Advertisement
Published: January 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Bungalows
This is a picture of the bungalow that I stayed in. Hi All
It has been a few days since my last post; I've been daunted with how much I need to write that I don't even know where to begin. I'm going to scan through things rather quickly being that I don't want to be on this computer for more than a half an hour. OK, where to start. The last time I wrote, I was headed to Koh Tao, a beautiful island off of the coast of Thailand in order to obtain my scuba diving certification. To get there, I had to first fly from Cambodia into Bangkok, then hang out there for about 10 hours, then take an 8 hour bus transfer to the port in order to make a 3 hr boat trip embarking at 7 AM destined for Koh Tao. In effort to save time, I will skip my brush with the 'taxi mafia' in Bangkok, as well as my stay at the Chabad House while awaiting the first leg of my journey. However, I may cover these in another post. That night at 8PM, the bus left from Ko San Road in Bangkok. It is the backpacking center of the world, as is claimed by
A little rough.
This lagoon got pretty rough at this time of year. Therefore, we dove from the other side of the island since calmer seas meant clearer visibility underwater. Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach". Therefore, it wasn't surpising that the bus was filled with all Westerners transfering to the boat to get to the various island destinations of their choosing. The majority of those I met were on their way to Koh Phangan, the home of the infamous Full Moon Party. Even though the actual party wasn't to start for another 2 weeks, many get there early to 'prepare'. Aside from Koh Phangan, the boat also stopped at Ko Tao (my destination, and by far the most deserted of the three) as well as Ko Samui, which is a very developed island taken over by hilton, marriot, and four seasons. The bus ride was weird; however, it got much more stange once we got to the point from where the boat left. Here we are at 5AM, it is still dark, and there are all these white kids from various spots around the globe, many of whom are punks and ravers destined for the full moon party, hanging out in this old dusty deserted 8th century fishing village. It felt like the scene in Pinnochio where they go to that island. Finally, after waiting around for two hours, the
Normal day.
To the right, you can see a boy eating his breakfast before going to school. You can see he is in his uniform, which looks like a boy scouts uniform. boat leaves. I chose this boat because it made it to Ko Tao in half the amount of time as one of the ferries, and a third of the time as the other. I never really considered why it got there so quick until it started moving. This thing was going SOOO fast, and the water was ROUGH. Very Rough. Soon enough, the mood becomes pretty dire, with even the crew getting seasick. Half the boat threw up. I managed to stay alright with the help of a lemon peel given to me by one of the crew. I noticed that he kept sniffing this lemon peel, so I asked him why. He said that it really helped with seasickness, so I asked for one. It definitely helped a lot.
After a rough 3 hours, I finally made it to Ko Tao, the first stop the boat made (I pity those who had to stay on the boat to the last stop, a full 10 hours away). This island was something else; it is the most beautiful tropical island I have ever seen. It is filled with all these huge palm trees, mountains, and rocks that were so smooth
Fishing village.
We left from an old fishing village, that was still very much active. in texture that they appeared as if they'd been underwater for millenia. The island itself is known as a 'scuba divers' island, being one of the biggest scuba divers destination in the world. However, aside from those wishing to scuba dive, very few others come to the island aside from an overnight due to the lack of infrastructure, and in result, big resorts on the island. Once getting off the ferry, I am met by the driver of the dive resort that I booked. He brings me to an ATV, which I thought was strange at first, but soon enough understood why. The dive resort was on the other side of the island. Even though the island is very small, the rocky terrain and lack of roads makes the 5 KM trip, or 3.1 Mile, take a full 30 minutes by ATV. That 3 mile trip on that path was perhaps the most scary thing I have ever done. The entire trip was nestled against the cliffs, very often over a 200 foot cliff, with nothing more than a crumbly sand path holding you up. To make things worse, the path wasn't even solid, with 'pot holes' 50 feet deep
scattered throughout. Later on I found out that nobody takes that path except that one driver, not even for 1000 baht (30 US), a fortune in Thailand.
After a heart pounding 30 minutes, we finally arrived at the dive resort. It was beautiful, with all these bungalows scattered in a tropical garden, surrounding a crystal clear lagoon outlined by a surpisingly wide white sand beach. To the left and right of the lagoon, there were all these huge 200 to 300 foot cliffs that jet from the ocean. It was amazing. After settling down in my bungalow, I was soon given my 'itinerary'. It was very organized; they take their diving very seriously. For a total of 4 full days, and one half day, my entire time was filled with study sessions, tests, confined dives, and then finally 5 deep water dives. By the second full day, I was out in the ocean diving over 70 feet. The diving was amazing, with awesome visibility. I saw so many huge fish it was like National Geographic. We even dove into some underwater caves, learned some underwater navigation, etc. I could write about this forever, so I will cut out now.
However, it was amazing, and it culminated in my obtaining my PADI certification which allows me to dive without an instructor. My next stop was Phuket for 4 days, which will take another 30 minutes to cover, so i will cover that in my next posting, and now I have just arrived back at Bangkok.
Talk to you Later,
Dan
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.019s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb