Day 9 of The Big Adventure according to Sarah and Lauren. Ooh-err.

We woke up early because the bus for our snorkelling day of fun was coming at 8am -eurgh. Feeling fresh but not refreshed because of the lack of air con in this particular guesthouse. 

   We hopped on the bus and collected our fellow tour mates and then headed down to the pier where we were each given our own snorkel and mask. Lauren read a review that the company had previously left an old man behind and only realised when they were a mask and snorkel short at the end. Worrying. Reassuringly we were given numbered wristbands and wrote down our names. 

 We boarded the vessel along with a surprising number of others – around 50! Which was a bit of a shock after our intimate group on the Eco nature tour of 6.

We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the sea breeze as we cruised along to our first stop: Shark Bay. The guy introduced where we were, in a heavy Thai accent that none of us could understand, and that we’d stop for 30 mins at each site and then sent us on our snorkelling way. 

We eyed up the tallest jumping platform, located on the very top of the boat and decided that we’d tackle it later. We opted for the perhaps softer version of taking the stairs. Despite the name, there was a distinct lack of sharks, but we did see some shoals of brightly coloured fish. After what seemed like 10mins, the boat was tooting its horn to signal us to reembark. As we got on, they checked our wristbands numbers against a list, which reassured us that no one would be left behind. However, this propylene stopped at all the other sites – not so reassuring. So we had to keep one eye on the boat at all times. 

At the third site, we plucked up the courage (after about half an hour of flapping) to jump off the top of the boat. Here’s how it went down…

The snorkelling trip basically took us the whole way round the island and made half an hour stops at 4 sites and the last stop was at Koh Nang Yuan – a beautiful national park that had a beautiful sand bar where you could walk across the water between 3 different islands.   

  

The water was an amazing crystal clear turquoise and the sand was pristine white with some washed up prices of coral. We found ourselves a couple of deck chairs and an umbrella and had a little rest in the sun. 

  Lauren, being the keen bean that she is, decided it was time for more snorkelling  fun so we headed back into the water to ogle and all the beautiful marine life. 

 Before we knew it, time was up and we had to head back to the boat which took us back to the original pier where we had to give back our mask and snorkel – lucky everyone was still present. 

  There  was unlimited fresh pineapple and watermelon as refreshments so we replenised ourselves as we headed back to the Jolly Guesthouse . 

We got home knackered and had a nice shower and lie down and decided to finish Laurens HUMUNGOUS portion of risotto from the night before for dinner. 

We sleepily headed upstairs to find that our room was directly opposite a Muay Thai boxing ring, where there was apparently a rather rowdy fight taking place. Too tired to care we drifted off to sleep to the dulcet tones of punches being thrown.