Name that island!

The Marine Reserve islands are all named. Some gain their name from their resemblance to a specific thing. So, King Kong Island has a resemblance to a big gorilla, and Sleeping Buddha Island, as the name suggests looks a little like a sleeping Buddha. That said, not everyone has the creative vision necessary to "see" the resemblance so I will let you decide for yourself! King Kong Island, with a visual clue courtesy of my visit to Sydney Zoo.

Sleeping Buddha Island

Needless to say I then started seeing "faces" everywhere, rocky outcrops, clouds, much to Frank's amusement.

4.2.2013

Monkey Island

Next island stop was "monkey" island within the Angthong Reserve.

This island is set up for paragliding, catamaran hire and camping, however if you are very lucky you might also see Thai monkeys in the wild. A nice change from the macaques chained up at the monkey show, or the tiny gibbon baby we saw in Chaweng. The scam there being to pay to have your photo taken with the sweet little baby. Ethical issue for me being that the baby was probably no more than six weeks old and should still have been with mum, not hanging off some tourist! Anyway, we didn't see any monkeys, however did see beautiful black butterflies with white detail, and red flashing from under their wings. So, even though I took a dive getting from the boat to the beach, the injury I sustained was worth it.

I had to get cleaned up at the camp site first aid hut and had to sign my name in the First Aid book. Not everyone gets to do that! 4.2.2013

Lake Island

We stopped at one island known for its interior lake. The challenge is the "staircase" you have to climb to access the top of the island to look down into a view the lake. I use the term staircase loosely. Ladder might be more appropriate. It was extremely steep, with rungs being a better description than steps. You even descended backwards as you would a ladder.

The lake looked amazing, but it is inaccessible, so you expend the effort to look only.

If you want to swim, you paddle at the ocean edge, navigating the tourists who arrive from larger boats via smaller traditional Thai longboats, packed to the gunnels with tourists. I was ever so thankful to have just the crew, Frank and I on our boat. Tourist pack mentality seems to ensure the loss of manners, which I find hard to tolerate.

4.1.2013

Marine Reserve

It is an incredible thing to swim with, and hand feed, fishes. This was just one of the highlights of our day. We took the opportunity to explore the Marine Reserve off Koh Samui so hired a boat for the day. Daeng, our local guide put us onto the Captain, who is a mate of his brothers. Given Daeng's brother manages a dive company, a good contact to have. The boat is available for diving tours or day trips. With 42 islands in the reserve, 17 of them are considered large. Many of them you visit for a specific purpose, like to snorkel or kayak. So, first stop for us this morning was within the cove of the best island for snorkelling. Hence the opportunity to feed the fishes. Daeng had very kindly stopped to get some bread on his way to pick us up, and it turned out to be the perfect thing to attract the fishes.

Using a mask and snorkel even I was able to see the fishes as they came right up to you, literally bumping into you in the frenzy to eat. Two main varieties were there in numbers, one a striped variety, the other a little less common was a spotted species. Not knowing my Thai fishes I am unable to identify the species at this stage. We did however have lots of fun and I am determined to try snorkelling again at some stage. 4.2.2013