Last year I had a spontaneous trip to the Surin Island National Park in the South of Thailand, and this trip has and will surely remain my Top 10 favourite trips of all time.

Accompanied by my childhood friend and her freediving instructor, I hopped on a speed boat from Phang-Nga province in the West coast and headed off to our destination.  Just like most tour boats, there is a mix of foreign and Thai travellers and some staff from the touring company.  I however spotted a small group of young men who didn’t look like visitors from abroad.  They didn’t look like guides either.

They all had very similar features, height, big shiny eyes and beautiful dark skin.  They spoke some sort of dialogue in which didn’t at all sound familiar to me.  My freediving instructor then explained that they were the “Mokens”.