To finish my Thaisland hopping tour on a high note from which only disappointment, misery and death can follow, I took a day trip from Koh Samui to Ang Thong National Marine Park - a collection of 42 unspoiled, protected islands that are about as close as you're likely to get to paradise. Considering heaven doesn't exist, obviously (what are you, five?)
The approach
Definitely another entry for my list of favourite journeys, editing down these beauty shots of the 90 minute trip from Koh Samui to Ang Thong felt like reducing the Mona Lisa to 800x600 resolution to save disk space, or adapting an ace Alan Moore graphic novel into a shit film. But I wouldn't want to use all your bandwidth - and you'll get the general idea.
Some of these islands are practically 2-D, as if they're the spines on an underwater Stegosaurus
Approaching Mae Koh Island.
Wait a minute… if I'm in that boat, how did I take this picture?
Wait a minute… if I'm in that boat, how did I take this picture?
Round the rugged rocks
Some show-offs
If this was a film, there would be a triumphal orchestral swell as the destination is revealed.
But who would set a film here?
Mae Koh Island
I chose not to kayak - fun as drowning would be, I didn't want to miss the buffet lunch
Crossing the Styx
Talay Nai salt water lagoon. How much more turquoise could it be?
The answer is: none. None more turquoise
The answer is: none. None more turquoise
They wouldn't let me swim in it, so have a photo instead
Departing Mae Koh. Here are some more cool rocks
Uh-oh! Rogue kayak crisis.
But where are its passengers? Or is it a wild kayak?
How will our intrepid hero get out of this scrape? Tune in tomorrow, when the kayak is probably pushed out of the way or something and we carry on. I don't know, I was at the buffet
But where are its passengers? Or is it a wild kayak?
How will our intrepid hero get out of this scrape? Tune in tomorrow, when the kayak is probably pushed out of the way or something and we carry on. I don't know, I was at the buffet
Next stop: Wua Ta Lap
