The Diamond Princess arrived at Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on Tuesday morning. (Koh Samui is Thailand’s second largest island, after Phuket. )
There is no deepwater port at Koh Samui and we were taken ashore and back to the ship by tender boat. (The wooden boat is from a private tender operator.)
From the shore we went to the islands in Angthong Marine National Park by speedboat.
The first stop was for a little snorkeling.
I did not bring my underwater camera— I don’t have one, actually! 😩— but I looked up some of the tropical fish that I saw in the water, online.
The one in the picture (source: Shutterstock) is a sergeant major or píntano (Abudefduf saxatilis).
The stop at Ko Mae Ko Island was for a very steep staircase climb up to the island’s main attraction: Emerald Lake. The lake is surrounded by a tropical rainforest and limestone cliffs.
After lunch and a Singha beer on Paluai Island, we checked out Praying Monkey Rock and made one more stop at a beach nearby.
The Seatran ferry goes to Donsak on the Malay peninsula (about 90 mins, US$5 for foot passengers, US$15 for a car).
