Speedboats, Ellies & ATV's

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I had taken notice of all the speedboats out on the water on previous days that we'd been out to Sea, and having grown up vacationing with my cousins who had a boat...memories of wind whipped hair, rosy cheeks and pure summer-fun exhaustion from skiing and tubing all day were enough to set my next plan in motion. This was also the last day my mom would be here, and she too is an avid boat rider, so we go ahead and book the trip on 'The Jazz' to swiftly drive us to Ang Thong National Marine Park.

Here's where my problem is...cause you didn't think I wasn't gonna have one with the way I strolled down memory lane and all, did you? Well, I had expectations, so shoot me. These expetations were formed from previous knowledge of well... what a speedboat is. Coupled with the fact it was more expensive to take the "Speedboat" vs. the "Luxury Boat" which would also take 2 more addtional hours than the former, I learned 5 hours is about Shaun's limit. Again we are picked up by a taxi van at the break of dawn who drives like he's mad, and carted to Bophut Beach (which by the way is a very cool little part of the island, very quaint, great beach, good food, not too crowded) only to sit at the dock for another hour or so waiting for more and more taxis to keep dropping people off. Now the crowd at this little pier is topping 20, then 25, then hmmm, is this about 40 people I count? Surely, there must be 2 even 3 boats all leaving from here today, except the same guy that offered us coffee and croissants from the makeshift table is now offering those people the same, and then more of those people over there are grazing my tours' breakfast...well, even though there's only one boat docked out there, I'm sure it's not the boat that I'm getting on, much less the rest of these people, cause that thing is huge, with three engines and bench seating up and down each side, like they're gonna pack us in like sardines and the beast looks like it could be out to sea for weeks and have enough stow-away area for a crew of 10.

"Ladies and Gentleman, ladies and gentleman, please may I have your attention? We are now boarding 'The Jazz' to begin our day at Ang Thong Marine Park. Right this way please, everyone board the boat."

Great...all these people are getting on this boat. We were last to board...my hopes for sitting in the front with a fantastic view were crushed when I saw the mob of people start elbowing each other pushing their way up the line to secure one of eight seats at the bow. Next best thing was to be very last...to get the bench seat in the back. Once I stepped on the boat, I realized that no one was going to have a view. The semi-circle seating at the front was set so far down low that the sides of the boat were higher than their heads. Same with the inside riders...they couldn't see a thing. They were all forced to stare at each other for the rest of the day. At the back of the boat...well, our view was at least visible, the cramp in my neck finally went away.

Even though I thought this trip was expensive as it was, I would have been willing to pay more to have a bit more flexibility on the course, and I would have staked out the actual boat prior to booking to make sure we could see the surroundings for the whole day. First stop was a snorkling spot...where we were tied off to another boat of similar capacity and within 15 minutes of arriving, we had 2 more additional boats tethered to the otherside of us. At this point there's about 100 people all snorkling in the same vicinity, and well..after being kicked in the head and in the side twice, I climbed back aboard and ended up throwing bread crumbs to feed the fish below. Except I was aiming for peoples' heads and legs only to laugh histarically when the fish would swarm them and the swimmer would inevidably freak out, jerk their head around and suck salt water into their mouth piece, and then cough so hard their mask would fog up then gurgle out some foreign cursing. Good times.

The next stop was a little island where we could... "Enjoy 2 hour, 15 minute on beautiful beach, or climb stairs to view the lagoon." We decided to hurry and start the climb before the other boats that were probably just leaving the snorkel spot would get here. I'll just say, this was the most excercise we had the whole trip. The stairs were vertical, shallow, and plenty of them. I scrapped the back of my legs on the descent, that's how steep they were. I have very few pictures of this day, because I refuse to wait in a line of 40 people to get a perfect view and snap the same picture everyone else was taking. Yes, the lagoon was very pretty and it was worth it, there were just enough people with us to make it annoying though.

With similar random-ness...like running a laundry mat slash donut shop...the day ended with another Elephant show and ATV riding. The ellie's were cute, and I could have died on the ATV's...I guess since the excursion included life insurance, there's really no need for brakes.

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Photos

Lower view from the stairs
Yes, I waited in line to take these shots

Cool Tunnel
We kayaked too, at one of the little islands

Shaun swingin' away
we saw all the Japanese tourists giving the peace sign in their pictures, so we figured since we like Sushi and our dog has a Japanese name, we could do it too.

Shaun swingin' away
hahaha...oops