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Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-four

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October 20 (Monday, Day 34, Ko Samui, Thailand) - Continued

In our last post, we began our snorkel swim off Coral Island, Thailand. We continue . . .

Snookums and friendly fish

The water was very murky and it seemed like visibility was about 5 feet but the water was warm so that made it nice. We swam towards the coral and found 100s of yellow and black striped fish. They were very friendly and swam right in front of our faces. It was pretty neat. We didn't see any other kind of fish and the coral was kind of hard to see, but it was still a great snorkel. We climbed on the boat for the return to Coral Island. (After Filbert got on the longtail boat, his feet slipped out from under him and he went completely down on his back on the little deck of the boat but he immediately quipped "What did the judges score me?" and we all knew he was fine.)

More snorkel pictures and the rest of the post, after the jump: Snorkeling in Koh Tan, Thailand:

Really friendly fish

Snookums takes the measure of a fish

Thumbs up from Filbert . . .

. . . And Snookums

Lunch was almost ready to be served when we got back. Our table of four was served a whole deep fried fish, a plate of fried rice, some kind of soup with various vegetables, meat and tofu in it and deep fried coconut shrimp. Singha beer and Coke were also served and there was watermelon and pineapple for dessert. Snookums isn't much of a fish eater but she managed to eat all of the meat off the fish's skeleton since it was so good. The other couple sharing our table didn't eat much so that meant that it was okay for Snookums to pig out on the fish (and she also finished off the fried rice). It was a great lunch and after another hour or so, it was time to get back on the longtail boats for the ride back.

Fried fish - before Snookums

Fried fish - after Snookums

A caged bird at the resort - it talked, supposedly

Flowers at the resort

After the tour van dropped us off at the tender pier, we decided to walk around the Na Thon area of Ko Samui. We saw more souvenir stores and several convenience stores and decided to spend our coinage of 26 baht ($0.75) on a can of Coke Zero (14 baht) and a bag of Durian chips (12 baht). Durian is a tropical fruit that smells like rotten meat but durian chips tasted like potato chips. We got on the tender and went back to the ship and its air conditioning and our shower! Once again the weather for the day was great. It was overcast and 80° and we didn't get any rain at Coral Island but Ko Samui did. Snookums got a little sunburned but Filbert didn't.

Snookums decided that going to the 9:30 PM karaoke would be fun and when Filbert mentioned it to the table, Yvan immediately said he would sing. We told our waiter, WuWan, that we needed to be done by 9:30 and we were! We went to the Crow's Nest and Yvan signed up to sing "O Holy Night". But, when the English words were displayed on the screen for all to see, he surprised everyone by singing it in French!! He has an excellent voice. Gary, Snookums and Filbert played the role of backup dancers off to the side in the back. A few other cruisers sang and then Yvan went back up to sing and this time Filbert and Gary decided to stand right behind Yvan. Well, it was a good thing since Yvan didn't know the song at all and Filbert and Gary provided comic relief for the fifteen people in attendance. Yvan ended the 45-minute karaoke show with "Beyond the Sea" and even the words were in French which is what he wanted. He's a good singer but doesn't know pop songs so although there were probably a thousand songs to choose from, he really didn't know any others. His wife reminded all of us that he mostly sings church songs and opera.

Late afternoon sun

Next: Another sea day, and on to Bali!