Snorkeling, kayaking, and BBQ

There's a small diving operation called Koh Kood Divers run by a Dutch father and son, at another bay nearby. I walked over there, to see if I could go for a little snorkeling trip. The old man was busy at their pier with a couple of tourists trying on their diving gear for the first time, but he let me pick a snorkeling set free of charge and pointed to the nearby rocks as a good location.
Visibility so close to the shore was not great, but there are a lot of fish to watch. Many species I recognized from earlier snorkeling in Malaysia and Taiwan, including parrot fish, moon fish, sea urchins, and many more species I don't know by name. There wasn't much coral there, a few isolated colourful flowers in an otherwise sand-coloured underwater landscape.
There was a hilarious moment when I hit my head on a floating coconut, which I didn't see because I was looking down all the time at the colourful fish. Imagine the vast sea with just this one coconut floating in it, about the size of my own head, and I just had to hit it. What are the odds? Funny, enough, on my way back I almost hit it again!

Today I rented a kayak from my guesthouse, a nice single-seater, with water-tight compartments (which later proved to be not so water-tight after all) and a rudder even, operated by foot pedals. I started out by going up river, but after a few bends there was a blockage which I could not cross, and I had forgotten my sandals, so didn't want to continue on bare feet. After taking in the wonderful scenery of mangroves and big submerged boulders, trees full of birds, I headed back. I picked up my slippers, and went the other way, downstream into the lagoon. The azure water is so crystal clear, it's a real pleasure to zip along the surface, while watching the bottom several meters below glide past. I spent several hours at sea, some 500m off-shore, gently bobbing on the small waves, the sea occasionally washing over the tip of my kayak. I watched an eagle circling above the lagoon before it returned to a high tree. I landed at several other beaches for a short stop, a swim, and a rest, and returned to base just half an hour before sunset.

My guesthouse organizes a barbeque every other day, with a great selection of fresh sea fish, other seafood like squid, giant shrimp, and scallops. A salad bar and other side dishes are also on the menu, and all for very reasonable prices, so it attracts a lot of guests staying at other (and much more expensive) resorts. The Tinkerbell resort here on the beach front rents out bungalows for 8000 Baht a night! Compare that to my 150 Baht room just a short walk from the beach, and on the river side. It's a steal, really.