A Trip to Singapore Ch. 02

When I'd found out about Koh Samuai, I found that it was the gateway to Mu Koh Angthong National park. A marine park, the name means "many Islands". My initial thought was that maybe we could find a way to get to an island and be totally alone, but what I found was the next best thing. The travel agent had arranged for us to travel to one of the larger islands, where it was possible to also camp out overnight. The hour long trip was made in a inter-island boat where we transferred to the local small boats to land. Typical Thai, they were little more than large canoes, with a V-8 powered "outboard" motor with about a thirty foot long drive shaft with a propeller on the end. With the shallow waters, they actually worked pretty well.

Within two hours the day tourists were called back to the boat. With a rental tent and a small cooler for a little food, a little wine, and not much more than the clothes on our back we bid adieu to the other tourists and prepared to spend the night. There was one other couple there, a couple probably in their early twenties, from Britain. We had our tent in an almost flat location, they were several hundred meters away in another. Once the other tourists left we had the place virtually to ourselves.