Thailand - Surin islands - part 2

In the late afternoon we returned to our bungalow. The view from our balcony was beautiful. 

After a shower and a short rest we went for a walk. One of the interesting things we saw was this Cluster Fig (Ficus racemosa), where the figs grow straight from the trunk and branches.

By this time the day tourists left and the beach was almost empty and very peaceful. Our bungalow was similar to the one in the background.

Also the area in front of the dining room, where there were dozens of people during the day, was almost empty. I started looking up into the trees in hope to see some birds. And all of the sudden I saw the most unusual animal, the kind you only hear about, the Sunda flying lemur (Galeopterus variegatus). At the closer look I saw there were several of them. I couldn't believe my eyes! Something so special and so cute. This was beyond my expectations. The fun fact is that Flying lemurs are actually not lemurs and they don't fly. Sunda flying lemur and Philippine flying lemur make up the entire family of Cynocephalidae and are closely related to primates. Their flying is actually gliding and they are better adapted for flight than any other gliding mammal. In flight they resemble flying squirrels. 

At 6 in the evening we had dinner. It was described as "set dinner" (contrary to buffet style lunch), but we didn't expect such a Thai feast - there was fish, prawns, prawn fritters, vegetables, rice and it was all so delicious. And we had some fruit for dessert. There was also plenty of water and soft drinks, in Thailand alcohol is not allowed in national parks. Probably in the manner - if you want to drink and do stupid things, don't do them in protected area. And anybody should be able to live without alcohol for couple of days.

After the dinner and some talking with fellow snorkelers we returned to our bungalow to charge our cameras and devices, electricity was only available from 6 in the evening to 8 in the morning. And we went to bed early, we were pretty tired after a long and eventful day. 

Next morning while we were enjoying our delicious Thai breakfast, we saw flying lemurs again. And I took another couple of dozens of photo. How could I have resisted - look at this furry cuteness with those large eyes and red ears!

Although I was so overwhelmed by the lemurs, I still noticed this pretty butterfly, the Large Yeoman (Cirrochroa aoris)...

...and the Medium Egret (Ardea intermedia) that landed on the roof of the restaurant. 

And at 9 it was time for snorkelling. There were significantly less of us on the long tail boat than the day before and the snorkelling sites were also not too crowded. Maybe because of that we didn't need to use the life jackets this time, which was great. But visibility was not great, there was a lot of plankton floating in the water, you will notice them as small pink dots on the photos. But the area was really beautiful with  unbelievable amount of healthy corals. 

I think this might be a Lobed brain coral (Lobophyllia).

There were also some impressive Table corals (Acropora) there.

And where there are so many corals there is also plenty of fish - these two are the Red-tailed butterflyfish (Chaetodon collare).

Towards open water there were many fusilliers, the two on the right are the Goldband fusilier (Caesio caerulaurea) and on the left there is a Black-axil chromis (Chromis atripectoralis), similar to Peacock chromis from previous post.

I'm not sure which coral this is, but even with extended polyps one can see the ridges and valleys, so I tip on one of the brain corals.

Here are some more Acropora corals, this time mostly Staghorn corals.

I also took a photo of Tomaz.

This fish looks like it was wearing a pyjama - it is a Striped surgeonfish (Acanthurus lineatus).

And Tomaz took a photo of me.

We already saw the Raccoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula) before, first time already in Maldives, some 30 years ago.

Whenever I looked in direction open water, there was literally a soup of fish swimming near me. Beside Black-axil chromis (Chromis atripectoralis) there are also several bigger Topsail chubs (Kyphosus cinerascens) there.

This is another parrotfish and this one I managed to identify - it is a Greenhead parrotfish (Chlorurus troschelii).

This is one of my favourite fish (I know I say that often :) - it is a Longfin batfish (Platax teira).

Hier is the Topsail chub (Kyphosus cinerascens) once more with Bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) cleaning it, with lots of corals in the background.

Here is one more Striped surgeonfish (Acanthurus lineatus), with its striped pyjama, surrounded by Staghorn corals (Acropora).

I only saw the Harlequin sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides) this once.

I was excited to see this Gorgonian sea fan (Melithaea sp.), I only saw it one more time. Unfortunately the close-up photo was not sharp.

In the afternoon, after another good lunch, we went snorkelling again. This time it was only four of us and we had the luxury of having a long tailed boat all to ourself. The first site we went to was a beautiful drop-off and we were even alone there. There was so much to see! 

This is a shy Blue-ringed Angelfish – Andaman species (Pomacanthus annularis). Don't be fooled by its false eyes that are intended to make it look bigger and more scary. The actual eyes are on the second neon blue line quite close to its mouth.

This also not very common coral is probably the Green Cup Coral (Tubastrea micrantha).

This golden beauty is a Feather star or Bright yellow crinoid (Comanthus Bennetti).

This was probably the "catch of the day",  the big Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), I saw it many times before, but not in Thailand. It was very shy and didn't let  me come closer, but I was lucky as I was the only one from our group to have even seen it.

This is again one of my favourite fish, the Blue-faced angelfish (Pomachantus xanthometopan)...

...and probably is this one, the Emperor angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator), one of my favourite fish as well.

This unusual fish is a Blotched Porcupinefish (Diodon liturosus).

The Phantom bannerfish (Heniochus pleurotaenia) has the cutest eye lashes of all the fish, unfortunately it is not so very visible in this photo.

This pretty Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica) was quite a sight with its white mantle, accompanied by Western clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) and Golden damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon aureus).

And at the end of the second snorkelling we saw a big Star puffer or Starry pufferfish (Arothon stellatus).

To be continued...