We needed an early start this morning and get one of the earliest tenders ashore to meet a driver who would take us to the start of part one of our tour today. Our excursion was a Private Speedboat Island Hopper followed by a quick tour of some of the islands tourist spots.
Elite priority boarding came into its own and we were actually on the first boat across. On arrival we were greeted by hoards of local taxi drivers all pleading that you take a tour in their cab.
On arrival at Nathon Pier, we located our driver and after a 30 minute journey we arrived at the boat and were soon on our way to stop one which was a remote beach on a small island.
We spent 30 minutes there before moving on to another area where we could do some snorkeling. We spent another 30 minutes or so here too carrying on to Koh MatSum Island (Pig Island) to see some of its famous pigs and then have a picnic on the beach.
That pretty much summed up the morning which perhaps doesn’t sound amazing but we certainly had a great time.
Our boat then headed back to our start point so we could meet the driver and a quick change of transport to begin our tour around some of the Islands tourist spots. We visited Namuang Waterfall, Mummified Monk of Koh Samui, Red Temple (Wat Sila Ngu Temple) & Chaweng Viewpoint
On arrival at Nathon Pier we were greeted by the mother of all queues to catch the tender back.
What’s more there was also Diamond Princess tendering with just the smallest of amount of people queuing. Princess had a really funny guy directing all his passengers to the right place and he was loving it. Strutting up and down, totally hamming it up. It was good fun and it helped us pass the 35 minutes wait to get to the front of the line.
The tender journey was another half hour or so more before we made it back to the ship.
It was a fun filled day and a couple of cold beers didn’t touch the sides once onboard.
You covered a lot in just a short time. ‘Nice one.
‘Haven’t been to to the South of Thailand, only the Northern part. Thailand does National Parks really well and even though it was raining when we went to Doi Inthanon National Park, we ploughed through and hiked up the mountain and to the waterfall. No Mummified Monk up there though! ;D
That was a loooonnnnngggg day! And a long line to get back on. Always thought they should have an Elite line to go back as well but people would probably be really ticked…those that weren’t in it. Loved the dead monk with the shades. Even cool in the next world. ????
Looks like you covered a hell of a lot and had a fantastic time. We stayed on Koh Samui in 1996 for 9 days ( before going onto Bangkok) and do not recollect any cruise ships visiting then. We did get around the island and used speed boats out the to the various islands in the national park where there was still pristine coral. We saw the waterfall on KS but missed the mummified monk. Not sure if we saw the pigs on the island but did visit that area. Getting to some islands involved walking up to our waists across shallowish waters carrying any necessaries on our heads.