We booked a long boat trip for 450 baht which was for the whole day, from 10.30-18.30 (sunset here). They gave us snorkeling gear, lunch and water all included in the price too!

Breakfast was at a delicious bakery called P.P.Garden and I had a warmed banana and nut muffin and Toby had coconut buns because they were so big!

First stop on the trip was Monkey Beach aptly named as it is inhabited by furry monkeys who have twigged tourists come bringing food, sunglasses and cameras…not a good idea to get too close I learnt my lesson in Lopburi. I was a bit shocked when we landed as there were literally 12 other boats all carrying 8-15 people (ours was 8 person boat already!) and the tiny beach was heaving, it wasn't very pleasant actually.

Our next stop was snorkeling at Shark point and thankfully not as busy! The water was so clear. Under the water you can see the damage to the reefs caused by the tsunami of 2004, broken coral litters the beaches and unfortunately lots of the coral is already undergoing bleaching :-( However there is still lots to see! There were loads of brightly coloured chromis and loads of parrotfish!! You could hear them munching on the coral! I spotted a black tip shark, it just swam right under me. Also I found 3 seahorses, 2 were curling their tails around each other and hanging onto the reef. It was so cool snorkelling I didn't want to get back into the boat! We saw lots of wrasses, some neon blue fish, clams (I even saw one open!), sea cucumbers, Idol fish (like Gill from Finding Nemo), gobies, needlefish, trumpetfish, and angelfish not to mention the ones I couldn't name!

For lunch we stopped at Bamboo island, just wandering down the beach we spotted a yellow and black baby monitor lizard about 2 ft long stratching at the earth to find bugs! Very cool!

Onwards we went to Moskito Island which is an apparently new discovery, more snorkeling here which was great although this reef was a lot more damaged and patches were covered with urchins, you could see the blanket of dead coral behind them. Tobes and I both noticed we didn't see even one predatory fish at all, we had thought it was a marine reserve but we saw later on a boat full of guys jinking for fish so it's obviously not being protected- there's not too much left to catch!

We visited Maya Beach, the set for the film 'The Beach' I did call out for Leonardo DiCaprio but all I found was Toby J the weather took a turn for the worse and a storm moved in so we all jumped back in the boat and got soaked by the waves crashing over the side of the boat!

For dinner we went to the beach front, it's a bit more pricey but beautiful setting. I was still not fancying thai so ordered a burger, having seen the state of their reefs we both decided against ordering fish. Up in the trees by the restaurant we saw 2 or 3huge flying foxes, the waiter said they come every year to eat the fruit. Amazing!