Diving in the Surin Islands
Lure: Uninhabited isles, a pristine reef, and no one to block your view
Location: Surin islands, Thailand
The Surin islands lie off the Thai mainland, south of its border with Myanmar(缅甸) where the two countries bottleneck(瓶颈拥堵) along the Isthmus(地峡) of Kra. My sister, Darcy, and I left for the small archipelago(群岛) at dawn, boarding a speedboat in Kuraburi that skipped over calm waters. An hour passed, the morning fog lifted, and I spotted five low-slung(低悬挂着的) isles silhouetted(显示轮廓的) on the horizon.
The boat pulled up to a creaky wooden dock that jutted out into a bay on the leeward(下风的) side of Koh Surin Nua. We disembarked(登陆) and hired a long-tail boat to take us snorkeling(使用通气管潜泳). While waiting for it to arrive (Thais never hurry), we explored the island. There were a dozen small thatched huts and a little visitors center, tucked under a banyan tree, that looked out onto an emerald bay from within a dense tropical jungle. Thai tourists, what few there were, smiled at us in a way that made me think we were in on the same secret.