True Island Living

What a day. Yale and I have decided to stay here on this island instead of continuing south on the coast due to weather. Today we took a tour with about 20 others to Ang Thong National Marine Park, an archipelago consisting of 42 islands. The people on our tour were from everywhere imaginable…Italy, Germany, Ireland, Thailand, Japan, Canada, and even a couple from Brooklyn! Yesterday was kind of cloudy so I was praying for sunshine for the outdoor water day. Fished my wish! It was gorgeous! It was about an hour boat ride zipping across the emerald water to our first stop where we snorkeled for about an hour. The water was really shallow with tons of coral so you had to be careful. Don’t worry mom, you’re not missing anything, Belize was better.

After driving, or rather boating around more of the islands we stopped to see emerald lake – a mountainous lagoon where the water is unnaturally green. It was like Swiss Family Robinson climbing up, over, and through the jungle to get multiple views.

After the lake hike we were off to our own island where the staff made us a Thai lunch. It was remarkable – we were the only ones there on an absolutely beautiful island. We had a couple minutes to waste before lunch was prepared so Yale and I played coconut golf – the palm trees were our holes. Ummmm, yeah. I lost. We were then treated to fresh coconut milk – one of the staff scampered up a palm tree and picked the coconuts himself. I think I like coconut flavoring better…fresh coconut milk isn’t my favorite, but good for a picture.

Our next stop was another island – can’t remember the name, they all sound the same. We went kayaking for about an hour all around the island. Mom, you would have loved it. I had memories of when you kayaked in the crocodile lake in Belize. The water was beautiful and we explored rock crevasses and inlets. We were much better kayaking than canoeing! Back to the boat and on our way back. We were all sunburned and tired – it was a long ride back. Overall it was an amazing day and well worth the money for the tour. I just went next door for some aloe – yup, you could say I’m sunburned…