Angthong National Marine Park, Thailand

On Sunday, after the LSU game, we took a private boat to explore the islands of a Thai national marine park. Let's just say it was quite an interesting day with a lot of new memories made and old habits renewed. When booking the boat we were told there was a full menu provided by the Four Seasons' chef and if we wanted to add anything to drink, such as beer, that would be no problem. Well, in the excitement of booking the boat and picking out all of the fabulous places to visit we must have forgotten to tell them to add beer to the menu. No big deal, right? We would just tell them in the morning when the boat came to pick us up. As we walked onto the beach that morning, a 36-foot speedboat was moored off of the coral reef right in front of our resort. We were to be brought out there by a zodiac boat. But, of course, we had to make sure they had the beer on the boat first. We were going to be out on this little excursion all day and as per everything we do in the south, beer goes hand in hand with boats. It was our post LSU tailgate party! Well, this little request sent 5 people literally running around the beach gathering our beer and ice chest and limes. Determining how much beer we needed will forever be an infamous story for these two southerners. The waiter first suggested 5. Hmmm? For a whole day! Jason and I tentatively looked at each other, neither wanting to be the first to say anything. So then the waiter suggested 10. Silence! I finally said what about 12? And at the same time Jason blurted 18! I'm pretty sure they thought we were crazy but they went about gathering our ice chest of 18 beers for just the two of us and hauled it onto the zodiac boat (see picture below.) The boat was so heavy with us and our ice chest that the bottom was dragging along the coral reef. What a way to start this little trip!

Without fail, we had three crew members for just us two passengers on the boat. Unfortunately, we missed the message from the concierge left in our bungalow saying it was going to be an extremely rough ride to the marine park and if we wanted to cancel we could do so without charge. The day was gorgeous it was just very windy and when I tell you we were holding on for dear life for the hour boat ride out there I am not exaggerating. I was so happy to see the calm waters of our first stop. I have never been snorkeling in my life and what an amazing place to be introduced to this new experience. It was so incredibly beautiful and fascinating to me that as soon as you put your head under water it is like entering into a whole new world. Jason was great! Leading the way, he pointed out all of the different fish and coral. Breathtaking is an understatement!

We went from island to incredible island. Rock cliffs just rising straight up out of the crystal clear water, each making their own unique shapes. We took a picture in front of one that looked like a praying monkey. We had a private lunch on the beach, prepared for us by our crew, white linens and all. We looked out into the amazing scenery and thanked God for giving us the opportunity to experience something so unique. After lunch, we hiked to the top of another mountain to view a private lagoon, nestled in the middle of nowhere, half a world away from our home. It was stunning!

Upon arriving back at our beach, we realized that we had become a little infamous at the resort. Of course, we were met by a hand full of staff as the zodiac brought us back to the beach. The question of the day was did we drink all of the beer. Our driver back to the bungalow told us, "So I hear you like beer, huh?" He wanted to know if we needed to stop and get another for our less than two minute ride. Oh geez!! What a reputation to get right? Oh well! It was worth the wonderful day and gave us another good laugh! So our question to you, do you think we drank all of the beer? LOL!