In April 2007, I had a chance to visit the Surin Islands, the first time in a long time I had embarked on any type of adventure travel in Thailand.
This trip would mark my second flight to Phuket, the first being in November 2004, for a kayaking trip with John Gray.
This time around, I flew from Bangkok to Phuket on Thai Air Asia, and the check-in at the airport and the flight were all without any mishaps.
Arriving on a mid-morning flight, at Phuket, I was met by a driver, provided by a tour agency I had contacted over the Internet. From the airport, I and my friend would be put up for the night at a hotel in Khao Lak.
About 90 minutes from the airport, Khao Lak was one of the areas of Phuket that was especially hard hit by the 2004 tsunami, but there wasn't any evidence of it. The area seemed quite well developed, with plenty of hotels, resorts, guesthouses and shops.
The hotel I was staying in, Tony Lodge, is a small boutique hotel, wedged between a couple of others. The website is a pretty accurate depiction of the place, as it offers no scenic view to speak of. But the rooms are comfortable and well-appointed. The beach is across the highway and down a lane, perhaps a 15-minute walk, or the advertised five minutes if you hire a motorbike.
We did visit the beach, and I had a chance to show my friend a bit about how to use the snorkeling gear.
Pretty soon though, it was time for sleep and an early morning call to be taken to Kuraburi pier by van, which was provided in the tour-package price.
This is when the sheer distance and scale of the Phuket area dawned on me. To get from area to area around Phuket, you have to have transport, and on Phuket, transport is going to be a hassle and it's going to be expensive.
After about a two-hour ride in the van, we reached Kuraburi. Here is where I discovered I had a problem with the booking agency I hired. I had actually hired a company that then booked with another company that was doing the actual package. I should have been dealing with them direct, instead of this intermediary. Due to the miscommunication, I was not going to be given a bungalow on Surin Island as requested, but I would have to sleep in a tent, at least one night.
Now, I've been in Thailand long enough to know that I should not show anger. Strong displays of emotion are not polite in any society, but in Thailand it is the height of rudeness. But the breakfast of dry toast and instant coffee had left me a bit grumpy, so it didn't take much to upset me.
Luckily, one of the workers at the desk didn't do the usual routine of shutting down and becoming unresponsive. Instead, she wanted me to stop being angry and said she would take care of the problem.
As we boarded a speedboat, and hit the open water, my negative emotions subsided with the fresh sea air and the sight of the clear, blue waters of the Andaman Sea.
Mu Ko Surin is a national marine park of Thailand. It is open for tourists from November to May, so we were getting there just at the end of the season.
As the boat approached the island, the helpful Kuraburi Greenview staffer informed me that she'd straightened out the mess with the bungalow after all. What a relief! I really didn't want to sleep in a tent, and deal with a shared latrine and shower house.
The accommodation at this national park is more rustic than I'd seen in previous trips, and I can readily say that if you go to Koh Surin, make sure you get a bungalow, unless you are used to sleeping in tents and dealing with a dark, pit toilet and crude shower huts.
Checked in, and everything as much to my satisfaction as I could expect, we were served a light lunch, communal style at the park canteen. Here, we would meet our guides for the three-day, two-night package, and they would attend to all our needs, serving our meals and making sure we got on the boat for snorkeling.
That afternoon, we hit some snorkeling spots not far from the dock. It was just the right amount of snorkeling, with some great views of colorful coral and fish.
After an evening meal, it was time for bed, and then up again around 6.30 or 7am for breakfast.
After a morning snorkel, there was a visit to a Moken (sea gypsy) community. I felt like an intruder, as if we tourists were sullying a traditional way of life. There was a school and medical clinic at the settlement.
During an afternoon snorkeling session, one of the guides caught a sea turtle. I had earlier seen it, thinking I was just looking a rock. But something about it looked different, and then the rock moved and swam away at high speed. I was amazed the guide had captured the creature, which probably measured about 18 inches long and 10 inches wide.
On another dive, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a large eel.
The second evening, there was some time before dinner, so I grabbed one of the park's kayaks, available for an hour's rental for 100 or 200 baht. My friend and I rode double, and we paddled around the mouth of bay and along the back side of the island in a narrow inlet betwen the main island and another. We did perhaps an hour or two of paddling - nothing spectacular, but a great way to pass the time.
The next morning we got to go for one more snorkel. We visited a second campsite on the island, not far from where we'd paddled the kayak the day before. And then we visited another deep bay with some decent coral. I spent a lot of time diving down as deep as I could stand and then resurfacing, and kept doing so until it was time to leave.
That afternoon, the speedboat from the mainland brought a fresh load of tourists, and we caught the boat back to the mainland.
Once returned, and changed out of swimshorts and wet clothes, we caught the van back to Phuket, for a long late afternoon and evening of driving, from van, back to Tony Lodge, where we met the original tour agency's driver, and then a long drive back to Phuket airport.
All in all, a great trip, tainted some by the aggravation of the miscommunication about the bungalow reservation.
Would I do it over again, I would deal with the primary tour agency direct. This is Kuraburi Greenview. In addition to Surin Island, they also run tours to the Similan Islands.
Kuraburi can also be reached via Krabi, which is also served by an airport.
(Photo credit: Darlene is Evil via Flickr)
