Day 12 Ko Samui, Thailand

 Deck 12 Ko Samui, Thailand

 

Ko Samui, Thailand has been our first tender port of this cruise.  NCL handles things a bit differently from some other cruise lines for tender ports.  Last night, between 6 and 8 pm guests could go to deck 6 and ask for a tender ticket. We went to collect tickets around 7 pm after we finished dinner and were assigned group 6.  This morning when disembarkation began at 10 am, we discovered groups 1, 2 and 3 were called relatively quickly – within 15 minutes or so.  Group six was called about 75 minutes after tenders began.  J and our friends went ashore with plans to catch a grab taxi (uber) to go to a local beach to snorkel.

 

Guests on ship’s excursions started disembarking (and they didn’t require assigned tender groups).  I was on one of those ship’s excursions – called “Go Green – Treating Elephants Ethically” to visit the Samui Elephant Kingdom. 

 

There are 16 elephants kept at this sanctuary.  That maximum of elephants is due to the land they have available to grow the Napier grass, essential in the elephant diet.  Napier grass is grown by putting stem cuttings vertically in the ground and can be harvested a short 6 to 8 weeks later; cuttings planted horizontally grow stronger (and can withstand the heavy rains) and are harvested every 3 – 4 months (at a height of 4 – 7 m).

 

I met a couple of other mature women travelling on their own on this excursion and they were both fascinating to talk to!  One of them is writing a book about older women travelling solo.  We had lovely conversations!

 

We returned to the ship around 4:15 pm and the last tender left Ko Samui at 5 pm.  Today we had rain – so I pulled out my rain poncho for parts of the day.

 

One more day at sea then we dock in Singapore where most guests will disembark as we finish this 13 day cruise.  We will be staying on to enjoy the next 13 day cruise as well!