Trip to Surin Island

Last Sunday went on a "free" trip to Surin Islands, off the coast of Khao Lak, Phang Nga province. It's about a 1.5 hours drive out from Phuket, and another 1.5 hours of speedboat ride out. It was free courtesy of Sup's friend. I find it funny that the guy is so "pai-seh" of me cos I got my friends to book trips with him. If he gives good prices, why not right? Anyway, he offered this free trip cos I was unhappy with the services of a previous tour operator (the bloody driver starting calling me 20 times a day) and I actually felt so bad I kicked such a big fuss. Actually I thought I was very calm about it, though must say 20 times a day is a little too much. But he felt so bad he was looking for ways to make up, so hence this trip.

Anyway, Surin island is still relatively unknown among the tourists, which is actually a good thing. THey opened Similan islands to the tourists and everything was destroyed. At first I thought the corals were damaged by the tsunami, but having seen Surin, I now know better.

The pier for the speedboat out to Surin Island was at Ban Nam Khem, in Khao Lak. As you might have heard, Khao Lak was the worst hit province in Thailand from the 2004 tsunami. The local village, Ban Nam Khem, had the highest fatality. When we were there, we passed by the new housing erected by the government - small boxy looking buildings on concrete stilts. We also passed by the facility where they are still keeping the unidentified bodies from the tsunami.

The memorial park near the pier. A lot of locals and European guests esp Germans and Scandinavians died in Khao Lak as the place was popular with them.

A symbolic structure to remember the tragedy.

Personal "shrines" dedicated to those who lost their lives.

One of the fishing boat which washed ashore and left to stand as a memorial. Further up in Khao Lak there is one of a big navy ship stuck on land as well. I thought that was very poignant, especially since this was the same navy ship on duty to look after the royal family the day of the tragedy. The Thai princess' young son died in the tsunami.

Going out to sea, this was a great expanse of water, and according to our guide, she saw whales and dolphins in the open waters before. I'm skeptical though. Is there actually still marine life in Thailand, where fishing and trawling and have taken much away and control is hard to implement? 20-minutes to Surin island, one of our engines broke down and we had to cruise on one engine. Choppy waters meant a lot of people were throwing up their breakfast, and the last few minutes stretched for eternity before we actually saw land.

I have to say the snorkelling here is HEAVENLY. Nothing beats the Samui Ang-Thong experience cos we had the whole place to ourselves and that was my first time. But this was a close second. The corals were amazing. The waters here are deeper than Ang-Thong so the marine life was more diverse. Back at Similans, it would have been so fortunate for me to see a single clown fish aka Nemo, but here we saw families of them. So many multi-coloured fishes it was just...amazing.

http://fishslates.com/Slates%20Album/images/3a%20%20Fish%20Slate%20Side%202_jpg_jpg.jpg

http://fishslates.com/Slates%20Album/images/3a%20Fish%20Slate%20Side%203_jpg_jpg.jpg

I saw 70% of the fishes listed here including pufferfish, longfin bannerfish, nemo etc. It was so exciting.

Then I also saw a huge lobster and a morray eel. I actually blurb out loud when Sup pointed out the eel to me and had to go up for air cos I was choking. And I actually encountered a shoal of barracuda. They were just long silver thin fish the size of a forearm swimming together, I thought they were just normal fishes you see in the market cos silver is a very common colour for fish, until i saw the chart and found out they were barracudas. Wow.

My only regret is that I didn't get to see a turtle. I love turtles.

The weather when we were approaching was actually dark and stormy. But thank God the weather cleared and we had a wonderful sunny day. It's just amazing at how much fun God must have had when he created the fishes, all the colours He painted on them, where they live, and how He shaped the corals and all. This world is just so diverse and gorgeous!

Me and my unsightly T-shirt. That's the thing about packing at 5.30 am in the morning to rush for the 6 am pickup. You forget to bring clothes and I had to buy a Medeys T-shirt in pink, which absorbed all the water from my bikini to make a nice pattern.

We encountered mostly Thai tourists on holiday. It was a long weekend due to the public holiday, and the place was packed with Thai people. There are bungalows and tents for rent there too.

Found an interesting rock structure. Enough said I guess.

Oh, and spotted a sloth-like animal on the tree. At first thought it was a flying squirrel cos it had long arms and cos a local guide said it was a flying squirrel, then it started moving its head oh-so-slooowly I doubt it can fly fast enough without falling... I think it's a sloth. Sup, the nature life expert, cannot confirm cos he does not know the English name for it. It's a sloth. i'm certain. Not like I'm an expert either. The closest we Singaporeans get to nature is xiao qiang and xiao ming.

Hermit crab. When we first found it, it was holed up in a tree trunk, not sure how it got there since this thing lives in the sand and needs to be near the water. So Sup, the nature life expert, took it out and placed it on the sand hoping it will find its way home. I sure hope that hole was not it's home already.

Overall it was a great trip marred only by the engine incident, but it was fixed by the time we finished lunch so that was ok. I would definitely want to go back again, preferably before word gets around and this place get swamped by tourists. FYI, the national park only opens from November to March, during non-monsoon seasons.