Even though the name of the Surin Islands is not as famous as the Similan Islands or Tachai island, a natural beauty of the underwater world at the Surin Islands is even more gorgeous than the others. Unlike, Thai tourists rarely visit this place. It might be because the journey takes quite long to reach the island but I think it's worth to visit.

This time I will take you to see magnificent coral reefs by snorkelling at "The Surin Islands" from taking a day trip to the islands. If I have another chance to visit here again, I will definitely spend a night on the island.

I think the Surin Islands are not much popular for Thai tourists like "The Similan Islands" or "Tachai Island". A large number of Thai tourists flocked into the Similan Islands and Tachai island around 2-3 years ago, especially on long weekends or public holidays. In contrast, a number of Thai tourists to visit "The Surin Islands" is still very less. However, I can confirm that the underwater world at the Surin Islands is absolutely gorgeous. There are colourful shallow coral reefs, many kinds of colourful fish such as clownfish or "Nemo" which you can easily see in many places on the island, especially at the snorkelling spot of Chong Khad Bay which has a lot of clownfish and it's called "The Nemo Paradise". I can even see about ten of them swimming in this area.

If you are interested in traveling to the Surin Islands either a day trip or an overnight stay, you can contact PhuketTourHoliday for more information. Call +66897261788 or visit the website at http://www.phukettourholiday.com

Before reading my review, you can watch a video which I shooted with Nikon Coolpix AW120. Also, you can enhance your watching experience by selecting HD option.

For a trip to the Surin Islands, you can either choose a day trip or spend the night(s) on the island. There are tent camping site and guesthouse that managed by the Tourist Centre of the Surin Islands National Park.

Most of the trips will start at Kuraburi peer in Phang-Nga because it takes only 1 hour to the Surin Islands. For the tourists who already purchased a day-trip package and stay in Phuket, the tour operators usually provide a shuttle service from their hotels to the peer but the tourists need to leave early in the morning around 06.00 am. The journey from the pick-up points in Phuket to Kuraburi peer is about 2 hours. I think this trip is such a long distance.

For anyone who travel from Bangkok by the bus of the Transport Co., Ltd., you can get off at Kuraburi district in Phang-Nga but you have to arrive here around 7 am. Once you get here, you can call a travel agent to pick you up.

"The Surin Island" was announced as a National Park No. 29 with the area of 135 sq.km. and consists of five islands which are North Surin Island, South Surin Island, Stock Island (Ri Island), Klang Island (Pajumba or Dragon Island), and Kai Island (Torinla Island). The distance from the coast is about 60 km. and it takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes by speed boat from Kuraburi peer.

I start my journey from Phuket and a shuttle van will pick me up at 06.00 am. The trip is about 2 hours to reach to Kuraburi peer. In fact, the only way to reach the Surin Island is going with a "Speed Boat" and most of tour operators usually provide 3-engines speedboat in order to support more capacity of passengers and to keep more stability of the boat while sailing to the sea.

Nowadays, before leaving a peer, the guide need to inform all passengers to wear life jackets. If someone do not follow the rule, the boat will not leave the peer which I think it is good for passenger's safety.

We take a boat for about an hour until we arrive to the Surin Islands. The first snorkelling spot is "Pakkard Bay" and we spend time around 45 minutes here. This area has lots of beautiful coral reefs as well as many kinds of fish.

Various kinds of colourful coral reefs.

After enjoying the beauty of coral reefs, we take a long tail boat to the Moken (or Morgan) village which is a must-see spot where tourists can experience typical lifestyle of the villagers. Moreover, tourists can also support them by buying some handmade souvenirs.

I think the lifestyle of the Moken people has been changing with the times as I can see that each house has installed a satellite TV for watching news, TV series or TV shows.

The Moken people on the Surin Islands always have the same surname which is "Klatalae" which this surname was specially given by the Royal Grandmother.

The Moken children can earn extra money by selling handmade souvenirs to tourists. All souvenirs are made by the Moken villagers such as wooden ship models or some small woven containers. If you have a chance to visit here, please do not forget to support them by buying some pieces.

After visiting the Moken village, we are heading to the tourist centre of the Surin Islands which is situated on the North Island and we will have lunch here.

After having lunch, we can take a walk to Chong Khad Bay which has a tent camping site for tourists who want to spend their night(s) here.

A beautiful scenery of Chong Khad Bay.

A group of stones which looks similar to a shape of chicken becomes a well-known symbol of Chong Khad Bay.

After walking and taking some beautiful pictures of the North Island, around 1.30 pm. our guide calls us to go on board and continue our trip to Chong Khad Bay for snorkelling.

There are plenty of coral reefs and sea flowers around Chong Khad Bay and there are a lot of clownfish which we call "The Nemo Paradise"

Beautiful coral reefs at Chong Khad Bay.

The paradise of clownfish or what we call "Nemo".

For this trip, I was absolutely impressed by the underwater world of the Surin Islands and I think it is more beautiful than the Similan Islands or Tachai Island. However, I also felt like on the day I visited the Surin Islands, there were very few tourists as well as speedboat companies, whereas on the Similan Islands and Tachai Island, there were full of tourists at all time.

Last but not least, I would like to recommend all of you to visit the Surin Island and I'm pretty sure that you will be impressed like I do. Next time I will come back to the Surin Islands again but I will stay overnight for 2 days and 1 night.

Many thanks to all of you who always follow and read my reviews. You can also read other reviews on my travel blog at http://yutphuket.wordpress.com/