I met Jolina and Robin at their room before 7am, and we walked along the beach to the restaurant, where the owner now knew us pretty well. She’s a super happy lady, and makes some amazing food. We had arranged for our pickup to be at the restaurant and, ten minutes earlier than scheduled, our driver arrived. Young teenager, in a Bob Marley t-shirt, with a nice new truck – tourism must pay well. The tour is a family run affair, from what I could gather.
Some of the other tourists we were to pick up were very late in getting ready, to the driver’s and our own dismay. We finally got everyone on the truck and sped south to the southern beach where we were to catch our longtail boat.
The first island was about an hour and a half away. We had a small group on the boat, about 12 people, but unfortunately at the first stop there were about 100 screaming Chinese tourists already in the water. The first stop was Ko Mook, I believe. No beach, just vertical limestone rising out of the water. We snorkeled there for a bit. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but once the Chinese left the water, the visibility improved, and there were quite a few fish. Some yellow and black striped fish seemed quite curious and got pretty close.
The next stop had a better selection of fish, but not in huge numbers. We snorkeled around there for a bit, then headed to the Emerald Cave. The Chinese tour was ahead of us and already filing into the water – single file, following their guide. Our guide (who had done no guiding up to this point) told us to follow him, and with little organization we jumped off the boat, and did our best to keep up (he had flippers, which is an unfair advantage, me thinks).
We swam, following our guide into the cave, the water taking on a green glow, and reached a point where seeing two feet in front of our faces was an impossibility. The guide turned on his flashlight and sped off again. We winded our way through the cave, before spotting some light ahead. We followed the light, and were rewarded with a spectacular hidden beach. The beach was fully enclosed by the limestone around it. Trees grew here and there, and the sun shone from above, but the only access to the lagoon was through the cave. It was probably the nicest thing I’ve seen on the trip thus far, but sadly I was unable to bring my camera along for the swim.
We had lunch and some fruit on the boat after the cave. Much needed after a day of swimming in the hot sun. We headed to Ko Hai next. Ko Hai was a beautiful, quiet beach. We had an hour to swim and snorkel, but stayed for closer to two hours, for some reason. Not many fish to see, but the water was very clear. If I head back to a Thailand island, and want to do nothing but sit on a beach, Ko Hai might do the trick. It was pretty nice, as far as beaches go.
The boat dropped us off outside our hostel, so we had to wade through the water to shore, our bags over our heads. It was the nicest day in Asia so far, and definitely a good day to be at sea.
We had dinner at our usual spot in the evening, and each had our own pineapple for dessert. I also arranged my boat to Railay Beach for the morning. Not much happening at the resort, so I read (must finish book!) and got some sleep, surprisingly not as tired as I thought I’d be.
