Ko Rang: a day of snorkeling in a heavenly setting

During this stay in Ko Mak, it was relatively unthinkable not to do a day of snorkeling, just to discover a little of the seabed of this beautiful region. We had therefore booked a day of snorkeling through our hotel, for the sum of 700 baht per person (the price includes a meal, equipment and the tax for access to Ko Rang because it is a protected site).

Departing from Ko Mak, a certain advantage

What is the advantage of doing this day trip from Ko Mak? Well, this tour remains a must in this corner of Thailand. As a result, even people coming from Ko Chang in the north and Ko Kood in the south of Ko Mak, also come to these same spots…

Suffice to say that at peak times, there can be a lot of people… But from Ko Mak, this creates a gap since the site of the day, which gravitates around Ko Rang, is closer to us. Result? We arrived either first, or we allowed ourselves to arrive after the others, because we had more leeway in terms of timing.

Not to mention that with our boat, we were almost in private, since there were in addition to the 2 of us, only a couple of young Russians (or Eastern countries) and another Thai couple. So it was with only 6 people that we set off towards Ko Rang. When we saw the other boats arriving, I understood then how relaxed we were, those arriving from Ko Chang and Ko Kood were full of Chinese and others and at least 50 per boat!

Ao Kao Beach Pier in Ko Mak.

At least there's no rush!

Ko Rang in 3 spots

We left from the pier located on our beach (Ao Kao), right next to our hotel. Departure scheduled for around 10am and return early in the afternoon. We pass between the 2 islands visible from Ao Kao beach, Ko Rayang Noi and Ko Rayang Nok, one of which has a small isolated resort.

It didn't take us more thana little half an hour to reach the first spot. A small piece of rock sticking out of the water, just east of Ko Rang. Mu Ko Rang is a group of small islets, Ko Rang (Yai) itself being a small uninhabited island west of Ko Mak, at most there is a small Chinese-style temple and a hut for the rangers monitoring the park (as soon as a boat approached, a zodiac would come alongside and check that it was in order).

The spot is typical of snorkeling spots in Thailand, turquoise water and very fishy. We had barely arrived when we saw a multitude of small multi-coloured fish gathering around us.

We stayed on this first spot for almost an hour. We had time to enjoy it alone before the other boats land.

The second spot is around another small piece of rocks just a little further south of Ko Rang. Same kind of seabed as before, full of fish, a lot of sea urchins with very long spikes (be careful where you put your feet), but little or no corals...

We will stay there for about an hour, again, we will have time to swim mainly without the herds chasing us.

For the last spot, we dock next to the Ko Rang main beach, Haad San Chao, a small idyllic white sand beach that reminds us of vacations and why we are here!

I swam towards the spot itself, also located at the foot of a small rock, then joined the beach, just to tread the fine sand that tickles my eyes. I stayed a few minutes, the time for the photo pose, Jitima taking pictures of me from the boat. I then returned to the boat for a while to fill my stomach.

It was with this view that we had our lunch. of the day on the boat. While the others have almost all left. I did a few more dips and strokes before going back up, because it was time to leave for Ko Mak.

Back to Ko Mak, or not…

It was around 14:30 pm when we were returning to the coast of Ko Mak. Except that although it was not obvious, the wind was too strong for our boat to drop us off directly at the dock… We had to wait for a more manageable boat, one of the speed boats like the one we had arrived with from the dock of Laem Ngop (not far from Trat), to come and pick us up…

It will take an hour during which we will let ourselves be tossed about by the sea while taking a little nap along the way... Enough to rest after this half-day, which is not at all restful (almost 3 hours of swimming and freediving all the same!)