Ang Thong Marine Park

While in Koh Samui we couldn't skip the water and the beaches completely (after all, it's what the island is famous for). We heard about the Ang Thong Marine Park and decided it would be worth a tour. We booked our boat tour, which picked us up bright and early at 7:15 am! We ended up waiting quite a while at the beach for the rest of the passengers to be picked up, but eventually we hopped on the boat for the one hour ride out to the marine park.

Our first stop was for some snorkeling. The equipment they gave us wasn't the best (there were no fins and the snorkels tended to leak!) but we made the best of it and got a few cool pictures.

After snorkeling we hopped back on the boat and toured through the numerous limestone formations that make the park famous.

Our next stop was a at Koh Mae (the Mother Island). The island had a small beach, which was great, but we were more excited to hike up to Talay Nai, the lagoon inside the mountain. The lagoon is a salt water lake about 120 feet above the beach. It is surrounded by gorgeous limestone cliffs and is emerald green in color (it's sometimes called Emerald Lake). It was a the hike up was not bad, except that the island was very crowded and it was HOT outside! Once we reached the lake we snapped a few pictures, but then realized there was a lookout even higher up which afforded some great views of the whole marine park.

After Koh Mae we were ready for lunch. Out boat docked at a restaurant located in a tiny village. After we ate we were able to explore the village a bit more to see how the locals live.

We then hopped back on the boat and headed to another beach where our kayaks were waiting. We kayaked around the island and around some of the limestone formations.

After about an hour we beached the kayaks and had fun swimming in the bay.

As the afternoon was quickly coming to a close we hopped back on the boat and headed back to Koh Samui! The tour guides joked that anyone who slept on the trip back would have to pay 500 baht. Luckily they were just kidding or Jeff would have had to pay up!

Koh Samui Safari

Several weeks ago, on another of Jeff's long offs, we flew to Koh Samui for a few days of relaxation. We had done the beach/boat thing on our trip to Phuket, so we wanted to try something a little different in Koh Samui. We decided to spend a day taking a "safari" around the island. The tour took us to some of the major tourist sights while also teaching us a lot about the culture and the economy on Koh Samui.

Our guide Pat picked us up nice and early from the hotel in what we here in Pattaya call a Baht bus. These"buses" constantly drive around the city and you simply hop on and off where ever you need to. Each ride is only 10 Baht (the Thai currency), so there you have the name. The vehicles aren't exactly buses though. They are more like pick-up trucks with open air seats and a roof in the back.

As soon as we hopped on, Jeff instantly noticed Goldy Gopher (University of Minnesota's mascot) staring at him. What are the odds that our tour guide who lives on a remote Thai island would be wearing a hat from our alma mater! Pat said he didn't know where he got the hat and he didn't even know what it stood for, so of course Jeff quickly filled him in!

Our first stop on the safari was the monkey show. Here we saw monkeys who are trained to climb trees and remove coconuts. It was the cutest thing ever. The little monkeys were on leashes just like dogs and they seemed so proud when they knocked the coconuts down. After the show we posed for pictures with the monkeys, and got to see a baby monkey in training.We then hopped back on the bus and made our way to an elephant park to do some elephant trekking. We started off both riding in the seat with our driver on top of the elephant's head, but in the middle of the jungle our driver hopped down and told Jeff to take his place on the elephant's head. He was a little hesitant at first because it is so hard to keep your balance, but he quickly got the hang of it and was having a great time. After about five more minutes the guide told me to slide down and join Jeff on the elephant's neck. We rode the rest of our jungle trek like that and it was so much fun. We never knew that elephants were so hairy! After our trek we bought bananas and rewarded our elephant (we called him Stampy) for a job well done.As we were leaving we came across these two gorgeous dogs who were playing with a small snake. They kept biting and nipping at it, but you could tell they didn't want to actually kill it. They were having the best time (though I am not so sure the snake was in on the fun). We let them be and came back a few minutes later to find the dogs poking at the poor dead snake. They didn't want to eat him, they just wanted to play!

After this we drove deeper into the jungle to a small hut where we learned how to make authentic Thai yellow curry. The "finished" product you see is then cooked with coconut milk to make the liquid we are used to seeing.

We then walked down a small path to see how coconuts are smoked to create coconut oil for cooking and for beauty products.

We hopped back on the bus and headed to quite possibly the strangest tour attraction I have ever seen, the mummified monk. In the glass case you can see an actual monk, who was mummified in that position several decades ago. Pat told us that when he died they tried to burn his body but it wouldn't burn, so they thought he was sacred and mummified him. People come from all over to worship at his feet.

By this point we were getting hot and a little tired, so we were happy to learn that we would be hiking to Na Mueang Waterfall 2, the largest waterfall on the island. The hike up there was a little hot and sticky, but we were so happy when we got to jump into a small pool near the bottom. It wasn't very big, but it was really deep and FREEZING cold, which felt so good in the heat and humidity! Pat refused to jump in because he said it was just much too cold for him. Easy for him to say, he was wearing jeans and didn't sweat a bit!
After drying off we headed out to a really remote little artisan village where they turn coconut and palm wood into handicrafts. We watched this guy turn a chunk of wood into a beautiful goblet (the guy in the back is holding up the finished product). Of course there was a store at the village, so Jeff and I bought a mortar and pestle so we can make authentic curry when we get home.

It was getting late in the afternoon, so it was a good time to stop for lunch. The food was great, and the view was amazing.

After we stuffed ourselves we hiked up to a scenic lookout where we could see a lot of the island and Angthong Marine park. The views were incredible. We were able to see how much of the island is covered with coconut plantations, a HUGE part of the economy in Koh Samui. Seriously, everything there revolves around the coconut!

Our last stop for the day was the Secret Buddha Garden. This sculpture garden was so amazing and was filled with sculptures of both humans and Buddhist deities.

While we were exploring the gardens Pat went off and picked some beautiful tropical flowers. He bound them together and made a beautiful (and huge) bouquet for me. I guess its normal for tour guides to give each lady on the tour a small flower at the end, but since I was the only lady left at the end of the day I got a lot of flowers! They were so beautiful and Jeff and I loved smelling them in our room for the rest of the trip!

After the gardens we had about a 30 minute bus ride with Pat back to our hotel. We had a really good time talking to him about life in Thailand and about his views on the world. It was such an interesting day and we learned a lot about Thai culture!