SE Asia 2023

I wanted to do some exploring for my last full day on Koh Samui and signed up for a full-day boat tour of the local National Marine Park. The booking agent said , "If you haven't done this tour, then you haven't been to Koh Samui." That sounded pretty far fetched but I do love a National Park.

The pictures show calm waters and I have no idea what trick the camera was playing!

Four wild, middle-aged Italian women were in the van which took us 45 min to the Nathon Pier. I took this to be a good omen as I've met so many fun Italiens on this trip. At the pier we boarded an old looking red boat with about 80 other people. There was a washroom and some seats in the bottom of the boat, the main floor was open-air with small rails and tables for 8, and there was an upper deck with nice mats for catching sun and naps. Immediately I met nice folks. My little table-group included 4 sisters traveling together from the UK and young German couple. Many folks on the boat were considerably older than I, and some had mobility issues. We headed for the Angthong National Marine Park, 90 minutes away by boat. It was only 9:30am and the open water was already getting pretty rough. Uh-oh.

In addition to my tablemates, I did some hiking with a fun British woman and met a Danish sailor who reassured me throughout the trip that this was "just a breeze" and we were totally safe on the water. There were many nice people on this tour. I think the scary seas brought us closer together!

Our initial stop was Mae Koh Island where we would hike up to a salt-water lagoon called Talay Nai. By now the water was rough enough that we had to use the "plan-B" docks, even though we were in the relatively sheltered waters of the Park islands. But first we had to get off our rocking boat and get into an even more wobbly Longtail Boat. Difficult but I managed to get in and seated with some help from our lovely guides. However, that was nothing compared to getting out of the tippy little boat and onto a floating barrel dock that was like a bucking broncho! People were falling on the dock and a couple even fell into the water. One of the British sisters laid on the dock and refused to budge. (She eventually opted to jump in the water and swim/walk to shore.) I decided I would crawl. I just wanted to get there with dry feet and really didn't mind crawling. One thing this trip has taught me is to accept help and let go of appearing competent 😆. A guide helped me out of the boat and I dropped and crawled. One of the British sisters told me she was going to use me as a dog-guide and held on to my life jacket for balance 🤣. Fine - we were having fun. One of the guides saw this and seemed to feel he had failed at life and insisted on getting us up. We needed a guide on each side to get us to shore.

BTW - once I crawled several others thought that was a good idea too. Someone had to be the first.

Those guides were amazing. Us foreigners were falling all over the place while the guides just stood on the rocking boats in their bare feet, no problem. They practially carried half the people in and out of boats, and across those docks. It was so good to get to shore! We tried not to think about how we were going to get back to the big boat.

The "hike with stairs" to the lagoon was not for the faint of heart or body! It was pretty much climbing up a ladder - several ladders. Like don't miss a "step" or you're falling down a mountain, bouncing along the metal "stairs" on the way. Sadly several people had to sit on the shore and couldn't even attempt the trek up. Definitely a "3 points of contact at all times" kind of a climb. Climbing this way was actually easier for me than the huge stone steps on so many other hikes and temples. I climbed with the British woman because her hubby was on a waitlist for knee replacements and had to stay at the beach. We had fun and got to the top, where we agreed the view was nice but certainly not life-changing. We could see into the lagoon and had an overview of the other islands. It was so windy even the lagoon, at the bottom of steep cliffs and totally sheltered, had waves! When it was time to go back down i set another trend of going down like a ladder, facing into the steps rather than risking a big tumble by treating them like stairs. Others then did the same. (NB this tour had many elderly people.)

Getting across the docks and into the boats was even worse by now and the guides had their work cut out for them, getting us all back to the big boat. Many of us were bruise and a few were even bleeding from crashing against the wooden bench-seats in the Longtail Boats. A delicious lunch awaited us and I was surprise to find the rubber-bottomed dishes didn't slide overboard.

Then it was time to head to our second destination, Wua Ta Lap Island, where we were supposed to hike, swim, snorkel, and chill on the beach. Due to even rougher seas and more wind now, visibility in the water was zero - no snorkeling. It was too wavy and windy to enjoy swimming; not one person did so willingly (just the ones who fell off the dock). Also the weather meant we had to take the "Plan-B docks" again because the regular ones were too dangerous. However we would hike through the woods to the main beach and trail and then depart from the regular docks. As much as I wanted to hike to the top of the island, I opted to stay on the boat rather than suffer an even worse sea/LTB/bucking dock experience. Several others stayed on board as well. Upstairs it was more like gentle little massage. I made a friend and then had a lovely nap in the sun. No FOMO here - i was totally happy with my choice. I figured I'd save my adrenaline for the trip back to Koh Samui which was sure to be terrifying. People told me they wish they'd stayed too as the docks were much worse, the hike to the main beach was huge rock steps, and it was so windy at the top they couldn't stay to enjoy the view. Even the fit Millenials had a hard time.

Getting back to the mainland was scary for most of us. The Dane and my brain knew we were safe but my adrenals weren't buying it 😬. It took almost 3hr to get back and the sun was setting. Naila was worried as we were to be back at 5, not 7. I couldn't take out my phone to message her as I was afraid it would end up in the sea. I was sure glad to stand on the earth again!

In spite of the hardships, this was a fun day and I'm glad I went. The scenery was nice and the people were a riot, sharing lots of laughs and lots of stories. The guides and staff were wonderful. But I wouldn't do it again.Read more