Remember back in the day when everyone rocked Lisa Frank folders, binders, and pencil cases too school? Have neon-plastered animal stickers embody your school supplies was the epitome of cool. In fact, the psychedelic and retro design still stays cool to this day. I remember one original design in particular stood out to me: The Pink Dolphin.
Notice the beautiful way the water reflects off her in the sunset! This was a majestic creature of divine beauty that I had always dreamed of meeting. I thought that it was unfathomable that I would ever witness one in real life, but fortunately I was incorrect. As I was planning my vacation to Thailand for Golden Week, I noticed there was a tour package too see none other than pink dolpins in Khanom! Immediately I started scheming my way there so I could finally live out my childhood dream of meeting them.
The pink dolphins found in Khanom are actually subspecies of Sousa Chinensis (white dolphins) in China. They are also an endangered species due to over-fishing, loss of habitat and pollution, so they are quite a rare sight to see (according to Coconuts Bangkok). I feel very fortunate that I had this opportunity to see them up-close!
In order to reach Khanom, I flew from Phuket to Koh Samui Island (you can also fly there from most Thailand airports), and booked a group tour to see them through Koh Samui Tours. The tour guide will pick you up from your hotel and take you on a ferry trip to the coast where you can view them from your seat. These dolphins are completely untamed, so they were a bit hard to capture on camera, but I manged to take one nice video:
You can also see pink dolphins in other countries such as Hong Kong or Brazil, but from Japan, this was probably the most budget-friendly way to see them. I had previously went swimming with regular-colored dolphins in Okinawa and had fun, but Thailand has a lot more adventurous tours than Japan does. The area in which I swam with them was very tiny and it didn’t feel as authentic. Though I couldn’t swim with the pink dolphins, just seeing them exist in their natural habitat was enough to make me happy.
As I traverse more of the world, I look forward to seeing what other Lisa Frank designs come to life!
Great post 🙂