Our minibus was right on time in the morning and after picking a few other people up from other hotels we arrived at the Seastar welcoming hall at the Tamlampu pier around 8:00am.
They had coffee, tea and cakes but we gave them a miss, having stuffed ourselves full of food at the hotel breakfast buffet.
What we did do was check in and find a suitable pair if slippers each (we're using our own snorkels and masks).
There were tons of people in the hall, all going on different trips as indicated by what colour wristband they were wearing. Ours were pink.
We seemed to be waiting a long time, which was somewhat disconcerting, but eventually all the other groups had left and only ours remained. At this point we were led to the pier and given a briefing about the days itinerary and the dos and don'ts of snorkelling in the Similans. Our guide, who was bursting with enthusiasm and wearing bright yellow sunglasses and a green cap with white wings, introduced herself as Wei. It was clear from the outset that she was going to keep us entertained!
We dumped our shoes into a big blue tub and boarded the speedboat. There were forty people in our group, which hopefully gives you an idea of the size of the boat. For some reason no-one wanted to sit at the front of the boat in the sunshine. We jumped at the chance, with the end result that we had loads of room.
After some initial hiccoughs starting one of the boat's three outboard motors, we eventually got underway about an hour layer than we were meant to. However all negative thoughts were soon list when the boat picked up speed and started bombing its way to the Similans. To day the boat was fast would be something of an understatement. We were flying.
Out hosts did a great job of keeping everyone topped up with sweets, water and Pepsi. Wei even came round with a funny mask for people to try on and take photos. An hour and fifteen minutes flew by and we were soon at our first snorkelling destination: Island 4 or Ko Miang.
This is supposedly the best island for snorkelling and we saw hundreds of amazing fish. Many more than we'd seen at Kho Phi Phi Leh and also many species we hadn't already seen, which was nice. Amber and I got a bit of a treat because we were the only two who responded when Wei asked if anyone wanted to see a clownfish. She led us a little way away from the boat to where there were just two very large sea anemones housing one pair of clownfish. Great to see them swimming in and around the stinging tentacles completely unharmed. It really made us wish we'd bought an underwater camera.
After snorkelling at Ko Miang we were dropped off on the beach to kill 50 minutes either swimming or exploring. The island houses a huge colony of flying foxes and also populations of Bengal monitor lizards and Nicobar pigeons. The bats were up in the trees just off the beach. Likewise the monitors were walking around bold as brass a little way from where most of the people were.
As usual Amber and I foolishly decided to go for the hardcore option and set off along a trail marked 'Viewpoint'. This turned out to be a somewhat challenging adventure trail involving using ropes to pull ourselves up big rocks, crawling under vegetation and walking over very make shift bridges over gaps between rocks. Not surprisingly we were both sweating buckets by the time we clambered onto the big rock that constituted the aforementioned viewpoint, but the view over the bay was worth it. White sand, blue sea and green jungle in a wide arc.
We had no idea how long we had taken getting up there, so the return journey was a lot speedier. As we neared the beach we passed a group of Germans taking turns to photograph a splendid land crab with bright red claws.
What tickled me was that they'd all walked straight past a far more interesting Nicobar pigeon rustling through the bamboo. I had been really keen to see one of these, so along with with the bats and the monitors I was a happy bunny.
Luckily our boat hadn't left the shore when we got back. In fact we were just in time to climb aboard and get driven to a bigger boat anchored in the bay where we were treated to a big buffet lunch of mostly Thai dishes. The weather was glorious, so the island made a very picturesque backdrop as we tucked in to this feast, floating on crystal clear waters.
After lunch we were taken to snorkel at island 7, where we struck gold - a turtle swimming around one of the other boats. Amber and I were the first two off our boat, so we swam straight over to see if we could catch a glimpse of it. We needn't have worried, the turtle was happily swimming around in full view behind the boat, occasionally grabbing a piece of the pineapple chunks the crew were tossing overboard to attract the fish. It was unbelievable to have such a beautiful animal swimming literally inches away.
Sadly the rest of our boat arrived on the scene, including a horde of brats, who proceeded to hound and grab at the poor thing until it swam away. All this despite being told very clearly not to touch any wildlife before boarding the boat. Parenting fail.
With the turtle gone we could get on with admiring all the other marine life. So many fish, but easily my favourites were all the brightly coloured parrotfish species. Can't get enough of watching them rasped away at the coral.
We got one last glimpse of the turtle before it was time to get back on the boat and go to island 8, the final destination of the day. The main attraction of this island, other than the shallow water by the beach, is 'Sail Rock', a huge boulder balanced precariously at the top of a hill covered in boulders. We walked up to it in a group led by Wei, who got busy taking "action photos" of anyone who would give her their camera!
After seeing the rock and taking some pics we hit the beach for a final swim. Then it was all aboard again for the Sprint home.
We couldn't believe our luck with the weather. It was so perfect, despite the fact that the islands looked to be surrounded by rain clouds this morning. Turns out we'd planned the trip perfectly because as we neared Tamlampu again it started to rain.
We rescued our shoes, shunned the pointless souvenir photograph plates for sale, and got in the minibus to go home.
The minibus dropped us off at La Flora at around 5:30pm.
After all that snorkelling I thought we could use some pampering, so I called down to the spa to see if they had any availability for two 1 hour treatments. As luck would have it, they were available immediately, so we went straight down to choose our treatments.
Amber went for the coffee body scrub and I decided to have the full body deep tissue massage. We were assigned a therapist each and led to one of the spa rooms to have our treatments side by side.
What a fantastic massage! Parts of it were agony, but I felt so relaxed afterwards. Despite having to strip naked for my massage the only embarrassing part was having to run and fetch a tip from the room afterwards because we had forgotten to bring any cash down with us!
After last night's dinner disaster we decided to try somewhere closer to the hotel. We opted for a restaurant called Mali because it had people inside and huge tiger prawns on display in ice out front.
I had fried prawns in pepper and garlic sauce. Delicious.
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