Ang Thong Marine Park

This afternoon I lunched on Thai food with a group of friends from my XANGO days. The flavors reminded me of a tupperware curry lunch I had on a remote beach in the Ang Thong Marine Park last May.

Taan, from Pacific World DMC, showed me around the Island of Koh Samui for two or three days. On day two we launched from Bo Phut Beach for a day trip to the marine park.

Monsoon season was starting to threaten, but with the threat of a choppy sea and rain we forged on ahead.

See the rocks in the distance? That group of limestone islands on the horizon is the Ang Thong Marine Park. It took us about an hour to get there from Koh Samui.

The Ang Thong is a collection of island mountains that float above the turquoise water.

Plenty of package tours leave from Koh Samui every day. They usually offer sea kayaking, snorkeling, and lunch on a secluded beach. I was oh so lucky to have a private speed boat, it probably took these guys 3 hours to get out there.

Next, we stopped at Koh Wua Talap, an island famous for a hidden mountain lake. From the beach a series of precarious stairs take you to a viewing platform.

Voila! The hidden lake. 

We saw a couple of rare birds in this tree. Wish I could remember their names.

After Wua Talap we set off for a private beach where we played with sea cucumbers-whose vomit proved to be rather viscous-and then whiled away the afternoon napping and stuffing ourselves with Thai curry.