So today was set to be my second tourist thing to do, a cruise taking us to four different islands. There were two major things that we were set to do, the first was do some snorkeling, and if the brochure was correct it would be fabulous with all the different sea life, the second was to see emerald cave, which was once a place once used by pirates to hide their treasure.
The transport to take me to the pier was late, about thirty minutes late by my count. When I got to the boat there was like twenty people waiting to get on. Although it that doesn’t mean much to you, I could tell is that there were about five too many bodies. To be honest it kind of pissed me off too, the last thing that I wanted to do was be stuffed in a boat where there isn’t any room to move around. I tried to find a seat where I’d have enough room to at least turn to the side so I could look out of the boat towards the water.
Our first stop was to drop off some backpackers on an island???? I have no idea what was going on. Was the tour company running a bus service too? Although it may sound like I’m complaining, it actually was a welcome event as it freed up some space for the rest of us.
It wasn’t long after our first stop until we reached The Emerald Cave. This cave has a small opening into the sea, so small that you’d probably not even notice it if you weren’t specifically looking for it. The cave opens up a little as you go in and with a length of 85 meters and a full ninety degree turn, it’s not long before you are in complete darkness. If it wasn’t for all the people around me that were also making the swim it could probably be a pretty eerie experience. It wasn’t long before I could see the light of the cave opening up about fifty meters ahead; it made for a good target to swim towards.
As the end of the cave got closer I could see through the opening a lagoon with trees and beautiful white sand. There were people swimming and others walking around. When I was finally out of the cave I was really impressed with the whole layout of the area. Basically it was a lagoon that was surrounded on all sides by 100+ meters of mountains. As far as I could tell there wasn’t any other way to the lagoon other than through the cave that I just emerged from. It was just too bad that there were so many people there.
After about thirty minutes we headed back out to the sea the same way we got to the lagoon. Again going through complete darkness about half way through. It may not seem like it, but it can really be disconcerting being in water, feeling the swells, hearing the water and not being to see anything at all.
The rest of the day was three stops to do some snorkeling. The first we made I didn’t go. Just looking down into the clear water was enough to tell me that there wasn’t enough fish for me, and besides after the swim to the emerald cave I noticed that my gopro case had water in it. Not being able to film the fish while snorkeling took some of the fun out of it. I did go on the next two stops that we made.
We also made a stop for lunch on a beautiful island, Koh Krandan. The lunch was good and like I mentioned the island was beautiful.
