How to Get to Sam Roi Yod Nat. Park in Thailand
The Best Way to Travel there is with the Mai Thai Charter Boat
May 3, 2009
Most people wishing to visit Sam Roi Yod Marine National Park in Thailand hire a small flat-deck boat plus a long-tail boat (with boatmen) to negotiate the shallow waters around the islands that dot the Marine Park, but it is now possible to book a trip on the Mai Thai, a charter vessel with polished brass fitments and varnished wooden decks, true luxury afloat.
The Mai Thai Charter Boat Leaves from Pranburi (near Hua Hin & Cha'am)
Leaving from colourful Pranburi fishing village there are great photo opportunities. Heavily laden, multi-coloured fishing boats draped in wicker baskets, orange netting and vivid red, blue and yellow plastic buckets are usually at anchor in the bay. The crews with their wide, black cotton trousers, red bandanas, and long knives, could easily pass for pirates.
Sam Roi Yod, Marine National Park of Thailand
The 24,500 acre Marine National Park of Sam Roi Yod - literally translated as Three Hundred Peaks, is a coastal park of high, thinly vegetated mountains that overlook a number of islands and coastal marshlands that support a great variety of birds. The limestone mountains are riddled with caves inside the most popular of which is a temple, Phraya Nakhon, and the really energetic can climb up to this temple, remembering that it can take up to an hour or more for the return journey
The Trip on the Mai Thai Boat to Sam Roi Yod
For many people the attraction of this trip may be just that, the boat trip, but even the most adventurous trekker would be seduced by sailing along the coast with an iced beer in one hand and binoculars in the other. Cool sea breezes keep the temperature bearable and sliced pineapple, mangoes, papaya and apples are available from the ‘fridge on board.
Shoals of flying fish make sure no one falls asleep as they often land on the deck, and families of dolphins travel alongside the boat, jumping in perfect unison as though performing a stage act.
The boat drops anchor and rides the waves for a short while at Monkey Island, a jungly covered limestone outcrop that sits in the middle of the sea inhabited by monkeys. The sight of the boat has them hurtling down from the trees in the hope of getting some fruit from the visitors.
On the approach to the main island in the Marine National Park of Sam Roi Yod, a long tail boat comes to meet the Mai Thai, into which the passengers disembark for the shallow water approach. The afternoon can be spent swimming, snorkelling, or just lazing about on the sandy beach. Seafood is exceptionally good on the island and very reasonable and the sticky rice with mango, tiger prawns, ginger-baked fish and stir-fried vegetables, all washed down with the local Singha beer is rightly popular..
The return journey into the sunset can be magical, especially if the skipper drops anchor and allows time for a swim in the warm seas with the dolphins.
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