Day 15, 16.08.2014, Koh Chang Marine National Park

Today we are going on the second booked tour on Koh Chang, the 4-Island-Tour through the Marine National Park. The name says it all, we will travel south of Koh Chang through the Marine National Park on a ship and stop at 4 islands to have the opportunity to admire the underwater world through a diving mask.

Sounds good at first, and is basically very good, but we would still advise against such a tour to anyone who is unwilling or unable to ignore the many Chinese tourists. On our ship there were about 100 snorkel enthusiasts, of which about 12 were Europeans (almost half of them the Loth family), the rest were loud, noisy, inattentive, selfish, and trampling on the corals. Chinese tourists.

By the way, our ship was one of 4 ships and had the highest percentage of Europeans. You can hardly imagine how the noise level rises when about 400 Chinese tourists plunge into the water at the same time, of whom not much more than half can swim and the other half could only keep themselves above water with the help of intact life jackets. For some Chinese, the fear of water seemed to be so great that they only ventured in with an additional lifebuoy!!! Can you believe it? If someone chokes while snorkeling because a not-so-small fish is swimming in front of their mask, tough luck for them because Li Shin is getting swimming lessons with a lifebuoy....

Somehow we managed to ignore the many non-swimmers and coral stomping tourists and were able to enjoy this trip and make it somehow unforgettable, for whatever reason. The underwater world here is really colorful, just as you know it from the television. In doing so, we probably saw the least attractive snorkel hotspots, already completely oversaturated.