Lipa Noi

Woke up with it absolutely pouring with rain, just the perfect weather for a boat trip! We packed our bags including our rain macs.

We had just a coffee for breakfast, during which we had some entertainment, when another guest was enquiring about getting a taxi to a beach. The German owner told him that they were very expensive & he should hire a scooter. The guest told him that he couldn’t ride a scooter & instead he would walk to Sairee Beach. The guest then got up from the table & we saw that to our shock he had one of those old fashioned black boots, that had a built up sole at least 9” high. Good luck with that walk!

At 9.40am we were picked up by taxi & driven 300 metres to Diamond Tours. We waited nearly 30 minutes before everyone had arrived & then we walked down to the pier to board the boat.

The first stop was the islands of Koh Nang Yuan, which were 3 islands connected by sand spits. These islands were yet another National Park requiring an entrance fee of 200 baht each. We were told that we could not snorkel here, but we should climb up to the viewpoint. We did, but unfortunately we were at the back of the other trippers from our boat & when we got to near the top we were stuck in a log jam, whilst some Thai tourists took seemingly hundreds of photos of each other before moving on. We had to wait for what seemed like ages, before we took a few snaps & headed down. After wandering around the whole island we still had 30 minutes to kill so Jackie insisted on buying 2 very expensive small Changs.

Back on the boat we were provided with lunch, spicy chicken, rice & a fried egg. I was still feeling a bit queasy & couldn’t face it, but made do with lots of watermelon & pineapple.

We then chugged to literally about 50 yards from Koh Nang Yuan dock & were told we would now be stopping for 40 minutes for snorkelling. The crew insisted we wore life jackets which were an absolute revelation, We had always viewed them as being for wimps, but they made snorkelling so much easier.

We both snorkelled in the clear calm waters & apart from the usual fish, it was good to see some bright coloured coral. I stayed out for the full 40 minutes.

We then stopped off Mango Bay & Aow Leuk, each for 40 minutes, before to what promised to be the highlight, Shark Bay & it’s Black-Tip sharks. We dropped anchor & then Jackie & I set off in search of sharks in the slightly murky waters. Unfortunately we didn’t & nor did anyone else find a shark, but we did find 3 large green sea turtles. One was enormous, 4 foot in length & had 2 remora, also known as sucker fish accompanying it.

After Jackie had seen the turtles, she returned to the boat, but I continued swimming around searching for those elusive sharks. At one point I had the fright of my life when I turned round to see a large turtle swimming just under the surface & almost bump into my leg. I desperately tried to turn my camera on as I watched him swim away. I tried to chase after him, but I couldn’t catch up.

It was then that I realised that I was out in the bay on my own. I looked back at our boat in the distance & saw Jackie frantically waving for me to return. Keen not to hold the boat up, I swam front crawl back to the boat, which was definitely not easy with a life jacket, mask and my snorkel flapping around my head!

We completed the clockwise circumnavigation of the island at 5.20pm. It had been an excellent boat trip all for just 500 Baht, about £12 each. Hopefully we will have some decent photos of the turtle sent to us taken by a crew member.

We were absolutely knackered having snorkelled for nearly 3 hours & stopped for a couple of well earned Changs on the way home.

That evening, we rode over to Sairee Beach & had dinner at the Blue Water Cafe. Jackie ordered the house burger & I ordered beef taco. Jackie’s burger was nice but the rest was pretty disappointing because it was cold. We were too hungry & tired to complain.

Song of the Day: Island in the Rain by The Men They Couldn’t Hang.
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