One Day trip: Angthong National Marine Park (travel from Samui)

(ภาษาไทย) The other reason that we choose to visit Samui is, for the Islands. One of the most lovely of these was the “Angthong National Marine Park”. We took a day tour to the marine park and the experience was both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

There are so many beautiful islands around Samui but we choose to go to Angthong National Marine Park because it’s the closest island from Samui, at about 1.5 hrs away while the other islands were as far as 2-2.5 hours away.
The Angthong National Marine Park offers a variety of activities including kayaking, snorkeling, swimming and sightseeing!

We had the agency provide us the full day trip at 1,700 baht per person, the agency representative was very nice and you can find her on www.Ilovesamui.com for all the day trips in Samui. For this trip we took the speedboat tour from Grand Sea Discovery. We did have a little drama on this trip!

In the morning they provided a van to pick us up at our hotel about 8.15am to their pier. They looked like a really professional tour company… They checked your name and give you a color string on your wrist to board the right boat and the right tour (they have different island tours). Also, they provide some breakfast on shore – it’s nice!

But there was a signup sheet that asked for our full name and email address, we put only a nickname on it thinking that we didn’t need any junk mail. And one of their team yelled at us in the megaphone “Don’t Be Stupid!!!”. I thought he was kidding me! But he gave us a really bad look and repeated the “stupid” part that kind of pissed me off! I mean come on… I’m on VACATION! Anyway, the form was for (according to the “stupid” guy) insurance.

I sent an email to complain about the comments and treatment but guess what… he’s the manager of this company in charge of public relations! His name is “Tony” and he replied back to us that he was sorry and, “I hope I can amend this action towards to you and your friends and no worries I am a very good person you just met me when I am not in the right mood”… What the heck??? Regardless of the “Public Relations Managers” comments, the rest of the trip and service on the boat was really good. And in Tony’s defense… I have been called “stupid” before, just never by someone I was paying to provide a service.
I would like to confirm to all the tourists who might meet Mr.Tony that he is not Thai. And I hope that he will change his attitude if he is really wants to do this job. Enough drama… On to the trip!

It’s boarding time and the first one on the boat is the camera guy trying to take pictures. I’m sure that they will be selling something when you get off!

The tour guide and all the boat crew are very nice and helpful. But wait, they can’t speak Thai because they are not Thai at all.

Unlimited drinks served onboard, it’s nice and cold. If you get sea-sick easy, just ask them for medicine and take it as soon as you can. The speed boat is moving very fast on big waves, and it’s really easy to get sick.

After about an hour we made our first stop at Koh Wow (it mean KITE in Thai). It’s a great snorkeling spot.

It’s a really good spot for snorkeling and it might be one of the few spots for tourist because there were a lot of boats stopped here.

By the way, no beach over here! So we got a real long snorkeling stop..

Next stop Wua Ta Lap Island, but on the way there stopped to see the Monkey island for pictures from the boat.. It looks like a monkey is doing a “Wai” (the greeting for Thais). It’s amazing because it looks like the symbol of Sumui Island!

30 minutes more and we arrived at Wua Ta Lap Island where we will stop for lunch and kayaking.

I wish the tour groups would improve the lunch they serve in the islands. Its barely edible and it is never enough for the people in the group (And by now we were extremely hungry).

Good that they have a small shop for snacks, we were all still hungry after lunch! We had chips for 50 baht..

They try to manage this island in an environmental friendly way.

After we waited to digest, it’s time for kayaking! The tour guide showed us how to kayak and make sure everyone had a life jacket on. There are officers watching you!

Our team is ready! But we have no idea where we going?!?!?

All I knew we just had to kayak and follow our tour guide, it’s real long and rough kayak to another beach called “Haad Naa Tab”.

Haad Naa Tab is the small beach but they keep it as it is. No shops, no trash, and no food in that beach.

It’s a nice stop (because it’s a long kayak!). The tour guide gave us about 20 mins to play around on the beach.

I only wished that they would bring the speedboat to get us over here…but that was a NO…we had to kayak back to where we started. Man! I was so tired!!!

Next is our last stop at Angthong Marine Park. We walked up to the top for the beautiful view of the Emerald Lagoon. This is one of the attractions listed on Unseen Thailand.
By the way the stairs are very steep which I believe are not suitable for children.

It’s a really nice view on top!

You are required to pay the National Park fee at 200 baht per person (pay with the tour company).
In general the tour was very pleasant and the tour guides were very attentive (only Mr.Tony was so mean!) This is a good way and good idea to spend a day trip from Samui Island!

Travel Date: 14 Feb 2014 (HAPPY VALENTINE !!!)

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