consisted of a small wooden platform, uncovered. There were other peaks around us but appeared dense with trees, no viewing platforms. We made our way down with some Hawaiian fellows. As we neared the end of he hike, we ran for the beach and couldn't cool off fast enough. We had a soda while hanging out in waist deep water, a white sand beach behind us ladden with palm trees and lush jungle greens all around. This was paradise!
We finally headed back to Koh Samui, had dinner at a restaurant along the beach after outdoor showers at Lawana's guest house. We then drove our rental car back to the airport. We left paradise around 9:30pm, but our hearts are still there... ha! :)