It's lunchtime right after the harrowing experience and although i am not expecting restaurant fare; i was still kind of taken aback by the sheer number of people standing around tables of food.
Buffet style but please be considerate and have one helping first. As you can see, the offerings were relatively basic with rice, noodles, vegetables and meat; unlike the luxurious ones i had on Sapi Island at Kota Kinabalu!
However, Seastar Andaman provided hot water where you can indulge in tea, coffee and milo! That's a nice gesture given that many people were snorkeling in the water before lunchtime.
Slices of pineapple and watermelon as desserts.
There wasn't any table / chair for you to have your meal and many of people were just standing up to dig into their food. Those who couldn't do so would have to make do with the dirt ground; if you are lucky, you can sit on the tree roots jutting out from the ground.
I can only count our blessings that it didn't rain when we visited; if not, i believe the situation would be very chaotic given the lack of shelter.
Should it rain, i doubt anyone of us would dare to venture into the above building as it belongs to the Thai Royal Navy! Never mess with the army.
On one hand, those who love the sea and the beach would be super happy to be assigned to the unit although on the other hand, you would have to make do with the primitive amenities on the island; like the wooden bench press.
We were done rather quickly with lunch as none of us appeared to have the mood to eat more (for obvious reason) but we were not allowed to board the boat. Instead, Sheda (our guide) pointed to a path and showed us a hand-drawn map on where we would be boarding the boat.
Here's the path we were asked to take and it appeared that tourists from other tour agencies were also requested to do the same thing.
Larn Kha Laung View Point - i would have proceeded as 500 meters are not that long; however, the handwritten words stopped me in my path. 45 minutes to an hour would mean i would have no time to check out princess bay!
Maybe that's why no one was going up the way to the viewpoint; i presume most, if not all of us, were on a tight schedule and really didn't have to the luxury of time to check out more.
Have you realized that everyone was barefooted and that's not recommended when you are cutting across jungle?! All of us were actually asked to remove our shoes before we took the boat; thankfully, i bought a pair of aquashoes at Decathlon and they were allowed to be worn on board.
Information panels along the path even though many people were focusing on going along as fast as possible. Why? Because there were blood sucking pests!
Mosquitoes and there were so many; i even managed to smack one to its death!
Unlike the small, irritating kind we encounter in Singapore, the mosquitoes at Similan Islands (No 4) were huge! I wouldn't be able to recognise the species as there are over 3,500! Do you also know that mosquitoes "kill more humans than any other animals"?
Non-hunting area in the jungle sounds like a rather legit warning although i did note that the logo used were more for fishes in the sea! Hm... wrong logo?
Campsites! At my age, i am happier staying in a resort / hotel with air-conditioning. Don't think i can endure the backache to sleep in a tent unless it's the evolved version known as glamping!
A fine would be imposed on campers who hang their laundry to dry; i do hope that an alternative solution is offered since you wouldn't want your wet clothes stinking up the tent! Furthermore, the sun is free!
Tall trees.
Toilet time even though you can choose, discreetly, to do your number 1 in the sea. Anyway, the washrooms were relatively clean; albeit a bit wet.
After about 10 minutes of walk to cut through the jungle, we were rewarded with the breathtaking scenery at Princess Bay! For more photos, please refer to my post on Princess Bay right here.
Leaving for our next snorkeling between Similan Island No 9 and 8 @ Christmas Point / Namchai Bay. Sad that it's so short a time but there wasn't much choice as we only had a day at Similan Islands.
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Purchase of Day Trip Package
The Similan Islands day trip package by Seastar Andaman was purchased from At Akarin tour counter near Swissotel Resort (Patong Beach) at a discounted pricing of 2,500 baht; pricing online was 3,800 baht!
What else did i do in Phuket?
Check out my 5-day Phuket itinerary here!