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Published: December 25th 2010
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Snorkelling Koh Tao!!!
Right at the side of our seafront bungalow! Well Ko Tao.. needless to say we were a little cranky after the stupidly slow small boat. As per stepping off the boat we were swamped by a mass of taxi drivers and resellers all circling us like vulchers. ''taxi taxi tuc tuc tuc!!!!'' arrgghh my god get out of our faces!! Taking a small breather in a quiet corner we whipped out the map and instantly paul spotted Shark Bay. We asked a lady and she quoted us 3oo baht yet 10 steps later it had dropped to 200! Theyre bloody cheeky I tell thee! The hills were scary, I mean poo your undies scary! We nearly went off the back and under the wheel on a few occasions. He dropped us off at a pair of huge wooden gates and said we could walk from there (it was at this point I looked back and thought - if we need to nip into town later were going to have to walk all the way up here in the dark).
We basically rolled down the cliff to the beach. Nackard and not wanting to trek any more with the sacks we decided to get pretty much the first hotel
we saw. The most quaint wooden bungalows stood in front of us, with gardeners seeing to the beautiful gardens and maids changing beds and refilling mini bars. We asked to see the room and I fell in love... then came the price. Beautiful bungalows.. not so beautiful price. There was another set of bungalows right next door. The Rockies (that John Denver is full of shit man) They werent half as pretty and the lady on reception explained that next door was 'V.I.P'. These where pretty basic with a fan and mosquito net over the bed but literally standing on the sea, the guy that showed us the room told paul he could jump off the balcony into the sea and we were sold. ONly when I looked over I wasnt convinced, I went into to check and there were rocks I could stand up on for a good ten feet! Almost another casulty in the first 10 minutes!! We went back to ask where was best for snorkelling ''ah, no snorkel here today'' I looked at Paul in pure disgust. The only reason we came was to snorkel. It smelled there was nothing else to do and I was
in a strop. a pretty big one. Not only that, they couldnt guarentee what it would be like the next day. Paul went to explore the beach (and to escape me) and I with much huffing and puffing propped up the balcony over the sea with my book and about 20 cigerettes.
After an afternoon giggling at my book and watching the crabs and the birds fishing I was kind of enjoying myself! Paul came back and I apologised, it wasnt his fault the sea was bad! The heat, small amount of sleep, alot of travelling about etc can make you cranky!! And I was happy id caught some sun and chilled out and he got to explore without me moaning at him to chill! Job done. Koh Tao isnt so bad! WE got ready and headed up to the town for some tea. We found the Raggae Bar, chilled with mr dreadlocks in the hammock and headed to the internet shop to see what the craic was for getting to the Phi Phis for christmas. As it turned out there was a plane from Samui leaving at 12:30 to Krabi, from there we could get a boat. So we booked it. With a boat leaving from the port at Tao to Samui at 9:30 we'd have an hour to get to the airport and check in. Great!
We headed back down the road absolutely starving and decided since we werent staying in the plush hotel next door - we might as well eat in it! Id spotted a tiny tail boat made into A bbq on the way up with fresh seafood that looked immense! There wasnt any taxis about on the small island so wed have to walk. Oh shit. It was dark scary and so badly steep. I came to peace with myself that we were going to die. No honestly. I kept hissing to paul:
''shut up!!!! if they hear you (they being the murderers I thought were hiding in the bushes about to steal all our money and do bad things to us) they'll know were English and get us!! If you stop talking they wont know if where THai or not and leave us alone!!!!!''
Paul of course thought this was extremely funny and carried on talking and singing as loud as he could. In the distance I saw a car light and I thought thats it. Were done for. I gripped paul and thank god it was a taxi! Oh a taxi! With English people on the back! ''STOP!!!'' I was screaming at them like a mad women, so they drove past. I was just about to break into tears as there was a fork in the road and we didnt even know which way to go. Someone must have been looking after me because they stopped about 20 metres away. I legged it and jumped on the back (Paul trailing behind me still thinking the whole thing was amusing!!) Luckily the couple where staying at the plush hotel next door (b*stards).
We jumped out and I thanked them several times for 'saving my life' and even offered them some money which they didnt take so I kept it in my hand headed straight to the restaurant and ordered a beer to calm my nerves. The open air restaurant was lovely. All expensive materials and bamboo it was beautiful. We ordered a slap up meal and when the curry came it blew my freaking head off (yes im fully aware that I sound like a right moaning cow) it was hot!! so so hot!!! Id like to point out at this point that id had a thai green curry five time FIVE TIMES and it wasnt unbearably hot. Paul insisted I was just being a pussy and to get it eat but I had to send it back - he has an asbestos mouth and enjoyed his beef panang almost as much as he enjoyed making me smell it hours later! Back to the bung for some shut-eye long day ahead again..
We were up and ready for our transfer at 8:30 up the deathly hills we went again and off to the port. With 40 minutes to spare we grabbed some breakfast, I had what can only be described as snotty eggs and paul had sun kissed bread and jam. On the boat we met some interesting characters; An american, a cockney and a group of geordie lads who all commented that we were never going to make this plane. Panic set in. With 60 minutes to go and still 15 minutes left before Samui the shit hit the fan quite royally. As soon as we docked we legged it through to the taxis and said we'd give the quickest driver 600 baht to get us there on time. We were bounded into a 4x4 and off we went on the taxi drive of DOOM. For the second time in 12 hours I kissed my sweet ass good bye. We were told it would take half an hour (which we didnt have) but they could get us there in 15. I had my hands over my face as we almost crashed for like the 16th time as this crazy woman over took 3 people on a corner!!!! ''You no worry!!'' she said ''I have motor cross! I get you there fast! Thats why they send you in my car. I have two children. No worry no worry haha''!
''haha???'' is this crazy b*tch for real! were going to die!! Sure enough, crazy taxi driver lady got us to the tiny airport with 30 minutes to spare. Shaking like a leaf and sweating cobs we made it to the check in. Guess what? It was closed. The gate was closed and the plane was on the runway. Not just any plane but a bloody propeller plane. The only plane of the day to Krabi and we had missed it.
We assesed our options, luckily paul had done his research and noticed that there was another flight to Phuket at 3pm. We eventually brought them round and they agreed to transfer to the Phuket flights free of charge :0)
PHUKET! WHERE OFF!
Adios Amigos! xx
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