THE Beach

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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 top.
Joelle and I also decided to rent a kayak to explore some of the other islands. There were some really neat wildlife like birds on the cliffs & barracuda in the water. Unfortunately, there also was a lot of garbage on the beaches. Some other wildlife that we saw regularly was a group of gibbon? monkeys, which usually would let you know they were there by jumping on the roof and swinging down the tree to run across the field below.
During the evening electricity was only provided between 6-10, so we were able to eat and enjoy each other's company with light during that time. We actually were lucky enough to have the park director of Thailand there one night, and of course, karaoke was involved. After the lights went out each night, most people would head over to the beach for a swim in the water. The phosphorescence was incredible and apparently is some of the best in Thailand! Every movement looked as if you were glowing, and with the view of all the stars above, it was really spectacular.

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Photos

Islands
View from hike

Monkey
Monkey jumping off our roof