Sea Cucumbers, Calamari, Starfish and more!

Today we got picked up by a speedboat to take us to Ko Rork for snorkeling and lounging on the beach.  It was about a 40 minute trip, and then we jumped in the water for two different snorkeling sessions before lunch.  The water near the islands was a low tide, so there was great lighting for seeing the brightly colored fish, coral, and other marine life.  We saw a lot of things we hadn’t seen snorkeling or giving before, like little squid (I told Gavin to go catch me some calamari for dinner  :)  ), a giant starfish, and many huge sea cucumbers, some as big around as my calf!  We also got to see blue coral for the first time, glowing electric blue in the sunlight.

Coral in the low tide water new Ko Rork.

Gavin snorkeling near a huge chunk of coral.

A sea cucumber the size of my arm.

This sea cucumber was the size of my calf!

Clownfish in a sea anemone.

Blue coral - the brilliance of the color didn't come out in this picture.

Tons of tiny fish in the coral.

See the blue coral on the right side of the picture? This is the closest I could
come to a photo where the actual color we saw came out in a pic.

A beautiful giant starfish! It was around a foot or more in length!

A giant clam about the size of my foot,  When you approach them, the
colorful part sucks into the shell for protection, making it hard to get a
picture.  :)

These little colorful things instantly suck into their holes when you swish
water at them.  They were fun to play with.  :)

After two snorkeling sessions, we stopped at the lovely white sand beach at Ko Rork, where we were treated to a buffet that included some DELICIOUS massaman curry.  We also saw a giant lizard thing wandering around the picnic grounds eyeing the food.  There was some good snorkeling on the beach, too.

Ko Rork Beach.

Ko Rork Beach.

A big lizard thing on Ko Rork Beach.

 After lunch we had one more snorkeling stop, then sped our way back to Ko Lanta through some pretty choppy water. It felt like our driver thought he was driving a jet ski instead of a giant speedboat, almost jumping over waves half the size of our boat!  I was definitely ready to get off the boat when we arrived at our beach.  :)

The rest of the evening was just more relaxing in LaLaanta’s restaurant, having a couple daiquiris and reading our books.  Tomorrow we leave the beaches behind and go back to the mainland.