KO SAMUI THAILAND

And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
 ^{God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good}
As our ship was nearing the destination for the day we could see that it was going to be a beautiful day.  Thailand  from the sea is breath taking, it is like mountains coming straight out of the water.  The depth of the sea was too shallow for our big cruise ship to pull into port so the captain just dropped the anchor off shore

we used some of the life boats to tender people into Ko Samui for the day.  This is our cruise ship from the life boat, the water was not smooth, thankfully no one in our family got sea sick although that was not the case for some of the people on our small boat.

Ko Samui is largely a fishing village there are many fishing boats to be seen and the sound of engines in the background.

We decided to take a ship excursion for the day to ensure that we would safely get to and from our destination.  There were a couple of excursions to choose from the one that fit us the best was the boat trip to a remote island for some sunning and snorkeling.

A van met us in Ko Samui to take us to another set of boats, the final destination being Coral Beach.  By the time the van arrived at the boat "dock" we were all hot and thirsty so we took some time to rest and drink before getting into yet another boat. These pictures are what was around us at our rest stop.

The sky was an incredible blue with a slight salty breeze coming in off the sea and an occasional waft of fish smell across our nostrils, we were ready to go on an adventure.

The boat we took over to Coral Beach was a wooden fishing boat, low in the water fast and amazingly stable considering the big waves that greeted us.

This is our captain, it was good to see that he had good balance before our boat took off.

During our trip over to the island we saw a few different boats parked in the water, the waters off of Ko Samui are a desired destination for both snorkeling and deep sea diving.

Because the boat sits so very low in the water we were drenched with the spray of the boat and the crashing of the waves.  The life jackets provided a slight shielding but all in all the clothes were soaked when we got to our final destination.  No worries, the sun quickly dried them out.

Coral Beach Island is what I have always thought of when someone says a tropical island.

 Surrounding the island is deep blue and green water, mountainous land forms, palm trees and beach.

We had some time to just explore and relax before getting into a third boat to head out to snorkel.

 The sun was hot but there was a nice breeze, the beach was sharp with coral so shoes were a  must and swimming not possible from our beach setting as the water was too shallow.

looking up from the beach chair was an equally beautiful sight.

We recently got a small underwater digital camera, it was the perfect tool to have on a day like today.

The tour guides loaded up the boats and off we went to explore the underwater world.  Unfortunately the tour group leaders ran out of snorkeling equipment before getting to our boat so we were grateful that we brought our own swim goggles with us so we could see the reef  that awaited us under the water.

We just jumped off the side of the boat and swam over to the reef, the boat does not want to park to close to the reef to avoid disturbing it.

OK, down we go, here are some of our underwater pictures, again, it is hard to capture the moment on film but I will say we have all agreed that this was our first and not our last snorkeling experience as it was much more spectacular than any of us imagined, the Planet Earth DVD does not do it justice.

look at the top of this next picture, do you see Scott swimming?

Again, the pictures are not great the camera is a point and shoot but we were pleased to be able to take some pictures of our experience.

We did see a man fishing, it was interesting that he was rubbing two shells together as a kind of fish call, then he reached down to grab the fish and put them into a bag.  I think those sticks are to attach a fishing net.

Thankfully no sharks were seen and injuries were limited to a few cuts from the sharp coral. It was good to see that there were medical facilities available just in case they are needed.

 A bit sunburned, well rested and ready for dinner, we were happy to get back to the cruise ship after our adventurous day.