Day 31: Getting Back to Bangkok

I’m back in Bangkok now. I left Koh Samui this morning, sadly, and flew back to the capital.  I decided to stay near the riverfront this time around, at the Sheraton by the Riverside Shopping Center where there are plenty of shops and restaurants.

Once I settled into my hotel I decided to take a local boat over to the Wat Arun, which I wasn’t able to see my first time around in Bangkok.  It was easy enough to get to the Wat.  I needed to take two boats (one upstream, and one across the river) and while this sounds complicated it was actually one of the easier transportation systems I’ve had to navigate here.

View of river from the pier near my hotel

At the moment there is a ton of scaffolding around the main prang (tower) at Wat Arun, which is a pity, as there is quite a striking view of the building from the river. This also meant that several parts of the complex were off limits to visitors.

Wat Arun from the Chao Phraya river

However, it is still possible to walk around and take some close up shots of some of the smaller prangs and detailed porcelain tiles.

A smaller prang at Wat Arun

Detail of porcelain tiling

Detail of porcelain on the big prang at Wat Arun

The name Wat Arun means “Temple of Dawn.” This temple is located on the west side of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, and was built in the 18th century in the Khmer architectural style.  The main prang, which is currently being restored, is more than 80 meters high, and is the tallest prang in all of Thailand. Wat Arun is designated as one of six first class Royal Temples in the country, making it one of the most revered buildings in Thailand.

I spent about an hour around the Wat Arun complex, and then started my journey back on the boats. Before returning to my hotel I decided to take a walk through the Riverside shopping complex next door, which was fun.  There are plenty of antique stores there.  I am contemplating buying a lovely carved wooden bench that I saw. We’ll see if I can get up the courage to go for it before I leave. I’m very tempted.

Tomorrow I have one last full day tour and I just found out I have to get up at 5:30am (?!) for it to be ready for pick up shortly after 6am.  I will be going to Kanchanaburi to see the Death Railway, constructed mostly by forced labor during World War II and made famous by the film Bridge over the River Kwai.  More on that tomorrow.  Off to bed!

Day 30: Angthong National Marine Park

I decided to take a day trip today to the nearby Angthong National Marine Park. Located just northwest of Koh Samui, Angthong is an archipelago comprising 42 islands of various sizes, mostly rocky cliffs jutting out of the water. Several are larger and have dense vegetation and jungles on them. Others are just massive rocks crashing into the ocean.  It’s really quite a delight sailing through the many islands in this archipelago, as the visual effect is rather dramatic.

We started off the morning at the northern most part of the archipelago, to go snorkeling in pristine waters surrounded by massive cliffs and overhanging rocks.  It was amazing.  I saw much of the same fish and coral as yesterday at Koh Tao and Nangyuan, but it was great seeing these again. The waters are very calm around all these islands and it was like snorkeling in a big pool with awesome wildlife.

We snorkeled by these cliffs. At the bottom the rocks have eroded, so there is a rock overhang with lots of brightly-colored coral

After an hour in this location, we sailed our way south through the many islands in the park.  The scenery was absolutely stunning.

Sailing south in Angthong Park. The big rock in the middle is called Monkey Island because apparently it looks like a monkey

Sailing through the islands

We stopped at one of the larger islands for a couple of hours to kayak around the islands nearby, eat lunch, and relax on the beach.  It was great way to spend the afternoon.

The quiet beach where we spent most of the afternoon

After lunch, we went back north a little bit to one of the islands we had passed earlier in the day.  We spent about an hour here.  This island has a very nice scenic view point that you can hike up to, which leads to an Emerald Lagoon–it’s a sea water lagoon, but the water level is higher than that of the surrounding sea, and the color is a bright green. It’s really quite lovely.

View of the Emerald Lagoon

View of the archipelago from the top. It took over 500 steep steps to reach the top of the hill for this view.

We hung out on the beach and in the water.  I had gotten a lot of sun yesterday so I tried to spend most of the day today in the shade.  Luckily, with the rock overhangs on these islands, it was easy to find shady spots beneath the rocks while floating around in the sea.

At around 3pm we headed back to Samui. The photo below are some the last rock formations we passed leaving the park.  Angthong is really quite close to Samui.  You can vaguely make out the outlines of some of the closer islands on the horizon from Samui.  In this photo, you can see the faint outline of Koh Phangan on the left and Koh Samui on the right.

Leaving Angthong National Marine Park, with faint outlines of Koh Samui on the right and Phangan on the left in the distance.

It was a great way to spend my last day here on the islands.  Tomorrow I head back to Bangkok to wrap up my trip!

Days 28 and 29: Beaching and Island Hopping

I didn’t write yesterday because the whole day was spent hanging out at my hotel, the Hansar Samui Hotel, and relaxing on the beach and by the pool. I can’t remember the last time I spent several hours just reading on the beach.  It was nice, but I’m not used to sitting and reading, so it was a little strange…not…doing…anything. I can’t complain though.  The weather was great and the view from my beach bed was delightful.

My view for most of yesterday. Koh Phangan in the distance.

After a lovely dinner at The Address (a French fish place in Fisherman’s Village) last night, I passed by a tour office and set up a day trip to go snorkeling at Koh Tao and another island nearby called Nangyuan.  It was a full day trip, so I woke up early today.  I had breakfast overlooking the ocean, enjoying the morning light.

Breakfast View; the ocean is so still here. Koh Phangan in the distance.

My hotel transfer took me to the pier, and from there we boarded a speed boat to go to Koh Tao.  We took a pit stop at Koh Phangan on the way to pick up more passengers and after about an hour we arrived at Nangyuan, a tiny island with a pretty beach just next door to Koh Tao.

View of Koh Tao from Nanyuan

We spent a few hours on Nangyuan, snorkeling and relaxing.  We also had lunch there. After lunch I took a short hike to the top of one of the hills on Nanyuan to take a few scenic photos of this tiny jewel of an island.

The walk up was actually a little steep at times.  This felt a little more challenging than other hikes I’ve taken probably because I was in flip flops.  There are a lot of big, smooth rocks on these islands I’m visiting, which are a bit difficult to hike over.

Some of the boulders on my hike to the top. Luckily I didn’t have to hike over these (the view point is in the other direction), but there were similar ones to get to the very top.

Worth the hike: View from the top of the hill at Nangyuan. The island comprises two hills with a narrow strip of beach and another small land mass in between connecting three bays. It’s very pretty.

Another view from the top of Nangyuan, with a little bit of Koh Tao peaking in on the right.

At around 1:30pm, we boarded our speedboat and headed around Koh Tao to a quiet bay somewhere along the north east side of the island.  At Nangyuan, the waters along the beach were very shallow for many, many meters into the bays on all sides–there were a lot of fish here but very little coral and  sea vegetation.  In the bay we went to on Koh Tao, we jumped off the boat into deep water–it was probably about 5-10 meters deep where the boats left us, with some big rocks jutting up here and there, so there were lots of plants and coral and other sea life to snorkel around.  Our tour guides gave us life vests, which was very helpful for floating around in the deep waters. There was no beach here since it was mostly large boulders and rocks.

Some of the fish I saw today included Parrot fish, Angel fish, Wrasse, Grouper, Trigger fish, Banner fish, Butterfly fish, and several others I haven’t been able to figure out yet.  There was also definitely some Staghorn coral and Acropora, and other types of coral, polyps and sea life of which I don’t know the names.  It was very beautiful.

The deep water bay on Koh Tao where we went snorkeling. There is no beach; just big rocks dropping off into deep waters.

After about an hour here, we boarded the boat and started making our way back to Koh Phangan and Koh Samui.  It probably took a good hour and a half to get back.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing and then had a lovely fish dinner at a restaurant called the Happy Elephant.  It’s one of those places in Fisherman’s Village where you choose your fish at the fish counter and then they cook it for you.  I choose a nice-looking 550-gram red snapper.  It was delicious.

Choosing my Red Snapper. My selection is on the plate.

I really enjoyed the snorkeling today, so I’ve decided to sign up for another day trip tomorrow to go to Angthong National Marine Park, which is north-west from Koh Samui (Koh Phangan and Koh Tao are directly north of Samui).  I will be snorkeling and also kayaking there. I think this will be a nice excursion as well.

Day 27: Arriving in Koh Samui

I’ve arrived at the beach. After a short flight from Siem Reap to Bangkok, and then another quick puddle hop, I find myself on Koh Samui. I am staying at the Hansar Samui Hotel on the north side of the island right by Fisherman’s Village. It’s terrific here. The hotel is beautiful with large rooms and balconies, gorgeous views of the ocean and Koh Phangan, and it’s literally seconds away from the center of Fisherman’s Village where there are plenty of restaurants and little shops.  It’s ideal for me, since I always feel more comfortable with a town nearby.

This afternoon was about unwinding and relaxing.  I had a massage, I poked around some shops, and ducked into some tour offices to see what sorts of activities I might want to consider while I’m here. I’ve decided that tomorrow I’m going to lay like a vegetable by the pool or on my balcony day bed, read, sleep, and eat. I need a day to recharge.  I’ve been doing a lot these past few weeks and I need at least one day to rest up.  After that we’ll see what I decide to do.

Koh Samui, Bo Phut Beach

Sunset over Bo Phut Beach

Sunset over hills behind the hotel