Early Start Today,

we had booked a trip to some of the islands,

so breakfast that is included in the room rate, 

and we were off,

down the hill,

along the flat,

and up the dale,

we arrived at the jetty that our boat was moored at, the cost of the day trip was 700 baht each including pick up and drop off at your hotel, plus lunch and a small afternoon snack, we bought the trip at the hotel reception,

the jetty is a few hundred meters long, it is covered in but small jetty's radiate from it, like this one for the medical centre,

or emergency services,

I do remember this site from the last time we were here, I guess it is still for sale as it looks almost exactly as it did the last time we saw it,

on both sides of the jetty there are shops selling all manner of goods,

mostly of courses souvenirs,

lizards seem to be in fashion at the moment,

one of the satellite jetty's has these buildings on it, I guess you can rent them,

some of the buildings are a bit more substantial in size,

our boat for the day,

first job walk the plank,

then settle into the boats lower deck, there were in fact three decks,

whilst waiting to cast off I took a few pictures of this rather large building,

it is a bit difficult to judge it's size, but it dwarfed the others,

naturally I had the Koh Chang T shirt,

well we both did, Ah!

at last we moved away from the jetty,

as we made our way past some of the other day trip boats, 

that was where we were,

then camera time,

it looks like we will definitely be firsts to the islands,

a last picture of the huge house I mentioned before,

I quiet liked the look of these sort of Chinese looking vessels,

past the lighthouse,

as we go out a squid boat comes in,

the booms on both sides of the boat have large lamps hanging from them, these attract the squid at night,

not long now,

of course if we wanted to be first to the island we should have taken a sped boat,

we sailed past a few islands,

then it was time to gear up,

and in everybody went,

making  towards the island where the water is shallower and there are more corals, 

 as both Sandio and Dioshane had not been snorkeling before we had a guide, the great thing was that throughout the day he would dive to the seabed and bring up things of interest,

 like this,

 it was a sea cucumber,

 talk about scream,

 I am not sure who it was but someone did not like it!

the small red and yellow coloured things are sometimes called Christmas Tree Worms, (Spirobranchus porites), they are small, just barely reaching one inch or so in length, 

 as you swim over them sometimes they will dart into the tunnel they live in as a response to your shadow passing over them, they perceive the shadow as a threat,

now this is something I would not advise any one to do, pick up a sea urchin, the spine if one pierces your flesh has a nasty habit of not being easy to remove due to the fact that they have small 'rings', that run around the spine and snap off if you try to pull them out,

 everyone found the guide to be a great help,

as he pulled the three of them along whilst they held on to a spare life jacket,

whilst we had been swimming lunch was set out,

so it was time to tuck in,

Dioshane all smiles,

and as we ate our lunch we threw some bread over the side so the fish could have theirs,

one of the Chinese style boats appeared,

we had moved to another island, so time to get ready for a swim again,

and in we go,

 Sandio looking at the fish,

 and Diana holding on to the life jacket,

 we gave the camera to the guide for a group picture, below water,

 and above water,

 although difficult to see there is a beautiful blue clam in the centre of the picture,

 Diana had like her brother and sister really enjoyed the snorkeling,

 just be careful of the spines,

 swim over, fins off and up I come,

followed by Sandio and Dioshane,

in a couple of days time we will be on one of those!

Dioshane and Sandio dry off,

as we prepare to get under way.