Thursday was our snorkelling trip so at 8am and wisked off to the AC tours resort a little way along the Sairee beach where along with about 17 others we were given flippers and a snorkelling kit. The weather was great with hardly any clouds in the sky meant the visibility while snorkelling would be excellent. We took a long tail boat out to a bigger boat anchored in the bay. We were greeted by Paul, a master diving instructor and shelley his apprentice, two brits who ran the trip. The trip was sold as the most environmentally friendly snorkelling trip on the island and so we were told about how to avoid damaging the sea life; first we were told about how not to damage the coral by standing on it and about how feeding the fish with bread could give the fish cancer as it cannot be digested.

We headed out to our first stop; Shark bay where we would be swimming with the black tipped reef shark, Paul told us by day the reef shark was docile and would swim close to the shore in 2 metre depth of water. Before we started snorkelling Paul showed us pictures and told us the names of the common fish we could expect to see. 

Me and Helen had both watched the movie open water a fews days back about 2 divers left stranded to be fed on by sharks, so were a bit aprehensive at the prospect of swimming with sharks. Paul put our minds at rest by telling us the sharks only hunted stingray at night in deep water and that no humans had been attacked, so feeling happy we wouldn`t be shark bait we jumped in the water and swam about 50 feet out from the boat, armed with the snorkelling camera I eagerly looked out for the sharks. We swam a little further from the boat and were soon in about a metre depth of water with a bed of fire coral below slowely being surrounded by silver striped fish or seargent major fish as they were nick named. These fish were the same ones that were nibbling on us during the Phi Phi snorkelling trip a week earlier. Other fish we saw were the parrot fish, which were rainbow coloured and would make a clicking sound as the ate the algae off the coral. Banner fish, trigger fish and harlequin sweetlips were other fish we saw in abundance around the coral. After about 30 minutes I heard Helen shouting me from about 30 feet away, I swam over and after she caught her breath she told me a 7 foot reef shark swam right along side her!! Determined I would see a shark we swam around where she`d seen it but no luck, we heard the whistle sound on the boat, which meant time was up in shark bay and we swam back to the boat.

Once on the baot everybody was raving about the sharks they`d seen but me who seemingly was the only person who hadn`t seen a shark. Next stop took us 10 minutes to reach and was called Aow Leuk Bay, this very picturesque bay was small and we snorkelled in shallow water only 10 metres from the rocky shore. Once in the water we saw huge hard coral formations and a huge variety of fish including the very common seargent major fish which swarmed around us as soon as we entered the water. With some great pictures we left and headed to our next location Hin Wong Bay. Munching on fresh Pineapple the boats crew had preapred for us Paul gave us an interesting talk on how coral forms and the different types we`d be seeing. Hin Wong Bay was another rocky bay, which gave us the opportunity to see huge beds of fire coral harbouring lots of fish. I tracked this parrot fish in and around a huge mushroom shaped coral formation. It must have known I was following it fearing it was on the menu it hid under a coral mushroom. I backed off a little and it reappeared, I quickly dived down about 2 metres and snapped it with my camera. Satisfied I got a good pic I resurfaced and swam back to the boat just as Paul sounded his whistle. 

We now headed to the north coast of the island to Mango bay. It was around lunchtime so on route we were served up rice and chicken with chilli sauce for lunch, very tasty. We arrived in Mango Bay and were taken aback at just how beautiful it was. We had perhaps the best snorkeling at this locale seeing the most different varieties of fish. Helen had the camera this time and was busily snapping away like mad.

Once back on board the boat we headed to our last stop of the day, the island of Ko Nangyuan, consisting of 3 islands connected by a sandbar. We moored at a rickety wooden jetty and disembarked, after paying 100 baht entrance fee we headed to the Japanese gardens on the easten shore of Nangyuan, snorklers were every where including padi course divers. The island was heavily protected by the Thai governmant and we soon saw why it really was beautiful and the most picturesque island weve ever seen. We hobbled over a beach made up of sharp coral and waded into the sea. At thigh deep depth we put the snorkelling kit on and spent the next hour and half seeing some great fish including barrcuda. It was soon 4pm and we`d have been content snorkeling for another couple of hours but it was time to go and we headed back to the boat and the 10 minute journey back to Sairee beach. We anchored and waited what seemed like ages for the lazy long tail boat driver to come collect us and take us back to shore.

Once back we thanked Paul and Shelley for a great day out, we went for a cool shake at a beach front cafe to reflect on what we`d seen, definatley the best trip we`ve been on.