A Four Island Tour, A Four Island Tour

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
The Skipper brave and sure.
Twenty passengers set sail that day
For a four island tour,
A four island tour.

We were picked up at our hotel at 8:20 and were carted across the island and back to the Old Town pier that we visited yesterday. We and twenty two other people set off in a large, wooden Thai long-tail boat for some snorkeling, touring and beach time on or around four of the islands on the eastern side of Koh Lanta.

As soon as the boat got into open water, we knew we were in for a rough ride. The swells were three to four feet high, the boat was rocking and rolling and those seated in the front of the craft were all treated to complimentary sea-water showers. After about forty-five minutes of this, several of the passengers were a little green around the gills when we arrived at our first stop Koh Cheok, where snorkeling was a little underwhelming. Because of the choppiness of the water it was very cloudy on the reef and visibility was poor. We saw a few fish, but nothing to get excited about.

After another twenty minutes of riding the waves, we arrived at Koh Mook where we had to swim 100 meters through a pitch black tunnel, guided only by a flashlight held by our guide. Emerging on the other end, we found a beautiful sandy beach and 360° liana-covered cliffs. We also found scores of other tourists who ruined any possibity of getting some nice photos. At least the one looking straight up at the sky turned out!

Thirty more minutes in the boat brought us to Koh Cheuk where the thirty minutes of snorkeling was a little better than our first stop, but nothing to write home about. Oh, wait. I am writing home about it?!?

Anyway, then we headed off to the last stop on our itinerary, Koh Kradan, where we had lunch and were told to enjoy ourselves as we pleased. Brenda and I decided to stroll along the beach, which was quite long, and enjoy the scenery. Before we set out, we wanted to ask our guide what time we'd be departing, but he was nowhere to be found. I asked another one of the crew, and he said, "Two hours here". SInce we arrived at 1:30, we figured we'd return for 3:00 and would have plenty of time to get back on the boat, which was anchored at about the middle of the beach. We sauntered down to one end of the beach, stopping to look at shells and chuckle at the antics of the hundreds of small crabs and hermit crabs we encountered. We then walked all the way down to the other end of the beach and just as we turned around, we saw our tour guide frantically waving at us. As it turns out, we were misinformed about the departure time which was actually scheduled for 2:30!!! The time was now 2:40 and we had a good twenty minute walk back to the boat. Our guide explained that he discovered our absence when he made a pre-departure head count and would have been fired had he left us marooned on the island.

Thank heavens he came for us, since I'm not sure what we would have done without The Professor there to help us through the night!Read more