Tuesday 15 March 2011

Don't make me Ang Thong...



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?



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



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


Next stop: Wua Ta Lap