A Rambling Writer Rerun: Thailand, part 8: Angthong Marine Park

Join Thor and me as we take a cruise from Koh Samui to the stunning islands and clear blue sea of the national marine park.

NOTE: Due to health issues, Thor and I haven’t been able to do much travel the past few years, so here’s our Thailand trip from 2020. We were lucky to squeak through the pandemic flight closures that February of 2020 as we returned from our three-week trip. Now crazy times just keep getting crazier. So escape for a few minutes from our new American dystopia to a country as beautiful and colorful as a dream! I’ll interrupt the reruns with occasional book reviews or Geezer Adventures…. (This blog series began 3/15/2025.)

As I mentioned last week, Thor and I had hoped to scout out potential winter digs on the island of Koh Samui, but quickly realized it was way too crowded and the swimming unpleasantly murky and weed-choked, possibly from pollution due to overdevelopment. So we decided to go with the flow and just enjoy being among the tourists flocking to the former paradise. We signed up with Mr. Tu’s Cruises for a day trip to the still mostly-pristine islands of the Angthong Marine Park. These islands and waters escaped the development craze due to being the preserve of the Thai Royal Navy until recently, and there are only a few resorts. The islands and sea are stunningly beautiful.

The small longtail boats are ingeniously powered by car engines that have a propeller at the end of the drive shaft, and enterprising owners can be hired off most Thai beaches for local trips. That would have been too slow for the long cruise from Koh Samui, so we arrived in a larger motor launch filled with mostly Chinese tourists. This was in January, before the Covid-19 alarms really hit and limited travel from China.

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com