Mu ko Surin Marine park

View from the tent
see all photos »

We took quite a slow trip down from Chiang mai to the South, Ian wanted to stop at a City called Nakorn Sawan for a few days to go birding at Beung Boraphet Resevoir (thailands biggest lake). This however was little more problematic than we both expected. We arrived at Nakorn Sawan very late at about 3am once we found a guesthouse we slept through most of the next day and just explored the city. This was a real thai city with no english written or spoken anywhere, we did manage to get too the Resevoire though they dropped us off at the wrong side and it would of taken days to walk round. We still saw a few good birds though, unfortunately for Ian (and fortunately for emily) we had to go because of booked train tickets. We then spent a night in Bangkok on the Khao san road, before going to Chumphon by train, there we got a bus to Ranong (a border crossing with Burma) before going to Kuraburi. here we stayed a night and booked our boat tickets to go to surin island. We booked with a thai couple called Tom and Am (probably not their real names) who were extraordinarily helpful. it was actually cheaper to book the boat through them than it would of been at the pier.

see all photos »

There was five of us on quite a large ferry going to Surin. The Island was beautiful with turquoise water, white sand beaches and Rainforest. There were two campsites one was very busy and crowded and the other was really quite empty, having our own tent we were allowed to pitch pretty much where we wanted along the beach. The main draw of Surin for us was its world renowned for snorkeling, (it also has nicobar pigeons). we snorkeled almost every day though did get very burnt one day and instead birded along quite a treacherous nature trail. there were two snorkeling trips a day each for two hours and would go to 10 different sites, we would get to them by long tailed boat. we saw lots of different fish including some enormous parrot fish, the corrals were all different shades of blue and green and looked almost like they were shimmering. There were also a few pests on the island Jelly fish proved to be quite a pain and seemed to be quite attracted to emily. Ants also managed to find their way into our tent after sweets. (we soon patched the holes up with plasters) after moving the sweets outside, Macaques came along and opened every single sweet (I hope it was sick). many people saw turtles a few rays and some reef sharks while snorkeling unfortunately we didn't, so we are going to have to go back. There were quite a few birds on the island, hill mynas, Green imperial pigeons, white-bellied sea eagles and one sighting of a nicobar pigeon.

the corrals were all different shades of blue and green and looked almost like they were shimmering

see all photos »

We made friends with a nice couple called Brad and Jane from Washington, who were also traveling (hi guys if your reading)

Also if you haven't heard yet, Ian Proposed to emily while snorkeling who graciously accepted.

The trip back to the mainland was on a speed boat (30 people!) a bit cramped and the sea being rough made all of us and our bags completely soaked. There was screaming coming from the back a couple of times. we understood at that point why all the thai people had life jackets on.

Along the nature trail
see all photos »

Love and best wishes to all, and merry Christmas,

Ian & emily