aka SeaTran

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Wow, not for the weak stomach, at all! This was more like SeaWreck, or SeaSick, or When Can we be off the Sea? A mere 9 hours on the extremely rough waters, filled with pukers everywhere, only to dock and see people get sick again from all the fumes and thank gawd we had been on all day and staked claim on a good seat, outside by the way was still better than inside, regardless that they were showing hilarious karaoke videos which Shaun has made a note to learn: Beautiful Girl on the guitar,but hey it had a free transfer taxi from our villa so...yeah sign me up! When we first got here I busied myself with the dozen or so touristy pamphlets that Poupe has in the villa. I picked a few that sounded worth it and SeaTran sounded like it was a big bang for your buck kinda thing. Big boat, 3 islands, snorkeling and gear, beaches, lunch and snacks, and hmmmm...insurance? I glanced over that on the flyer, but come to think of it now, there is a reason for everything. Well, it seemed promising for a day of sun and surf. My expectations on finding the hidden lagoon or having a "moment" were in check of course, I just love being on boats and on the water and potentially give insight as to what we could be missing on other nearby islands, and shoot it was like $50 bucks, so whatever. We booked the trip and were told to be ready at 6:30am. That we were, good thing I brought my $200 alarm clock...aka Blackberry. For the next two hours we changed taxis 3 times, picked up and dropped off several local passengers, went back to the dock at Nathon (remember that's only 10 min away), only to head to the next pier at Bophut at the northern end of the island. We paid for our boarding tickets and declined the offer of riding on the golf cart down the long pier so Shaun could stretch his legs (It's hard being 6 feet tall in this country) Only to be hurried along by several Thai boat crew and then the Death Stare by all the passengers sitting at a window seat, only to take one step on the boat before they unleashed the rope and the boat started moving out of the harbor. Ohhhh, now we got it, it was 30 minutes past departure and 200 other people were waiting for us and the French dude that we had picked up first in order to leave. All was good for about 10 minutes, snapped a few pics, felt the breeze in our hair, grabbed a cup of coffee.
This 75 foot boat was rocking so hard, I thought "they can't really be serious, taking us out to sea with these conditions, I'm sure they'll make some announcement, apologize and turn back and offer a refund, I'm sure of it." Not the case as one hour, two hours, 3 hours goes by and we are still at sea and not snorkeling or having snacks. A little running joke that Shaun started was "where's all the snorkeling babe?" It wasn't until we arrived at Ko Phangnan (our neighboring island and home of the infamous Full Mon Party) that I realized this was a ferry transfer, not a friggin' tour excursion. We dropped a few and picked up a few passengers here and headed to our next stop Koh Tao. More fumes, more puking, and all but about 12 people remained on the boat here. Us, the French dude, 2 crazy young Thai guys on Holiday, and about a half dozen Middle Eastern guys. Who by the way were so loud and obnoxious/annoying, if one of them wouldn't have reached a hand out to help me as I was falling while trying to get off the Longtail boat (which was transferring us from the big SeaTran to a tiny beach on Koh Tao) I almost would of said something if it weren't for Shaun giving me "the look" which really means he is pleading, "don't say anything babe, please? Check yourself babe, no rage black outs today babe." I'm no stranger to that look so I took 3 deep breaths, glanced at the gash in my big toe, and did the heave, hoe, jump, into the 2 feet of water, taadaah! Landed upright. Not pretty, but totally successful in my mind. (I swear I am always the one that is having some "issue" with getting on/off these damn little boats, no matter what country.
So, now we had exactly 1 hour, 40 minutes to look like total losers, caring bright orange life jackets and snorkel gear on this tiny little beach that a 100 or so sun bathers had chosen to take their holiday. We were a dead give away! We tried to loose the rest of group only to be kicked out of the beach chairs the entire length of the sand, only to return to this tiny strip of scratchy grass next to yup, you guessed it, the French dude and the loud Middle Easterners. I will give them a bit more credit, they had stashed their bright orange jackets in some scrub bushes down the way. I sent Shaun to do the same. The water and beach were very nice, perfect turquoise color, soft sand. Not a fish or coral in sight though! Seriously, all that trouble to get each of us equipped with gear, we ended up snoozing on the beach for our time. After a short mis-hap with the battery on the Longtail, we were headed back to the SeaDisaster for lunch. Yummy, traditional Panang curry and rice and sweet tea. Then the Captain tells us "Too much big wave to go next island, we snorkle from boat here." Oh ok, using discretion, FINALLY! Honestly, I don't think anyone got off our boat. I'm assuming they all were tuckered out from the days adventures (didn't take Dramamine) and all just slept while the captain encouraged..."Enjoy 1 hour, 20 min at fine snorkel spot, right here from boat."
We departed "fine snorkel spot" and headed back the way we came. Picking up and dropping off passengers at the pier at Koh Tao and Phangnan. Thank gawd we took that extra dose of Dramamine at last stop, cause you know I get sick when I swivel in my desk chair to quick. The captain was making rounds and I asked him how the Sea was looking for our decent home. He said "Oh, easy waves, only 3 meter." Ok...? I'm leary. "This morning was 5-6 meter, Easy, right?" Ok. Jesus, effing-Christ, he's calling this Easy? There were points the boat was vertical, engine humming above the water! My pictures are in the afternoon, yes, much better than the morning when I could not have even fathomed the idea of taking a picture, but really this does not really define what we endured on the SeaSpank.
I'm not scurred, I will boat again.

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Photos

Enjoy 1 hour, 40 min at nice beach, Koh Tao
That little black dot on the right, is Shaun's head.

Fine Snorkel Spot
We wouldn't know, clearly, no one else did either. Pretty though.

Loading up at Phangan
Pretty sure these people are headed home, via Samui then Bangkok

That's the SeaTran out there
Right before we got kicked out of the comfy chairs.

Koh Tao Beach
The view of the beach we were at from the SeaTran.

And the water is up
I held the camera at the same level. Watch the water level, not the guy.

Up again
The guy does look bad though

Pretty long sandbar
Close to Koh Phangan