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Published: March 22nd 2010
This is my first entry so I'm starting from Manchester airport!
The island of Koh Tao is only about 7 miles long so it’s a small place but it’s really nice, there’s a nice island atmosphere here. I'm on Koh Tao now and this is what’s happened so far.
Left my sister Rach at Manchester airport which was really sad, then boarded my Emirates flight. The flight was brilliant! Every chair has it’s own tv and choice of films, music or games, loads of leg room and food was nice. Was on that flight for 6 hours to Dubai, got off at Dubai and sat around the airport, didn’t have much of a wait before my connecting flight so just waited then boarded my next flight. Then another 7 hours to Bangkok, again the flight was brilliant. The planes are massive too, the biggest I’ve ever been on, there were 3 rows of seats - 3 on each side and 4 in the middle. Tried to sleep when I could on the flights too because it’s difficult to know what time of day it is with the big time zone difference.
So, got off the plane in Bangkok, got through customs no problems and my bag was waiting for me on the conveyor belt so no waiting either! By the way, my bag was really heavy too, 27kg and my hand luggage was 7kg! I’d been told that taxi’s were cheaper if I went to departures so I found departures, went outside and there was one taxi there with the man waving at me! Got in the taxi, the price was good compared to what I’d been told so asked him to take me to the hotel I’d booked on Khao San Road in Bangkok. I didn’t know what to expect really, I was tired and had really heavy bags and was sweating from the heat but it was exciting. The taxi man didn’t know the place I was staying and didn’t speak English but he did try to sell me a massage and gave me a massage leaflet! I think they offered more than just massages though! Anyway, he dropped me off and said it’s just round the corner (pointed with his hands) so I went with my bags down Khao San Road, it was about 8:30pm so was night but millions of people everywhere, all nationalities, mainly backpackers, it was crazy. It smelt like Banjul or Bakau market! There were street sellers everywhere selling food mainly but just one thing after another, there was no space just constant hussle and bussle. Khao San Road is like the hub of South East Asia for backpacking, it’s where every backpacker starts their travels, it’s really famous. It’s where Leonardo Dicaprio stayed in the film ‘The Beach’ which made Thailand even more popular for backpackers.
After a bit of a walk and asking a few street sellers if they knew my hotel I found it, it’s called ‘Khaosan Palace’. It costs £17 per night which is an expensive backpacker place but I was grateful for some comfort after the long journey and lack of sleep. So I checked in and was really pleased, it was nice and clean, had air con and a tv so it was ideal for the one night I was staying. Put my bags down and got in the shower (which had hot water) and felt loads better. Had a lay down for about an hour then Rach2 texted to say her 8 hour bus journey had nearly arrived in Bangkok so she would be here soon. Got dressed, met Rach and we went to look for some food. We met up with 2 people in Bangkok that Rach had met, a Polish girl called Aleks and an English boy called James. We all had a look around, got some food in a bar, had 2 or 3 drinks and took in the atmosphere, it was good but really crazy. I saw a few rats around too! Big ones but there would be with the amount of food stalls about. After a while we went back to hotel to sleep, with the time difference I wasn’t sure what day it was or when I’d last slept! So went to sleep and woke up really early with a massive headache!!! And couldn’t get back to sleep. I’d had about 3 beers but that with tiredness was a bit too much, I was fine though. Got up the next day, spent the day walking around in the sunshine, went to the river, sunbathed and sat around for a bit, we were getting the night train to Chumphon so we just chilled all day really waiting for 7:30pm to board the train.
There’s 2 main way’s to get to Chumphon, bus and train. The bus takes 8 hours and is not comfortable and the train takes 7 hours and is meant to be more comfortable. We decided on the train which was only £2 more expensive. We got to the train station with our bags and got on the train, the train looked like it was about to fall apart! We both thought that this was going to be a nightmare journey for 7 hours overnight! It was like one of them dodgy trains off a James Bond film where you expect chickens to be in cages! Anyway, we sat down, had our tickets checked and took some photos. After a while the man came round and made all the seats turn in to bunk beds! This was brilliant, all clean sheets and quite comfortable beds, it went from being really bad to being really good and comfortable! So I got into bed and slept in patches, the problem was that the 7 hour journey had some delays and ended up taking 12 hours!! We didn’t know it was going to take that long so I was up for hours waiting to arrive but we just never did arrive! We finally arrived 5 hours late at Chumphon but we’d missed our connecting ferry to Koh Tao! Not all bad though because Chumphon is nice and we waited on some deckchairs on the beach and had a little sleep so worked out ok. There was a cafe too so had a snack.
Boarded the ferry which took 1.5 hours, we could see the island in the distance the whole way it was that clear. Lovely sunshine so sat on the deck looking at all the islands we were passing in the distance wondering how good the diving would be on them! As we arrived in Koh Tao it looked lovely and I was glad to be finally here. It looked like a lovely little island with blue clear water and a relaxed look about it. Got off the ferry and the taxi to take us to the dive school was waiting for us. Checked in at the dive school, then went to unpack. Accommodation is nice, basic but nice and cheap. Had the next day off to check around the island, looked around some beaches and around the main areas to get my bearings. It’s a lovely place and massively different to Bangkok. Not loads of Brits here though, a lot of Europeans - Dutch, German, French etc.
Had a massive storm here that night too but apparently it’s quite normal. It’s a like the Gambia ones where it rains loads and thunder and lightning, not as loud as Gambia’s though. Got up the next day (Thursday), went for breakfast to the dive school. Had porridge with nuts and it was really nice, gonna have it again today! Then did my 1st dive. It was a shallow refresher dive as I haven’t dived for 10 years. All went well though, it all comes back to you when you get in the water again so I was pleased to get in and glad that I felt good doing all the skills. Got another 2 dives to do today then start my training tomorrow. Rach has started hers as she’s been here a while already so I’ve got some catching up to do.
So that’s it up to now, it’s been really good so far. It’s now 8:30am on Friday morning, the sun is out and I’m diving around 12 midday. The thing I like most about living on an island is that wherever you go you can see the sea, well...not everywhere but everywhere we go is by the sea, breakfast by the sea is my favourite though! That’s the time that I realise that there is so much more to life than sitting in an office in the UK! I’m hoping that I won’t have to do that again, this is so much better! But you never know what might happen.
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sallie
non-member comment
Loving the blog John, you need some pics though! Reading your blog brings it all back to me, the hussle and bussle of koh san road, the rats, the smell. Haha those train journeys are funny arent they!Miss you loads JK and cant wait to see you in Aug.Big loves Sallie and boys xxx