Got up early and packed a bag with the snorkelling stuff. After a quick pineapple pancake breakfast we waited on the beach for the boat to arrive. The boat was a bit bigger as the one we used in Phang Nga, and we sailed south to the first snorkelling site.

The weather was not ideal. It was cloudy and the was a bit of wind. Then things started to go wrong. First the engine died. Luckily there was another boat almost next to us. We all had to go into that boat. When we stepped over I noticed there were already quite a few people there. So instead of sitting on one of the benches I decided to lay down on the front of the boat. This way you catch a lot less wind and water. Inge didn’t want to join me there, but set on the benched. As we got to the couth point of the island it became clear they were setting out to sail to the next island which we could barely see.

When booked the tour yesterday there were pictures of the sites we would go to, but nothing to indicate how far apart they were. As soon as we were outside the lee of the island the wind picked up and water was spraying constantly over the side. None of the 3 Thai guys on board spoke a word of English.

I was fine laying down, I tucked in some life vests around me and wasn’t really uncomfortable. The water combined with the wind (we were doing about 15 knots) were having their effect. Opposite me there were some young English girls wearing nothing but a bikini and a t-shirt. You could see there were getting very cold…. I tried to tell the captain to slow down but he only laughed and smiled.

It took us over an hour to get to the next island. By this time everyone was cold and complaining. After having dropped of 2 people at a small hotel there we went snorkelling. The water was so warm it actually warmed us up.

In this bay there was also another large boat with people snorkelling. 5 out of our boat decided they had enough and swam over to the other boat and asked if they could take them back…  After 30 minutes snorkelling we sailed on to another island where there was a tunnel leading inside the island. We were supposed to follow the guide, who was the only one who had a flashlight through the dark tunnel. As Inge was not very experienced in snorkelling yet we got so far behind that it was completely dark in front of us. Instead we spend some time snorkelling at the entrance of the cave where there was a large school of sardines. Inge had never seen anything like this and was fascinated when we swam through them and saw them part in front of us.

Next was lunch of a small (polluted) beach with fried rice and fresh pineapple. Going to our last snorkelling site we had the wind in our back so it wasn’t nearly as bad. The last site had many very colourful fish and the came is large groups as soon as one of the Thai guys threw some leftovers in the water. Inge had a good time watching this until they threw some food next to her. She likes snorkelling but the fish should be at least 1 meter away….

Another 1½ hours in the boat and we were back at the Miami Bungalows. Not quite what we had in mind: we spend 7 hours in the boat and 1 hour snorkelling.

I complained about this to the Miami Bungalows owner. He apologized and told us the snorkelling was done by a different company, but he would see what he could do. The next day he asked us if the we would accept it if we got half of the money back, which seemed fair to me.

That evening we once again had dinner on the beach with the group after we had had a shower and put on some warm clothes. We were supposed to leave tomorrow but decided to extent our stay for another 3 days.