Returning from the similan islands the boat I was on went to a different port than the one I left from. I had asked an american girl working on theboat where I should stay and she offered me the floor of her hallway. The hallway was quite wide. So with nothing left to worry about I headed to Khao Lak.
Nomi (who takes videos of snorkelers on day trips so gets to snorkel every day) lives in a thai neighbourhood and it was interesting to see what the average home could look like. A narrow apartment, with an open room, a closed bedrooom and a small kitchen, no fridge. And a carpark. I stayed for 2 nights making plans to go to Surin...the boats were full on the first day. The town was very expensive and there are a number of resorts up the beach... I had no idea this was around...
I arrived at the surin islands and was hoping for better luck with my tent. It turned out they had a whole campground for people with tents and it was also 80 baht, under 3 dollars a night. There is some snorkelling form the beach and they do 2 trips a day for 2 hours each to other places that are spectacular.
After 3 days I went top another campground which had more travellers, every one in tents... It was relaxing, there was a mangrove forest, dry in low tide and knee deep in high. In high tide you can walk into the mangrove area and see baby sharks swimming around your feet! They are no dangerous but the bigger ones are scary.
Look in the topright corner of the pic below
On one snorkel trip, I was in a shallow area and 3 meters away a shark swam by... It was only 1.5m but big enough to lok fierce although it is mostly harmless...
On other trips I saw giant eels and an octopus along with forests of coral and a really weird crab...
There are many hermit crabs here,
Hanging out on the beach... The tides came in right up to the hammocks
There were many Koreans travelling around this area, and I learned a little of Korea...
The local boats...
