#028 Thailand Update: Island Hopping in The Andaman Sea

Right now, I am writing to you from our beach front bungalow, on a small island in the Andaman Sea. My boys are outside swimming in the warm waters and my wife and I are relaxing. This is the second day of our four day trip to Koh Mook (Pearl Island). As I said, we are in the Andaman Sea, which is in the Southern part of Thailand, very near the equator. The waters here are crystal clear, the beaches are all white sands, and the feeling we are getting is one big sigh of relief. As I type this, I am wondering why I am bothering with electronic devices right now, but then I am reminded that I am, and always will be, a geek. My computer is my lifeblood, and even in a tropical paradise, I can still find a reason to plug it in.

Island Hopping in The Andaman Sea
Today, we started the day off with a nice breakfast. Rather than the usual “we serve you a humongous amount of food that you cannot possibly finish, this time they allowed us to choose whatever we wanted. Having free liberty to choose at will, we made the decision to order more food than we could possibly finish.

Just kidding.

After breakfast, we spent some time swimming again while we waited for our guide to get things ready for today’s adventure. Today, we were going to go island hopping. We loaded everyone into our longboat, and headed for the first area. It was on an island not too far from ours.
As we get close to this island, we start to notice the bottom of sea. The water is so clear you can see everything. Before too long, many fish started to approach the boat. The driver kicked off the motor and we settled in on our first snorkeling session.

I have never been snorkeling before. None of my family has been snorkeling before. However, we are more than willing to try, so I take a little instruction from our guide and then bound into the water. The water felt like a swimming pool in Arizona... in July. Very warm in most places and almost hot in others. I put my gear on and dipped my face into the water. There I was, staring face to face with hundreds of fish. They swam all around me, within inches of my body and my face. The guide threw some bread into the water to attract them to me. This created a bit of a feeding frenzy, and I would occasionally get nipped by one these little suckers as they mistakenly took my skin to be a morsel of bread. At first it was cute, but then it got a little annoying. I swam away from the pack and looked at all the other creatures of the sea.

The coral was very beautiful. Sea urchins were attached in many places, and I was told to steer clear of them. I could swim around them, just don’t touch them. When it comes to things like this, I listen to good advice. However, I couldn’t help but swim over them to see the entire urchin. They looked like the quills of a porcupine, except for the center which had a tiny bright red ball. I watched their quills move back and forth through the water, and watched as fish swam around them. It was rather serene to watch. I found myself going back to urchins many times just to watch them. I’m not sure why, but there is something calming about watching something just sit there and sway.

When I got bored with the urchins, I followed the fish. There were quite a few small fish, but I liked to follow the big ones. Mostly because they were big, but also because they tended to move a lot slower than the smaller ones. They swam around this area with that “I’m bigger and badder than you, so watch out” kind of attitude. They even swam slow around me, as if mocking me.

Everyone eventually got into the water, and we all “swam with the fish.” Nathan was having a ball bobbing up and down in his life jacket. I think he was really tickled knowing that so many fish were swimming around him. We stayed there for about a half hour and then got back into the boat.

As we were leaving we had a nice surprise. An entire group of dolphins decided to join us. They went to the area we were just at, apparently looking to get some food. We took several pictures of them “snorkeling” as well. Our guide told us that we were very lucky to see them. He said he has been a guide in the Andaman Sea for 7 years and has not been able to get this close to dolphins before. He was actually surprised to see them so close to shore. He asked us to send him the pictures if we could. Of course we can!

We travel to another place to snorkel. At this place, the water is deeper, and the waves are much higher. We find that it is not as easy to get around here. We start swimming around and eventually find some fish, close the rocks.

Let me take a moment and tell you about these rocks. These rocks are coated with things that resemble the shells of oysters. As I type this, I am wondering if this is what a barnacle is. At any rate, these “shells” are as sharp as razors, and with the waves crashing in you need to be very careful or you could end up getting sliced up by them. Tell me I’m not worried, knowing I’ve got a wife and three kids in the water right now. We did fine, although I was the one who ended up getting scraped up. Not so bad here, but I got a couple good ones at the next place.

As we are heading for the next destination, I notice my skin feels pretty hot, so I get down under the tarp and out of the sun. Before too long, I cannot help but notice that I’m as red as a tomato!

Great.

I put on some sunblock (too little too late) and we get to the next place we plan to snorkel. I contemplate whether or not I should go in, and then decide that I’m not going to be doing this everyday, so I better make the best of it. Once I get in the water, my skin cools down, but I also know that water will only make a burn worse. Oh well, take one for the team, right? We start to swim around this place, and we notice some unique things here. Many of the areas have crabs walking around, and many of the areas have entire schools of fish swimming around. I am talking about thousands of fish. It was incredible to see. One of the guides took me through this cave where he had found a school. As I’m swimming through the cave, I happened to kick the edge of one of the rocks. Bear in mind, these rocks also have the razor blade seashells stuck to them. As I kick it, I can feel the shell sink deep into the skin on top of my foot. Before I had a chance to stop, I had created a nice sized gash in my foot. As my body curled up in reaction, my arm slid across another section of this cave, and it bit into my elbow. I decide to stop trying to swim, and I just lay there. My foot and my elbow are both throbbing in pain, but I don’t want to add to it anymore. I lie there and look for an opportunity to get out without anymore damage. I spot a smooth rock in the water that I can grab with my hands, so I grab it and pull myself through the cave. Ah much better, except for one thing. With my head underwater, I wasn’t paying attention to what was above the water: the top of cave. I hit this with the commanding force my arms gave my body. The hit was strong enough that I was sure I had cracked my head wide open. I get out in the open water and take a moment to assess the damage. My foot is bleeding. My arm is bleeding. My head is... okay? Hmm... I must not have hit it as hard as I thought.

Good for me.

We eventually get back into the boat, and we head out for lunch at yet another island. This time, I did not take any pictures. I just stayed in the shade, licked my wounds and hoped and prayed the burning sensation on my skin would subside.

After lunch, we get back into the boat and head for Koh Mook. On the way there, we again got caught up in a tropical storm. What is it with returning to the island and tropical storms? We get to shore and Livonia and the kids start swimming. As for me, I head for shelter, awaiting the sunset. It is 6:15pm now, and the sun has set. Time for me to find my family...

Until next time...