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For the past week I've been living my preferred lifestyle: waking up when my brain slowly comes out of sleepiness, relaxing over a nice bowl of muesli, fruit and yogurt while the ocean breeze gently stirs my ever increasing sun-bleached hair, setting off for a short walk down the beach to a nice spot to lay my ever increasing sun-stained body with the burden of only a towel, book and water. Upon thoroughly roasting and finding the hot tropical waters no longer refreshing, I retreat into the shade of a palm tree and consider walking into town. My day usually ends with a nice Thai dinner at a beach side restaurant where everyone migrates to the bean bags in the sand, sipping on a nice cold beer to watch the sun slowly sink beyond the horizon. Then repeat whole process! I've been living this wonderful life on the small island of Koh Tao, about 2 hrs off the east coast of Thailand in the gulf. Koh Tao is the major hub for diving in this part of Thailand. I have met so many people who are either taking their open water course, the advanced open water course, or the impressive dive master training. This last one can take up to 2 months to complete, meaning these poor souls are stuck on this beautiful island and have to go diving everyday. What a life!?! Just being around all these people makes me want to take my advanced course then continue with my dive master, but time is running too short. In just 4 short days I fly out of Phuket to the States, where I'll explore San Fransisco with backpacker eyes for a few days before going to Delaware to join in on my friends wedding celebration! Once vows have been spoken and morning headaches taken care of, I will fly back home to my long lost Washington to return to the same beautiful season I left: summer!
The island life has really sucked me into it's laid back lifestyle. A few days ago I had planned to catch the morning ferry back to the mainland and continue onto Krabi, but the possibility of spending my last few days on the rainier side of this narrow strip of land did not appeal to my sun-bleached brain. Since the rainy season has officially started, I decided to put off the sun threatening weather on the west coast and continue chilling out on Koh Tao, cause at least here I knew the sun still shines. With this mindset, the sun has set three more times as I've been chilling on a beach bean bag. I'm not quite sure how time has gone by so quickly?!? After so many days of the same routine, I have changed it up a bit. One morning I went on two dives to explore a bit of the underwater world. Both dives were wonderfully beautiful, but it was the next day's dive that I enjoyed the most. The dive resort I'm staying at (really just a few bungalows and restaurant on the beach) offered a free dive for those who wanted to help clean up the reef. How could I pass this up? Not only a free dive, which usually run at about 1000 Baht, but the opportunity to give back to the mighty ocean which I find so much joy playing in! With my mind reeling with anticipation, I imagined hauling up bag after bag of trash to help out my precious ocean. On the boat we were equipped with a big neoprene glove, mitten style, and a little mesh bag which was clipped onto our diving vest and down we went to the depths below. It was wonderful swimming around with your nose pressed against the ocean floor looking for any form of foreign object. I noticed so many things I normal don't see on a normal dive, like the little blind shrimpies who continually dig out their hobbit-like holes while two fish stand guard duty announcing when danger approaches. Although I noticed all sorts of different stuff, what I lacked to find was much trash. Normally this is a good thing, meaning the reef is nice and clean, but when you're on a mission to pick up trash, you feel like a failure when you surface with only a little piece of plastic and a few colored metal boat chips. Not really rewarding, but the dive itself was wonderful. Hovering over giant expanses of wrinkly coral watching the little fishies darting to and fro going about their daily business. I even spotted what I thought was a parrot fish, beautiful mutli-colored fish about two feet long swimming along. For a while we swam side by side until my diving partner urgently tapped me on my shoulder and did the sign for Trigger fish. With eyes wide in terror, I swivel back around to meet my fate with the so-thought parrot fish, only to find it had swam away into the deep blue. Back on the dive boat, with a few embarrassed chuckles on my part, I was told story after story of divers who had been attached by trigger fish, even this one in particular. They guard their territory with much more bravery than I ever would, attacking intruders straight in the face, sometime taking chucks of soft cheek flesh or a nice bit of calf until the intruder has retreated beyond their invisible territorial line. Fortunately, my trigger fish must have just been going on a friendly stroll around his neighborhood, leaving me with all chunks of flesh still intact. Whew, I wont make that mis-identification again...hopefully!
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Kristen Marson
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The Island Life
Anna, This island life living you have going is amazing! I am so excited to get to do this. The rainy season is crazy and we just started here in FL. I love the 4pm sessions! Have fun and see you in a week! Kristen