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017 - Thailand - Koh Tao
04/17/08 - 05/11/08
Save Koh Tao
Koh Tao is a small tropical island off the east coast of Thailand that is full of lush forests, white sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, and an abundance of coral and marine life. It is also home to over 60 dive shops, hundreds of self-absorbed farangs (tourists) that enjoy being catered to, as many or more locals that cater to them, and what seems like a million loud, polluting motor bikes, ATVs, and pick-up trucks. Unfortunately, the over-development of Koh Tao has led to problems of pollution, waste management, and marine erosion.
We came to Koh Tao on a volunteer project to teach English to local Thai children and to help with conservation efforts on the island. Our main contact on the island was Bee, an energetic, young, Italian expat that leads the volunteer program through his self started Secret Garden Conservation project. Bee is full of enthusiasm and talks a thousand miles an hour while explaining his vision of the future of the island. It is tough to keep up with him at times but his enthusiasm is contagious, and both of us did our
best to try and make a difference with his projects. Also in our program was a couple from Australia (Sarah and Gareth, who we became good friends with) and a girl from northern California named Corrina. There was also a young Scottish guy, Duncan, that was living on the island and Bee's unofficial right hand man.
The best part of our Koh Tao experience was the children. The kids were incredibly affectionate and would run up and hug us and ask for piggy back rides. We were greeted outside of school hours with 'Teacher Nick, Teacher Hannah! Hello!!'. Their ages ranged from four to thirteen years old and their English abilities were equally varying. Many names were challenging and sometimes sounded more like words (Bang, Bottle, Mix, Mek, Nan, Naan, Jar, etc.). Some barely spoke English while others could write complete sentences without any help. We interacted mainly with the older kids and I became friends with more of the boys since I would play soccer and other sports with them during our breaks. This was my first ever teaching experience and I was truly stoked to have such great kids to interact with!
One day our volunteer
group helped during a monthly beach cleanup. Hannah and I also got to do an underwater reef cleanup while SCUBA diving. This was a great experience and the first time we've ever 'worked' while diving. We were both pretty surprised (and dissapointed) at how much underwater trash we brought to the surface, but it was a wonderful thing to do and it was great working as a team underwater.
Another activity on the island is Muay Thai (Thai style kickboxing). Bee is an avid Muay Thai fighter and he got us discount tickets to one of the fights. Our English friend Alex (that we travelled to Koh Tao with from Bangkok) was fighting that night, even though he had only trained for 4 days prior! He was brave and gave out a few good punches to his Thai opponent (whom Alex outweighed by at least 20 lbs) but after a couple of knees to the head, Alex got knocked out cold. Luckily he came to his senses and after a rest and a cold beer, left with a good story to tell the boys back home.
Koh Tao also has some of the best fire throwers I have
ever seen. These are the folks that twirl the fire sticks and fire nunchucks (sorry, I can't remember what the nunchucks are called!) at night. One of the bars on the island pays to have professionals do a show that attracts many of the farangs at night.
In addition to our teaching and conservation efforts, Hannah and I also helped out Bee by leading a couple of side efforts. I created a tourist billboard that promotes island awareness, and also helped organize a presentation that Bee could use for potential donors. Hannah helped edit and write a proposal for another organization that was thinking of working with Secret Garden. It felt good to help out and we saw the impact we made with our efforts.
As I previously alluded to, probably the biggest tourist industry in Koh Tao is the SCUBA diving. There are many shops and schools on the island and the diving is generally cheaper compared to other places. To take advantage of this we decided to improve our diving skills by taking the EFR (Emergency First Response) and Rescue diving courses (from PADI). We learned how to respond to numerous diving emergencies: panicked or tired
divers, underwater injuries such as decompression illness, heart attacks, or strokes, and unconcsious divers underwater or on the surface. This also got us more excitied about diving (more on this later).
Hannah had a harowing experience on the last day of our Rescue course. A storm caught up to us from the west so the seas were rough: 6 foot swells and 20 knot winds rocked the boat constantly. Meanwhile, it was Hannah's turn to practice bringing up an unconscious diver from underwater. And she had to practice it with another student as her dive buddy (we would swap roles during the various senarios). She managed to find the 'unconcsious' diver even though the visibility was less than 5 feet, and successfully brought him to the surface (from about 35 ft. depth). She towed him to the boat while her buddy pretended to give the rescue breaths. Then, the two of them removed the gear from the diver and Hannah attempted to carry the diver (who weighed about 180 lbs) up to the boat ladder using the 'baby cradle' technique while all three of them banged violently against the side of the rocking boat. Hannah managed to get him
partly up the ladder before our instructor stopped the scenario fearing the injuries that would be sustained by continuing. It was gnarly!! Hannah's adrenaline had taken over and she performed marvelously in the face of danger! If I ever had to be rescued from the water because of an injury I would choose Hannah for the job... hands down, no question about it!!
After three weeks of settling down in Koh Tao we are ready for some more traveling through northern Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Also, after getting stoked from our successful EFR and Rescue dive courses we've decided to further advance our diving skills by enrolling in a Divemaster internship. This will change our itinerary a bit and we plan to head back to Gili Air (Indonesia) in about a month for the 4 - 5 week Divemaster internship. But first, we head to Chiang Mai for a dose of northern Thai culture.
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Marcia
non-member comment
Making a Difference
So proud of you! Need I say more? Hugs, M