The excitement of snorkeling in Ton Sai

Walking on water at the end of a snorkeling day in Thailand - photo by Naomi

Naomi mentions it in her blog post here but we went on one of the sunset snorkeling trips while in Ton Sai a few days ago. Basically 6 hours of being driven around in a long-tail boat between islands and a relaxing dinner on a beach for sunset. As she mentions though, there was an 'incident' or two to be dealt with leaving a bit of a sour taste afterwards. I'd to help pull two people to the boat after we were dumped in the water on the wrong side of a channel and told to swim against the current.

Steve has put a good post up on the benefits of picking a reputable and responsible instructor for when getting climbing training - you'll have a happier day out and learn a hell of a lot more. This goes with what happened with us - we called up a random number that was handed out to us instead of following a proper dive shops tours. It didn't save us anything but could quite easily have been a really bad day out. For all the annoyance of having to sign disclaimers, etc. while in the Western countries, there is the benefit from these that you're aware of what you're letting yourself in for. We weren't given any warnings and much to our amazement, people were just supplied with masks and told to get in the water. Bizarre.
Still though, it was beautiful snorkeling, and the meal on the beach with two good friends from home, Aoife and Claire, made it all the more worthwhile!