Monday, July 30, 2007

Klong Muong Beach Day 3

We hired a long-tail boat and rode out to Chicken and Poda islands. Chicken Island seems to be a triangle of three islands that are connected by clean white sand bars at low tide.


Chicken Island, obviously


The boat and crew



Can you believe how clear the water is? As soon as we got in, schools of striped yellow & black Sargent Majors began swimming up to us. Also silvery white spotted fish that I think may have been snappers came up. And separate from them; but swimming between the islands close to shore, were schools of small, thin, beautiful blue fish with snouts. I thought they were trumpet or flute fish, but Allen said the scuba instructor later said they were young barracuda. My favorite fish is the brightly colored fuchsia, blue, and green parrot fish with it's rounded "beak" that it uses to peck away at the coral. You can hear the sound of groups of them eating under water.


Pete on the front of the boat with one of the sandbars behind him.


Poda Island
Our next stop was Poda Island which me nicknamed "Monkey Island" after discovering a handful of the creatures residing in the trees and vines there. We snorkeled here also and then headed back to Klong Muong. The water was extremely calm, more like a lake than a sea. The visibility underneath was okay. The best part of that reef was watching the swirls of tiny blue-green fish around us, the snappers swimming in circles in a coral opening, a shy puffer fish, and a couple of lovely yellow angelfish. There are definitely better snorkeling sites further away. But we were satisfied, famished, and toasted red on the back side (from floating on our bellies watching fish). It was a good day.


Snorkeling off Poda Island




1 comment:

Baylor Missions said...

Hey Aunt Stephanie! It looks like ya'll are having a great time at the beach! Your pictures are wonderful!