Much Nature. Also tropical rainstorms is no joke

18122016

Asia, Cruise, Thailand

Last excursion of the cruise, last stop in Thailand, breakfast was again the buffet, so nothing new. We hurried down to the embarkation deck to take the tender to the port.

Koh Sumui was the stop for the day, this is one of those tropical paradise spots that attracts apparently Russians and Australians. The primary activity was a hike up the mountain to swim in a mountain stream. The itinerary even mentioned it was VERY STRENUOUS, but apparently some of the other tourists didnt take the itinerary seriously.

But ill get to that.

Once the tender got us to the pier, our group was broken into 4 micro-buses, each with their own guide, so really it was basically a ten person private tour. We were taken to a seafood market, that wasnt all that interesting after all the markets we have been through, but as i said, the primary activity was the hike.

So after the market we get up to the base of the mountain, got some fish food, and fed the fish in front of a Buddhist temple, to prove we were good people.

Laura and i actually saved most of our fish food to share with the various dogs in the area, especially the puppy.



So the river in which the fish were was the mouth of the river which we would eventually be swimming in up the mountain. It seemed to be moving very quickly.

Turns out overnight, it had stormed pretty hard, which as you can imagine swells up the riverbanks pretty significantly. We started walking up the mountain, crossing the first of many streams that were much larger than normal, and people started complaining. A lady asked 5 minutes into the walk “how far are we? how much longer?” the guide nearly laughed and said; we're not even one quarter of the way up.

It was very very strenuous, the hike would have been hard on a normal day, the rains made it a little dangerous. Laura and I got ahead of the main group and joined a sporty older couple from Seattle Area (we spoke to them some about moving there). The itinerary said a 30 minute walk, it took us a little over an hour.

When we got up to the top we saw the waterfall, and it was beautiful, but violent. The pool that we were supposed to swim in would probably have killed us if we had gotten in. When a guide made it up to us, he suggested we swim in one of the lower areas.

So we climbed back down, found a spot and disrobed to hop in the fresh mountain spring.

Firstly the water was very cold, it took a little while to get used to. As you eased into the chill water, you felt ALL THE LITTLE FISHIES NIP AT YOUR FEET.


That was weird, some people pay for this treatment, i certainly wouldnt. Luckily the water was moving so quickly, as soon as you got a few feet from the shore the fish couldnt handle the current.

We swam around some, didnt die, and then went back down the mountain.

Getting back down the mountain, after collecting up all the people that couldnt make it up we made our way to lunch. Lunch was at a restaurant near the pier where we are a more local meal than we had yet have, and it was unsurprisingly one of the better meals we had.

After lunch we had a few minutes to wander around the little town some, Laura bought some more elephant pants (loose fitting inexpensive cotton pants), and we made our way back to the tender.

The boat brought us back to our bigger boat, for more trivia and another dinner with our Aussie friends, before going to sleep, ready for our last full day on the ship.