Ang Thong in the sun - it did not look like this when we were there
Mu Ko Ang Thong is a marine national park in the Gulf of Thailand and was established on November 12, 1980. The National Park consists of 42 islands. The park covers a total area of 102 sq.km of which about only 18 sq.km is land. Most of the islands are limestone mountains about 10-400 meters above sea level. Because the limestone can change its structure easily by both chemical condition and weather, the islands have many, strange-looking caves and cliffs
Our visit there was not very inspiring. We were transported for an hour or so in a speedboat - extremely noisy, so one could not talk. And the port holes were cut too high to see out - it was travelling in a noisy box without windows. The designated snorkeling site, the object of the exercise had cloudy water and nothing to commend it. Another hour in the black box and we landed at the National Park Centre, again with nothing to commend it. And on to the third stop, a charming beach, but by now it was raining too heavily to enjoy it - someone did take some very nice photos of us though.
In the afternoon Chris went by herself in a Zodiac, in the rain and in mounting seas. She climbed a precarious set of steps to view a lake, then descended like a mountaineer to get back to the Zodiac. Arriving back at the ship, it took a considerable length of time to get them off the Zodiac and aboard Orion, the swell had become so heavy.
Orion then headed south, into more bad weather, to anchor off Koh Samui on Christmas Day
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