Muang Boran, translated "Ancient City", is a museum park in Thailand located in Samut Prakan, just outside of Bangkok. This is not an amusement park, but instead is a real-life open-air museum where the most famous monuments of the country are replicated.
Thailand: Surin Islands
The Surin Islands is an archipelago of five islands in the Andaman Sea, 55 kilometres from the Thai mainland. Koh Surin National Marine Park rates as one of Thailand's prime island locations and is a popular place for diving and snorkelling tours.
When I was planning the trip around Thailand, I had thought about whether we should take some scuba diving lessons. The one concern I had was about how my sinuses would cope with the pressure when diving. In the end, I decided that we’d stick to snorkelling for now.
When researching the best places for snorkelling in Thailand, two places stuck out, the Similan and Surin Islands. I settled for a 3-day, 2-night adventure to the Surin Islands.
Getting There
Our pickup from the Retreat was at 7 am, and there was another group of six who were travelling with us from the hotel. Their English wasn’t great, and I had no idea what language they spoke, and they were loud.
It took about an hour for us to reach Khura Buri Port where our speed boat would be taking us the 60 km or so to the Surin Islands. After a briefing about the islands and our day’s schedule, we climbed aboard our boat. The boat was not large and was packed with people, most of whom were on a day trip to the islands.
The Surin Islands are an archipelago of five islands within Mu Ko Surin National Park, in Phang Nga Province. The islands are 55 km off the coast, 100 km north of the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea and just 18 km from the oceanic border of Burma. The national park covers an area of 135 km² of which 76% is sea.
The main islands are Ko Surin Nuea and Ko Surin Tai which are only 200 meters apart, the corridor between both islands is shallow and a popular place for snorkelling. The other three small islands are Ko Ri, Ko Khai and Ko Klang.
The islands are one of the very few untouched places in Thailand. Other than a small Moken village and park premises, there are no other buildings on the islands.
It took about an hour for us to reach the islands, and immediately the anchor was dropped, and we were soon in the water for our first snorkel. The water was incredibly clear and there was so much to see, colourful coral, giant clams, massive sea stars and loads of fish. It was amazing, and I think the best snorkel swim I had ever experienced. After about 45 minutes we were summoned back to the boat and headed the short distance to one of the islands where we dropped anchor and were whisked ashore on a long-tailed boat. These islands are part of a National Park, and the Park Service offers camps, with kitchens, restaurants, and places to stay overnight. So, we got to eat buffet style at the National Park camp.
The Moken
After lunch, we headed to another island which was literally about 200 metres away, by long-tailed boat. On this island in a small village of the Moken people. This is the only permanent community in the Surin Islands.
The Moken are a semi-nomadic Austronesian people, who live in the Mergui Archipelago, a group of approximately 800 islands in the Andaman Sea that is claimed both by Burma and Thailand. They are believed to have migrated to Thailand, Burma and Malaysia from Southern China approximately 4,000 years ago, the Moken have traditionally lived on hand-built wooden boats called kabang for most of the year, migrating in flotillas between islands according to factors such as subsistence needs, wind patterns, security concerns and disease. They have historically shunned material possessions and rejected outside technology (although the village in the Surin Islands had satellite dishes on the outside!
Today, their maritime existence which recognizes no national boundaries is endangered. A peaceable people, they have frequently been persecuted by the Burmese and Thai governments, both of whom are wary of their borderless lives and have tried to settle the Moken permanently in national parks. Their semi-nomadic numbers have diminished in recent years due to political and post-tsunami regulations, companies drilling for oil offshore, and governments seizing their lands for tourism development and industrial fishing.
There was a small exhibition on the island that introduced the history and culture of the Moken. After spending a few minutes looking around the exhibits we took a walk through the village. This village is on the tourist trail, so several children and women had set up blankets outside their homes, which were single-storey wooden structures set up on stilts on the edge of the beach. The stilts protect the houses from high tides – but these stilts are no protection when it comes to surviving the full wrath of Mother Nature. In 2004 a powerful tsunami ripped through Thailand and much of Southeast Asia killing 250,000 people. The Moken on the Surin Islands were right in the path of the monstrous wave. One of the locals had noticed the sea retreating and raised the alarm with the elders. Knowledge of the laboon, or “seventh wave”, had been passed down for thousands of years through generations of Moken, and they had been taught through these stories to head for the mountains or deep water. Which is what they did, saving the whole community.
Surin Islands National Park
After about 30 minutes in the Moken village were back on the long-tailed boat and returning to our boat. There was one more snorkel outing for the day, on a shallow reef. Like the snorkel in the morning, we saw so many beautiful fish and corals.
It was now time for the day visitors to head back to the mainland. A long-tailed boat pulled up alongside us with half a dozen or so people aboard. The people had spent two nights sleeping on the islands. We exchanged places with them on the long-tailed boat. The speed boat set off, leaving us to make our way to the island for our two-night stay. With us on the long-tailed boat was a family from South Africa Gael, and George and their four children Josh, Nathan, Rebecca and Anna. They were on a four-month tour of Australia and Thailand and had just been snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. The two girls Rebecca and Anna were identical twins, and remarkably shared a birthday with their mother, who was also a twin (sadly her twin brother died before birth) and their grandmother who was also a twin. I am not sure the odds of all this, but I imagine they are very high!
We pulled up at a small jetty and climbed off the boat. A man arrived with a wheel-cart to transport our luggage and we followed behind him on a narrow trail through the jungle.
Our accommodation for the next two nights was to be a tent right next to the beach. The crescent-shaped beach was lined with a thin grove of trees and had beautiful soft sand. It was paradise.
We had had many ‘glamping’ experiences over the last few months, especially in Africa. This was not glamping! Initially, we tried a tent right on the edge of the beach, the view was incredible, but I couldn’t lie down inside the tent. So, we ended up taking a large tent a couple of rows back that was slightly more spacious.
The was not a whole lot to do on the island apart from sitting and relaxing, which is what we did until it was time for dinner.
Dinner itself was nothing spectacular. It could have been worse because for some reason the message about us being vegetarian had not made it through to the kitchen staff. But they managed to sort something tasty for us to eat.
After dinner, we went for a little walk on the beach before returning to our tent. We had been provided with very thin bed rolls, a rather scabby pillow, and a sleeping bag. I was not expecting a good night’s sleep. It was also hot and humid, which was not going to make sleeping any easier.
Day Two
As predicted neither of us slept well, although Karen continued with the bravado about having spent many nights on Boy Scout Camps. I was still as a board and aching as I climbed out of the tent, but it was a bright sunny morning and the sight of the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea soon put the discomfort of the night in the tent far behind me.
After breakfast, we gathered our swim stuff and snorkelling gear and headed back to the pier. We were joined on the boat by our new South African friends and another couple from Australia.
We were taken to a different snorkelling point from the previous day. It took us about 20-minutes to get there which was a great opportunity to bond with our fellow travellers. The children Josh (12), and Nathan (11) and the two girls Rebecca and Anna (both 8) were a delight. Josh, who was a person of colour was adopted, had a huge amount of energy, and turned out could swim like a fish. The girls were truly identical, so telling them apart was almost impossible, but Rebecca had burnt her leg on the exhaust of a motorcycle, so she could be identified, at least temporarily by the dressing on her leg. Sadly, for her, she would not be swimming with us today.
The area where we were going to snorkel was in an area between the two main Surin Islands, that had suffered damage during the 2004 tsunami and was only just starting to recover. The coral here was not so healthy and the water was a bit deeper than where had swam the day before. That said there were larger fish and the chance of seeing sea turtles and sharks. We climbed into the water and began exploring. I saw plenty of spectacular fish including large angel fish, parrot fish and butterfly fish, although I didn’t manage to catch sight of the sea turtle that others in the group managed to see.
After, this swim we moved to a new spot on the edge of the reef. There was a coral reef not too far below the surface which dropped off precipitously at the edge. The water was so clear that you could see down into the depths at least 15 metres. It was an amazing feeling to be floating over the abyss. Again, there was plenty to see. The highlight for me was seeing a reef shark swimming about 20 metres away from me along the reef edge. I tried to get Karen’s attention to show her the shark, but by the time I did it had disappeared off in the murk.
By now it was lunchtime and we’d worked up quite an appetite from all the swimming. We headed back to the National Park camp for lunch.
In the afternoon we headed back out for two more swims.
By the time we reached the end of the day, we were tired in a healthy, satisfied sort of way. As with the day before we had some downtime to relax on the beach before heading to dinner and then bed.
Day Three
Once again, we didn’t sleep very well but were soon refreshed by the beauty of our surroundings. The plan for the day was to have breakfast, snorkel in the morning before returning to collect our bags, have lunch and then head to the second National Park camp. After this, we would board a speed boat, say goodbye to the Surin Islands and head back to the mainland.
For the morning’s snorkelling, we headed out with our guide to what he described as the best area of coral reef in the islands. Once again, we were swimming on the reef’s edge. This was going to be a drift swim, where we would be dropped off and travel with the current to a second point where the long-tailed boat would pick us up. As promised, this was an amazing swim. I just floated along and found myself in a cloud of small fish swimming around me. It was an existential experience. Among the coral, there were anemones with clownfish darting through the tentacles. There were huge butterfly fish, box fish, angel fish and most spectacular of all, at least in my opinion, giant parrot fish. The parrot fish like to crunch on the coral, which you can hear as you swim, and then eject a cloud of coral dust, which I guess technically is parrotfish poop, from behind then like a vapour trail from an aeroplane.
After this snorkel, we returned to the long-tailed boat and headed off for a second area to swim in.
Sadly, we were now done with our snorkelling in the Surin Islands. It had been incredible. The family from South Africa said it was at least as good as what they had seen on the Great Barrier Reef.
We returned to camp, packed our belongings, and then grabbed lunch.
Later in the afternoon, we took a long-tailed boat back to the speedboat. We did the shuffle with the lucky people who would spend the next two nights on the Surin Islands (although I was not sad to say goodbye to my bedroll) and sped back to the mainland.
It was late afternoon before we reached Khao Sak. I had booked us in for two nights back at the Retreat. We checked into our room and decided to go out for a spin on the bikes with the dodgy breaks. Initially, we headed up to the main road to the supermarket so I could get some money from the ATM, and then we cycled down to the beach to catch the sunset, which was incredible.
The Surin Islands had been amazing, but now it was time to explore more of the mainland of Thailand.
Getting to the Surin Islands
The Surin Islands are not the easiest place to get to. We chose to stay in Khao Lak and get transported from there to Khura Buri Port to get the boat to the islands. There is not anywhere to stay close to the port itself.
There are not too many options for getting to and from the islands. We went with a tour package for 3 days / two nights, but you could do a day trip or 2 days / one night. It was not very cheap, but we felt it was really worth the expense.
Best time to visit the Surin Island
The Surin Islands enjoy a tropical climate. It is typically high in both temperature and humidity with yearly monsoons. Awareness of Thailand’s seasonal weather patterns is essential for the traveller to make for a comfortable and enjoyable trip.
In a typical year, the monsoon rains peter out in October and the high season for tourism begins. November till April sees the most accommodating weather for guests to Thailand. During these months the humidity has been cleared from the preceding monsoon. There is now low rainfall, sunny skies and the temperature flirts with 30°C
Where to stay on the Surin Islands
Camping is included on Surin Islands 3 day 2-night Snorkeling Tours and Surin Islands 2 day 1 night Snorkeling Tours. Guests will be allocated tents on the beach at Mae Ngam.
A sleeping bag, pillow and sleeping mat is provided for each person staying in a tent.
One towel per person is provided. You may want to take an additional towel of your own, as it can be nice to have an extra one when snorkelling for 3 days and camping for 2 nights.
Surin bungalows are available as an upgrade option on Surin Islands 3 day 2 night Snorkeling Tours and Surin Islands 2 day 1 night Snorkeling Tours. 3 types of bungalows are available.
- Sinsamut (2+ pax) at Chong Khard have been fully refurbished and updated to include air conditioning.
- Rakamwhan (4 pax) at Chong Khard have air conditioning.
- Mae Ngam (3-4 pax) with air conditioning.
There is limited availability on the bungalows so please try to book well in advance!
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