Blogs from Ang Thong Marine NP, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

The Beach Bobbing along on this rickety boat, we couldn't fathom there being anyone else in the world. Turning in every direction, the excited blue sky blanketed us; the harbour rapidly morphed from a busy port, to a speck of grey, to an enchanting mist. Everything would disappear in a moment behind the wake of the boat. Shockingly beautiful, randomly placed rock formations would rise up infront of our eyes, quickly to recede again into the velvet mist. This stunning national treasure was protected so- Ang Thong National Marine Park. Looking at the film, 'The Beach', you'd see parts of it were filmed in amongst these rocks, in the crevaces of the caves, and above the breathtakingly real lime waters circling a mysterious chemistry of lime rocks. So, Mr. DiCaprio would have sailed these waters, ... read more

Fortunately for us, the Lompraya ferry from Koh Tao offers a "take you to your hotel" ground service which was great, as I had booked the "Easy Time" on the opposite side of the island from where we arrived. The Easy Time had "pick up service", but it was the last thing on Massimo's mind, to pick us up. He was way too busy running the hotel, which he had designed. The restaurant, bar and computer were all open air and outside, no locks on anything. It was a great place and we also enjoyed Massimo, who was half Armenian and half Italian and had two foot long dreadlocks. What a wonderful restaurant. I had lasagne and Dane had a calzone, both meals remarkable. We really did not have enough time to enjoy Samui like we ... read more

The title says it all. This is a wonderful place. To arrive here you have to ride a boat. Our trip was a long one because we took a slow boat that took us round to other places. Our trip was about 8 hours but we stopped to snorkel, kayaking , swimming sunbathing and eating. It was a nice trip although I had a serious hang over. Its nice to spend your days with such activities. How we new about this place?? Here was part of a movie called "the beach" of Leonardo de Caprio. The first time I came to Thailand I only new about Phi phi island that was in that movie , this was all new for me. Here is an island with a big basen inside it. For farangs the way on ... read more

The day started off pretty early on a very posh but very very full speed boat. It was the most expensive trip we have been on so far and possibly the worst but we still had a good day. The first bay we pulled in to snorkel at was absolutely packed with about 10 boats and lots of snorkellers, as our boat reversed the motors went straight into the face of a japanese lady who was in the sea, it was not a pretty sight and slightly un-nerving! The snorkelling was ok but i made a hasty retreat to the boat as it was more like a boat park! After this we weaved in between some of the 41 uninhabited islands and then made our way to a deserted beach (Along with the other 50 people ... read more

By 7:30 am we were on our way to Ko Ang Thong Marine Park, which also happens to be where the book "The Beach" was set, and for good reason! This 42 island archipelago is a national park about 2 hours by ferry from Koh Samui. There are many tours that head there during the day, but very few, like our group, are lucky enough to spend the night. In total we spent 3 nights on this secluded paradise! There were a couple of short hikes/scrambles that I did: one to the "View Point", where I was able to see the entire group of islands! The other was climbing through a cave, which was magnificent! Once you got over the heat it was amazing to see the rock formations and the forest peaking through at the ... read more