“Good Morning World’, I think, as I stepped onto our balcony at 6am this morning. I have come out to watch the sun rise over the Gulf of Thailand, I am once again filled with gratitude at being in this place, at this moment, with the man I love. I am not a morning person but Pacific sunrises (and sunsets) are simply gorgeous and shouldn’t be missed.
Our first stop on the cruise was in Koh Samui, Thailand. While this large island might have been interesting to explore, we knew we needed nature following our five city days in Singapore. We have been at sea for the past two days, which has begun to relax us. Our ship is anchored off shore today, which means we need to take a “tender” to go ashore. Most of the time tenders are the lifeboats. Today we are on beautiful double decker, wooden boats. Of course I forgot to take a picture!
Tip:
One of our die hard, self imposed rules for tender ports, is to only take shore excursions offered by the ship. Sometimes it takes a while to get everyone transferred to shore, this can delay tours unexpectedly. We were once two hours late to a private tour, due to tender malfunctions. Having a ship sponsored tour, guarantees the ship will wait for our return, even if we get held up. The ship doesn’t wait for those passengers delayed on private tours.
One would think that Alan and I would be ready to set foot on land for a while, but oh no, we stepped off our cruise ship directly on to a high speed boat with 3 noisy outboard engines! For the next hour we would move rapidly toward our destination, which was Angthong Bay Marine Park. Thankfully I had done my research and brought earplugs for both of us. The windows were too high to watch out of and the boat was too fast to stand, so mostly we just watched people for an hour. We had chosen the back of the boat so we could take pictures as we passed interesting formations. I saw a few fish leaping out of the water and a beautiful junk boat but that was it until we arrived at the islands.
I never really understand the value of hair and makeup, when we are doing water activities. Old habits die hard and even though it made no sense, I went to the effort, Alan had started my day with a simple word as he proclaimed my efforts gorgeous. The light must be shining in his eyes again but I am grateful for his encouragement. We decided to make this our “G” word for the day. How many things could we find that were simply gorgeous?
By 10:30 am, I was over the side of the boat and under water, hair, makeup and aging body be damned! As I age, I am becoming more aware of the value of time and opportunities and worry less about societal rules of perfection. No one on this excursion would remember what I looked like by tomorrow but I would carry the memories of this day for a lifetime. Tiny treasures to tuck away in my memories. I am always in my most perfect element when I am looking for marine life, so I quickly focused on enjoying the experience. For the next 30 minutes I happily searched for the bright blue Parrotfish and other aquatic life which had the potential to live here but like many of the places overrun by tourism, the marine life was less than interesting. The coral reefs had little to offer as more than 100 people jumped into the water and the hopeful experience of seeing a sea turtle quickly faded. Still I find it impossible to find anything bad about any time spent in tropical waters. So I gave my gratitude for being here at all. I think I indeed whispered “Gorgeous” to the few colorful fish who did make their appearance. Alan prefers his feet on land, so he took a quick dip to cool off, then watched me from the boat. We had about 45 minutes at this location. This was the first time I needed a life jacket. Somewhere between last year and this, I have lost my strength. There was a current which was quickly tiring me out but it was another reminder to do this stuff while we are “younger”.
By noon we were back on board for another high speed trip, as we were transported to Ko Mae Ko Island. The 15 minute boat ride did little to let my aging body recover in preparation for short hike (1000 feet straight up) to see the islands main attraction, also known as Blue Lagoon. Beauty was everywhere as we made the 1000 foot hike , straight up, through the verdant green rainforest, to discover that Blue Lagoon was really emerald green, a result of the limestone leaching into the water. The hidden lagoon seemed like something from a picture book. Was I overusing the term gorgeous today? Perhaps, but it had seemed like the perfect word choice for all which we were experiencing and the breathtaking beauty of it all left few better words to describe it.
This is what we had come for. We chose this 7 hour excursion for these amazing views. From this elevated vantage, we could now see many of the 42 islands of the Angthong Bay Marine Park. I thought the day couldn’t get any better. Surely we had reached the pinnacle of this excursion. Just as my makeup and hair had been washed away to reveal my raw self, today we had pushed our bodies and peeled back the layers of endurance to find raw beauty in this natural unspoiled place. Unfortunately we also only had 30 minutes here before we had to be back on the speedboat. There had been enough time for an ice cream to help us cool down from the extreme heat and humidity.
Our physical efforts of the morning were rewarded with a more gentle ride to Phaluai Island for a Thai style lunch. Of course I had packed snacks for Alan and I because some things are best being just the way they are and food preference was something I had learned to quit fighting him on years ago! I also didn’t trust the hygiene of this remote place. Lunch looked very good but Alan and I chose to go for a long walk instead. We were able to see many flowers and fruits such as Mango, jack fruit and bananas growing naturally.
Soon our adventure came to an end. We were back on board our speedboat where we had another 30 minutes of taking in the amazing limestone formations before heading back to our ship. I was afraid we weren’t going to make it. There were problems with all 3 engines, which kept skipping and stalling the entire hour of the journey. Due to the current disruptions with Iran, there are major fuel shortages in this part of the world. We couldn’t tell if it was bad gas or a fuel line problem, or both. We eventually arrived back at the tender port in Koh Samui where we again boarded the wooden boat for another 20 minute ride back to the ship.
Back on board the Princess Coral, we finished our evening with dinner at the buffet as we took in another stunning sunset. The day had been flawless. I looked across at my amazing husband. We’ve been married for 43 years, it is not uncommon for us to think with one brain and speak with one voice. “Gorgeous” we proclaim at the same time. as we read each others minds We begin to laugh at our spontaneous message of gratitude for this place, this moment and this time in our lives. Sometimes one word is all it takes to set the tone for the entire day.