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Published: April 16th 2008
Golden Bhudda
Shining in the sun with a clear blue sky behindThe next morning we were up early, had toast and jam and then took our minibus to the dock picking up a selection of other travellers on the way including a guitar toting young chap wearing a black trilby hat, sun glasses glued to his face, fag constantly hanging out of his mouth who you couldn't help thinking was trying that little bit too hard to be cool. And failing miserably. We got on the boat and got a seat down stairs which was air conned, but smelt of a weird strawberry flavoured medicine Joe used to be given when he was young. Joe was soon feeling sea sick and had to go upstairs and sit on deck... The touts didn't even have the manners to wait until we had left the harbour before giving us their spiel about their dive shop or bungalows. We agreed to have a look at a diveshop/resort called Big Blue when we got there.
We checked out Big Blue but there diving was expensive and settled on the neighbouring operation Sairee Huts. They had a nice bungalow for 400 a night and the diving was significantly cheaper. Was signed up for 2 dives the
A view of Sairee beach from above
We walked up a big hill and some random german invited us on to his balcony to take these! following day and then chilled on the beach with a few beers. We were sitting next to one of Sairee Huts instructors who was an annoying German with a cartoon character laugh. He laughed at every inane attempt at humour he made and was very loud. He was teaching 2 of his DMTs (Divemaster Trainees) about physics. Some how he still managed to find that subject hilarious. He also had a Jonathan Ross style speech impediment “Gweat! Are you guys weady for your bwiefing?” The next day we were up bright and early and got all our kit together for our dive. It was just us two and one Kiwi guy who had not dived much and could not go past 18 metres with his Open Water certification... We got our kit sorted and jumped on a small boat to take us to the big converted fishing boat which was big enough for 40 or 50 divers altough there was only our group, the 2 DMTs and an the annoying instructor with 2 students. On the boat we got out extensive dive briefing... Which covered the fact the we were going in the water and that he would be looking
House built on some rocks
We past lots of plush pads, but this one was a bit unusual. for some sharks which often hung out there down at 30m. He also mentioned that the Open Water guy should stay above us when we went down to 30 with one of the DMTs. He also said we would not spend much time down at 30 and would soon be back as one group at around 18. There was no mention of dive time, procedures, signals, any safety considerations. NOTHING! For us two it was not too bad as we knew the ropes (although it never hurts to go over them as there are various versions of signals etc that are used in different places) but for the Open Water guy it must have been a bit shit!
When we got to the dive site there were already 3 or 4 big fishing boats parked up on the line... Hmm... The DM got himself ready while the open water guy struggled to get his equipment on. In the end Mon helped the guy who seemed nervous out wiith his equipment - doing our DMs job! There was no mention of buddy checks or how to enter the water and he was gone! We all giant leaped in after him
and got ready to go down. The dive itself was OK, but nothing amazing. The DM spent ages down at 30m (despite his “briefing” which meant we all went through lots of air, specially the Open Water guy and ended up having a shorter dive as a result. The sharks were not there and Joe and Mon pointed more unusual fishes to the DM than he did to us! We did see a big school of Bat Fish which was cool, as well as a just about still juvenile Harlequin Sweetlips (we spotted) which was quite nice and a couple of devil scorpion fish (we spotted). The 2nd dive was a shallower, longer dive which was really nice and chilled. There were lots of tiny little fish hanging around the coral which is always pretty. We also saw about a million other dives down there, most of whom seemed to be unable to dive. We came up from the dive and decided we would not be doing any more diving on that island, although it was good too have got back in the water after more
than 6 months. Our next destination would mean some proper diving as we were
Another nice place
Thatched roof and mirrored windows. Classic. booked on a 4-day live aboard out of Khao Lak on the 16th so we decided to just relax and enjoy the island. The area were staying was the diving area and very built up with lots of cheesy bars and over priced restaurants so we hired an “off road moped” to explore the rest of the island. The island was beautiful (in the parts they had not built on which were quickly diminishing) and we found a great little beach (Freedom Beach). There was one paved road on the island which ran from North to South, but the rest of the roads were in various states of raning from nice flat dirt tracks to steep sandy pot holed nightmares. The road to Freedom beach was not too bad... But Monika still insisted on walking some of the steeper parts. There were some other tracks we found ourselves on looking for new places that we had to turn round. Joe had a little look around on his own at one point and with just one person on the “off road moped” it was OK, but with 2 of us, it was a bit of a mare in places. Added to
that the fact that the console on the moped (where the speedo and headlight are) was crashing around over every lump in the road and the fact there was about 3 inches of play in the handlebars made things even more interesting. Joe decided to go up and into the hills on the moped at night (Mon was ill in bed with food poisoning by that time, but more on that in a bit) to get away from all the lights and try and get a proper look at the stars. He set off bouncing along the pot holed roads which got steeper and steeper the closer he got the lookout we had found earlier. On one particular nasty hill the headline suddenly swung off to the left and Joe looked down to find the console hanging off. Ahh! He promptly panicked, stopped the bike and stalled. On a really steep hill. He managed to try and turn the moped round on the hill with out dropping it but then lost a flip flop in the process and, due to the fact the lights only worked when the engine was running, was a bit buggered. He couldn't get off the
moped as he had to keep a hand or foot on the break to avoid the bike rolling away and couldn't find his other flip flop. FUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!! In a light bulb over the head moment he remembered he had his head torch in his bag and managed to get this out and locate the missing flip flop then maneuver the bike round so it was across the hill. He tried to kick start the bike, but it was not firing... He then decided he would have to roll down the hill using the head torch as a headlamp... He started doing this steering the bike around the bigger pot holes. When he got to a flatter bit and managed to catch his breath (and stopped panicking a bit!) he realised he had been holding the clutch in when trying to kick start the bike. He realised the clutch, kicked and VROOOOM! Such a beautiful noise! He then limped back to the bungalow, take some more supplies for sick Mon.
That morning, we had been trying to watch our budget and looking for a cheap, local place to eat. We found a place that was a bit... Basic... But the
Little shed in amongst the trees
This was near the top of one of Kho Taos 3 main hills prices were cheap and there were locals eating there, which is always a good sign. Joe ordered a pork omlette thing with rice and Mon ordered “Pork Noodle Soup (Fresh Blood)” ignoring the “Pork Noodle Soup” (without fresh blood” even though she had no idea what Fresh Blood was. But lets be honest, it doesn't sound that apealing. Does it??? By mid afternoon the stomach cramps had begun and the projectile vomiting while shitting acidic liquid were not far behind. In the end Joe had to go to the local medical centre and buy lots of overpriced tablets before Mon improved. Mon took 3 days before she was fully back to normal.
The rest of the time on the island we spent exploring, laying on beaches, drinking beer, drinking cheap local rum, watching the local fire shows outside the beach bars which involved twirling burning batons (kung fu style) and vrious other tricks involving stuff on fire. None of the audience were permanently scarred. There were also some awesome sunsets...
We left Khao Tao on the night boat to Surat Thani from where we would get an early morning bus to Khao Lak where we would arrive at
Joe and Mon
Sweating after a slog up the hill. 10.30 on the day which was Thai new year. It is also the hottest time of the year in Thailand and they have a great way of celebrating it which is basically a national water fight where everyone spends the day cruising in pickups with drums full of water or at the road side with drums full of water waiting and basically drenching anyone they come across. No exceptions, apart from old people, babies, and the police.
We had imagined the night boat to be a nice ferry with cabins and beds... Our survey says... Er-ERRRRRRR! It was actually another converted fishing boat with the upstairs as one big room with the ceiling so low you couldn't stand up with about 20 beds down each side... We were each assigned a bed number and sent to our cells... Luckily the boat was not quite full up and there was the odd empty bed. Luckily Joe had one right next to him so we could both spread out a bit...
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Rita
non-member comment
Fantastic pics!
God the pics you two take are so wonderful. I love them all and have looked at them all too. Sorry to hear you have been unwell but cannot say I am surprised when you order food with blood in it. Hate the large spider - horrible bloody things. Keep updating the blog. Miss you. Cousin Reetxxxxx