A relaxing reprieve on the Thai Island of Ko Kut

After the crowds and history of Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Ko Kut was a complete change. We anchored off this tiny island and ferried people to the pier near a white sand beach.

The crew had set up a buffet lunch and brought out the kayaks and Hobie Cats. I took my snorkeling gear with me and didn’t even make it to the beach. I just went straight in from the pier and snorkeled for almost two hours. The water was nice and refreshing and fairly clear. There was no coral, but there was a lot of life in the rocks along the shoreline. I saw plenty of tropical fish, and hundreds of gobies defending their patches of rock.

I also saw lots of black longspine sea urchins with iridescent blue spots, large open clams some over a foot across, plenty of sea cucumbers, and the largest cowry shells I’ve ever seen. Some of the cowry shells were the size of a Nerf football and they were all alive and healthy.

Towards the end of the dive I saw a cuttlefish that was hanging out near a log. I chased it around for a while. It would scoot off when I got close and then blend in to the bottom to see if I still saw it. It was good, but not good enough, I could always see it.

I got back to shore, ate lunch, and relaxed on the beach for a while. Afterwards, I took one of the kayaks out for a while.

We came back in the late afternoon, had a meeting about the Angkor Wat trip we are planning next week, and had a casual dinner aboard. I spent some time getting all of my scuba gear unpacked and set up again for a dive tomorrow. We saw a great tropical sunset from the top deck of the Ship and even got a green flash as the sun went below the horizon.