Island hopping...

I've never climbed to the top of the Washington Monument. I know I've been, but I can't remember being on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Despite Paul's seriously amazing description, I've never been to the Houston Ship Channel (I know - shocking). That being sad, today Nico and I did something truly touristy... and it might have been the best Thai adventure we've had to date.

At around 7PM last night, in the midst of an entirely pointless argument Nico and I were having on the point of life, or the definition of arbitrary, or something like that, we walked over to the "concierge" desk at our resort and randomly booked a tour of a marine wildlife park for the day. Note: For those of you reading and contemplating Thai travel, I use the term concierge VERY LOOSELY.

While we'd both been interested in some sort of snorkeling adventure, the 50 dollar price-tag seemed somewhat outrageous. When you've been paying 2 dollars a meal, and 7 dollars a night for a hotel, 50 dollars seems like it should buy you a cheap foreign car. But we went ahead and did it anyways... perhaps just to stop arguing about the word arbitrary.

Well, when we woke up it was raining. Our conversation went something like this...

"Damn."
"Crap."
"I want to go back to sleep."
"I think the ticket is non-refundable."

...After which we both begrudgingly got out of bed and took our showers. A truck showed up to take us to the port we were departing from and we got on it. Without breakfast for me, and I hate skipping meals as most of you can attest to. After 30 minutes of waiting around at the pier, a boat showed up. Not just any boat, but a boat designed for a man who... well... needed an extension of sorts. This 27 foot guy had three 200 hundred hours power engines on the back.


We rocketed off, and after about 30 minutes on the water we realized that the extra horses were more than helpful. We covered about 25 miles in all and ended up in a remote set of islands. None too large, all about a mile or two away from the closest. For those of you obsessed with Leo DiCaprio, this marine park was what The Beach was inspired by.

By the time we stopped the sky was clearing up. Lucky. We quickly got shoved out of the boat for an hour long snorkeling adventure. Despite the morning rain, the water was pretty clear and we were sitting atop a live reef. For those of you who are used to diving or snorkeling in the Atlantic - this was nothing like that. There was life everywhere. It was a testament to what things were like before (my beloved) industry touched the world.


After finishing up with the snorkeling, we were shuttled over to another island. Everyone was told to follow our tour guide on a hike. Let me tell you, this "hike" wasn't much of a hike. We traversed an incredibly arduous path, made easy by steps at almost 90 degree inclines, until we arrived at a lagoon that was perfect emerald green. Nico and I treked to the vantage point for a photo-op and were taken aback by the scene's beauty.



Despite being somewhat disappointed by our lack of physical exertion for the day, we were happy to have seen something like that. So when we took off for lunch on a random beach, we felt pretty content. As far as we knew, it was lunch, another beach for more relaxation, then home. When we got to the "relaxation beach" we realized the real hike was supposed to be there. Unfortunately, our guide said because it had been raining it was too dangerous to go up the trail. Damn. Wait. When have we ever been responsible?

As I'm sure you'd all guess, Nico and I snuck off and raced up the 700 meter elevation mountain. The hike was supposed to take at minimum an hour... but because we knew our guide would be setting sail with the recreational adventurers, we ran. Nico finished his trek in 25 minutes, a full 15 ahead of my 40 - I passed 4-5 groups on my way up and my way down... so Nico's 25 minute time should be considered insane. Well, low and behold, when we got to the top we saw possibly the most incredible view in Thailand. It was worth it. We had the entire island chain in sight and our opportunity to scream, take photos, and feel like we had done something special.


When we showed up at the base of the mountain panting and covered in sweat, we were euphoric. It had truly been another great day, and it was only 4 o'clock.