Mo Ko Surin Island

So I left Wednesday night for the South with Kun Ma, Meow, and Mike. We took a bus from Petchaburi to the bus stop closest to the island. We left Petchaburi at close to 10 PM and arrived at the bus station at 4:45 AM. I slept most of the ride so it wasn’t that long.

After we arrived at the bus station we waited until 7. We walked to a market to get some breakfast around 6. At 7 a truck picked us up and took us to the travel agency. We got our lifejackets and snorkels and then went to the dock and waited for the boat. We left around 9 and arrived at the island around 10:30. After we arrived we settled in and then went to the beach for a little while. We ate lunch and then went snorkeling.

Snorkeling was the most amazing thing I’ve done here. The water was so beautiful and all the animals. I had so much fun. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing was real. It looked like all those pictures you see, but it was right in front of me. I saw a shark and a jelly fish and some many colorful fish that I don’t even know the names of. I LOVED it!!!

After snorkeling we went back to the island and I laid on the beach and the others relaxed in hammocks. We had to stay in tents because the island we were on didn’t have any houses so we had no electricity. After dinner you shower and then either go to bed or go sit in the dining area because you can’t do much else.

Sleeping was rough because the ground was really hard. We didn’t have anything to go under us except that thin layer of plastic so we were right on the ground. I woke up very sore and tired from all the tossing and turning. I remember my host mom waking me up around 6 to watch birds (or something like that) and I remember saying something but don’t remember what I said, but I ended up going back to sleep. I got up at 8 to eat breakfast and at 9 we went snorkeling again.

We went to different spots the second day. It wasn’t as awesome as the first time, but it was still really cool. You could actually touch the coral by just letting your foot relax down! We weren’t supposed to touch it though because it would disturb the life. I came within inches of some many fish, I wanted to touch them but didn’t.

After we got back I sat on the beach. That is really all I did because I forgot pants (that’s what happens when you pack for two trips at the same time) so I could only wear my swimsuit. Even with several days in the sun I am STILL white!!! Some people came and spent like 10 minutes in the sun and were tanner than me, so not fair!

The last day we walked around the island and took pictures. At 1 we loaded the boats and headed for home. We stopped at First Beach (we stayed at Second Beach) and spent 30 minutes there. It was way nicer than ours. They had houses and normal bathrooms with nice showers. The beach had almost no trees so you could easily lay out and tan. It was very nice.
When we reloaded the boats Meow and Kun Ma were in the bathroom so they missed our boat and had to get a different one, but we all met back up at the speed boat. The speed boat held more than 60 people and we added 3 along the way, plus luggage. It was really cramped. It was an hour ride back to the mainland.

We then took the bus around 7 PM and arrived back in Petchaburi at 4 (we hung out at the bus station for a long while). The bus dropped us off a ways from the car so Kun Ma had to get a ride to the car and we had to wait. It wasn’t a long wait, 15 minutes, but the mosquitoes were bad. After we loaded everything we went into town. There were a lot of people up and around and many were already set up for the day. We stopped and got some food because we were hungry. We got home around 5:30 AM and I went to bed. Today I’ve loaded pics and videos and later I am going to pack and prepare for leaving again tomorrow.

Lessons learned:

- Living on the water has its advantages
o I met a couple who live on one of those really big fancy boats and they were really nice. They are originally from Canada. The set sail in 2004 and they haven’t seen winter since. They get to travel the world and see all sorts of amazing things.
- Foreigners are weird
o Mike was sleeping in a hammock and a guy came and started to move it slowly back and forth and make cooing type noises until he woke up and left.
o None of the children under 2 wore any clothes except may once in the 3 days
- British and French people love Thailand in January (that’s all there was really, one Spanish family, and Australian couple, me the only American, and maybe a hand full of Thais)
- The Ocean is anything but peaceful sounding at 2 AM
- No matter what you do and how careful you are, you and everything you bring is going to get full of sand
- Salt water mixed with sunscreen makes my face feel like it’s on fire
- No matter where I go the ants find me
- Check to make sure you packed everything before you leave (or make a list as Mom would tell me)

Tomorrow I head off again for Chaing Mai with AFS! I send my love and hope that you are all well.

Allyson

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