{"id":3269,"date":"2026-03-25T01:33:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/?p=3269"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:44:17","slug":"g-is-for-gorgeous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/g-is-for-gorgeous\/","title":{"rendered":"“G” is for Gorgeous (Thailand)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cGood Morning World\u2019, I think, as I stepped onto our balcony at 6am this morning.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I am not a morning person but Pacific sunrises (and sunsets) are simply gorgeous and shouldn\u2019t be missed.<\/p>\n

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Our first stop on the cruise was in Koh Samui, Thailand. \u00a0While this large island might have been interesting to explore, we knew we needed nature following our five city days in Singapore. \u00a0We have been at sea for the past two days, which has begun to relax us.\u00a0 Our ship is anchored off shore today, which means we need to take a \u201ctender\u201d to go ashore. Most of the time tenders are the lifeboats.\u00a0 Today we are on beautiful double decker,\u00a0 wooden boats.\u00a0 Of course I forgot to take a picture!<\/p>\n

Tip:<\/p>\n

One of our die hard, self imposed rules for tender ports<\/u>, 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. \u00a0We were once two hours late to a private tour, due to tender malfunctions.\u00a0 Having a ship sponsored tour, guarantees the ship will wait for our return, even if we get held up. The ship doesn\u2019t wait for those passengers delayed on private tours.<\/p>\n

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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\u00a0 outboard engines!\u00a0 For the next hour we would move rapidly toward our destination, which was Angthong Bay Marine Park.\u00a0 \u00a0Thankfully I had done my research and brought earplugs for both of us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0I saw a few fish leaping out of the water and a beautiful junk boat but that was it until we arrived at the islands.<\/p>\n

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I never really understand the value of hair and makeup, when we are doing water activities. \u00a0Old 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.\u00a0 The light must be shining in his eyes again but I am grateful for his encouragement.\u00a0 We decided to make this our \u201cG\u201d word for the day.\u00a0 How many things could we find that were simply gorgeous?<\/p>\n

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By 10:30 am, I was over the side of the boat and under water, hair, makeup and aging body be damned! \u00a0As I age, I am becoming more aware of the value of time and opportunities and worry less about societal rules of perfection.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Tiny treasures to tuck away in my memories.\u00a0 I am always in my most perfect element when I am looking for marine life, so I quickly focused on enjoying the experience.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Still I find it impossible to find anything bad about any time spent in tropical waters. \u00a0So I gave my gratitude for being here at all.\u00a0 I think I indeed whispered \u201cGorgeous\u201d to the few colorful fish who did make their appearance. \u00a0Alan prefers his feet on land, so he took a quick dip to cool off, then watched me from the boat.\u00a0 We had about 45 minutes at this location. \u00a0 This was the first time I needed a life jacket.\u00a0 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”.<\/p>\n

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By noon we were back on board for another high speed trip, as we were transported to Ko Mae Ko Island. \u00a0The 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The hidden lagoon seemed like something from a picture book.\u00a0 Was I overusing the term gorgeous today?\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

This is what we had come for.\u00a0 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. \u00a0I thought the day couldn\u2019t get any better.\u00a0 Surely we had reached the pinnacle of this excursion.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Unfortunately we also only had 30 minutes here before we had to be back on the speedboat.\u00a0 There had been enough time for an ice cream to help us cool down from the extreme heat and humidity.<\/p>\n

Our physical efforts of the morning were rewarded with a more gentle ride to Phaluai Island for a Thai style lunch.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 I also didn’t trust the hygiene of this remote place.\u00a0 Lunch looked very good but Alan and I chose to go for a long walk instead.\u00a0 We were able to see many flowers and fruits\u00a0 such as Mango, jack fruit and bananas growing naturally.<\/p>\n

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Soon our adventure came to an end.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I was afraid we weren’t going to make it.\u00a0 There were problems with all 3 engines, which kept skipping and stalling the entire hour of the journey.\u00a0 Due to the current disruptions with Iran, there are major fuel shortages in this part of the world.\u00a0 We couldn’t tell if it was bad gas or a fuel line problem, or both.\u00a0 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.\"\"<\/p>\n

Back on board the Princess Coral, we finished our evening with dinner at the buffet as we took in another stunning sunset.\u00a0 The day had been flawless.\u00a0 I looked across at my amazing husband.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been married for 43 years, it is not uncommon for us to think with one brain and speak with one voice.\u00a0 \u201cGorgeous\u201d we proclaim at the same time. as we read each others minds\u00a0 We begin to laugh at our spontaneous message of gratitude for this place, this moment and this time in our lives.\u00a0 Sometimes one word is all it takes to set the tone for the entire day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGood Morning World\u2019, I think, as I stepped onto our balcony at 6am this morning.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I am not a morning person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,18,387,67],"tags":[396,402,401],"class_list":["post-3269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-world-adventures","category-asia","category-thailand","category-tips","tag-boat-tour","tag-jungle","tag-scenic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3311,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions\/3311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}