Day 24 - Anthong Marine Park

Today more than made up for yesterday's series of unfortunate events - Perfect, sunny weather, adventure, and gorgeous sights. :)

I was picked up by taxi (i.e. - the back of a flatbed truck), to be transported to a dock where I'd jump on a boat and start the marine reserve tour.

Angthong Marine reserve is a group of 40-something islands pretty closely grouped together, all uninhabited, jutting up out of the sea. Most are unaccessible with no beaches, just rocky cliffs on all sides, which makes for fantastic diving, snorkeling, and kayaking.

It would take us about an hour and a half to make it to our first stop of the day for snorkeling.

Next stop would be kayaking around and under some cliff faces and caves. Because I'm traveling solo, on several occasions I've gotten paired up with the Thai guides when something needs to happen in two's (like on two person kayaks). This has actually been great, because they've gone out of their way to give me a special tour in both instances, splitting away from the small group, going through narrow passes or caves, and pointing out things that I may have missed otherwise.

The kayak trip took us to a small beach where we'd climb hundreds of stairs up/down and sideways to reach "Emerald Lake", a saltwater lake on the interior of the island.

With thighs burning, I climbed my way back to to the beach, and we hopped back on the boat to head over to our final stop: Monkey Island.

This island actually had a great beach, fantastic challenging hikes, and gibbons in the trees everywhere!

Because of time constraints, I had the option of either doing the Viking caves, which apparently contain carvings lefts by seagoers from long ago, or do the challenging climb to the top of the mountain. I love history and caves, but anytime someone says the word "challenging", it lights a fire in me. Lol. I had to do the climb.

It was a pretty tough little trek, especially in a bikini and teva's. Lol. Once I made it to the top, the views were incredible, to say the least.

 

 

Spent a little while at on the beach, and then we jumped on the boat for our hour and a half ride back to Koh Phangan.

 

My last view of Anthong - a beautiful sunset over the islands. :)