Day 10: Angthong National Park, Koh Samui

This is what you get when you randomly choose your adventure from a brochure in the hotel lobby the previous day. Normally, the Heckermachers eschewed enormous groups of tourists traveling in packs. But the day they embarked on the Samui Island Tour to Angthong National Park, they were an enormous group of tourists.

When their mini-bus arrived on the dock, the Heckermachers were given a color-coded sticker and herded onto one of three enormous waiting ferries that smelled of fried chicken and despair. When they realized that "breakfast" consisted of coffee and a small roll, they regretted declining their hotel staff's offer to pack them a breakfast to go.

They found a seat toward the front of the ferry and spent the journey out to the archipelago that makes up Angthong National Park watching out for the occasional small, silver, snakelike fishes that darted by the boat, singing "Barracuda" whenever one went by.

Ninety minutes later, they arrived at the islands.

Everyone received a life vest and a 2- or 3-person kayak. The Heckermachers happily paddled out to the meeting point, glad to be starting the adventuresome part of their day. These three Cambodian girls, on the other hand, had never kayaked before and couldn't figure out how to coordinate their strokes and make their boat go forward. They went around in circles, giggling helplessly, until another couple eventually lashed their kayaks together, creating a sort of aquatic tow truck.

How does this thing work?

Wheeeeee! 

 Their kayak regatta circled the outside of the island, going under some gnarly rock overhangs.

Eventually, they docked on a beach, where they were told there was a beautiful lagoon. Their Italian tour guide said the word over and over again: Lagoon. Lagoon. Lagoon. Lagoon. Lagoon. This is now an ongoing joke in the Heckermacher household.

Lagoon. 

Lagoon.

Lagoon.

To see the lagoon, they had to climb up and down many stairs. They spent most of this time arguing over whether the stairs were actually "stairs," or would be more accurately referred to as "ladders."

What do you think?

To illustrate the difference between Thailand and America, our tour guides called the multi-super-steep-staired journey around the lagoon an "easy hike that anyone can do."

From the top of the stairs, you could see down both sides of the mountain, to the lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other.

After lunch on the ferry (surprise! It was fried chicken), they could choose between snorkeling, kayaking, hiking to a cave, and relaxing on the beach.

As a former cave guide herself, Anna was eager to see the cave.

It was another easy hike...

Tim lowers himself into the cave using the rope provided. 

Cave entrance from below.

But it was worth it. The cave was large, and featured some impressive stalactites and stalagmites. Anna reminded Tim that you can tell the difference because stalactites hang TITE to the ceiling, and stalagmites MITE reach the top someday.

Cave guide humor at its finest.

Which ones are these?

The trip back was fun, too: it involved climbing a trail steep enough that they left ropes to hang onto.

 

Fortunately for the Heckermachers, they sold Chang beer on the ferry, which made for a pleasant ride home.  Back at their hotel, the Heckermachers got themselves cleaned up and asked the hotel staff to recommend somewhere "really special" for dinner, cause they were on their honeymoon, dammit!

Thus, they dined beachside at a restaurant on Samui Beach, splitting a scrumptious bottle of white wine and digging into softshell crab and other crustacean delicacies. 

Crustacean!

More crustacean!

Candlelight danced on their faces, and every so often a firework punctuated the soft night air. They considered buying a mortar or two from the guy selling them down the beach, but opted instead to stay on their lazy butts and finish the wine before heading back to the hotel for a solid night's rest. 

After all, it was nearly 10 o'clock, and well past their standard Thailand bedtime.