On the third leg of our Thailand trip, we went south to the third largest island of Thailand, Ko Samui (or Koh Samui). Ko or Koh means island in Thai. Ko Samui is located on the “east” coast in the Gulf of Thailand. The better known island in Thailand, Phuket is on the “west” coast in the Anderman sea. While we were staying on Ko Samui, we took two speedboat trips to some of the nearby islands. We went to Ko Tao and Ko Nang Yuan on the first day, and the Ang Thong marine national park on the second day (see later post).
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A van came to pick us up at the hotel and took us to the departure point – it was just a short stretch of beach front and a pontoon. Our speedboat was equipped with 3 outboard motors producing a total of 750 hp.
On our way in the Gulf, we passed the island of Ko Pha Ngan – it is famous for its full moon beach party. Notice the beach on the bottom left ?
Our first stop was Ko Nang Yuan. The journey took about 1 hour 45 minutes from Ko Samui.
Ko Nang Yuan is a privately owned island and it charges each visitor an entrance fee of about $7 and prohibits anyone from bringing plastic bottle onto the island.
I think Ko Nang Yuan has the most beautiful beach I have ever set foot on. It is mesmerizing to watch the water.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyH7k5pyS4?rel=0&w=510&h=383]
The beach is essentially one idyllic sand bar connecting two small islands.
A big clump of rocks (almost a tiny island) in the middle of the sandbar serves as the landing site.
One side of the sand bars was just below water. Waves lap at your feet from both sides as you walk across it.There were a few bungalows by the beach.
We suspected that it was mid to low tide at the time when we crossed over.
A wooden walkway and concrete steps led me (Chris) up to a rock at the top where one can see all two and a half islands.
It was so hot and humid that within minutes I was soaking wet with sweat. Wisely, Sue did not climb and stayed in the shade.
The view from the top was worth the sweat and sunstroke.
Loved it.
We had lunch at Ao Mae (the main village) on Ko Tao – about 10 minutes boat ride from Ko Nang Yuan.
Leaving Ao Mae to snorkeling.
The focus of the trip was snorkeling as Ko Tao is very well known for the clarity of its water and the coral reef. And I had never seen such a variety of fishes as well as coral and other invertebrate marine life. This is the snorkeling site near Ao Mamuang – nothing to see up here.
For a while, I was swimming/drifting inside a school of colorful fishes. We could have rented an underwater camera but decided against it since we only had an hour at each location. So there won’t be pictures of fishes here. This place was definitely better than those locales we snorkeled in Cancun and Grand Cayman island. Ko Tao is supposedly one of the best and cheapest places to get scuba diving certification – we might return to try it on another trip.
This is the itinerary of our speedboat tour – In Sea.