Ko Tao - R.I.P. I-Phones ... Pub crawls and skinny dipping, again

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Day 15
Breakfast, beverages, and a whole lot of deet...Of course that's how we started our day. There was no question, we were ready to get to Koh Tao. A monsoon, a private jeep ride, and an elephant spotting later we arrive at the ferry. It was a scorching hot day without a breeze in sight. The thing about these docks in Thailand is that they tend to be a little stinky. This is a problem that Kemper has had throughout our travels in Thailand. In Bangkok, she looked sweaty and green as we passed street vendors cooking local cuisine. But there was a lot of raw meat and seafood just chillin in the 100 degree heat. And that's a little funky. But this is the norm in Thailand. And at the ferry, there was a little bit of street meat action happening mixed with the fishing boats arriving with the "fresh" catch. But being half way through the trip, Kemper's stomach was holding it together. The complaints and dry heaving were at a minimal at this point. Looking around, we saw stray dogs hanging out while fisherman unloaded their boats and backpackers waited anxiously for our boat to arrive. Although we were technically "backpackers," in other words we shared the same choice in luggage, that was about all we shared. We could tell by just looking at our fellow travelers that we were not roughing it in the same way. We board the boat, throw down our bags, and head upstairs to open air for our hour and half ride to Koh Tao. This was not our first Thai ferry ride. At this point, we had a system. Lindsay needed to face the direction in which we were going, so she wouldn't get sick. We also needed a bench that was not crowded so Lindsay could have an "aisle" seat. She does not like to feel confined. And Kemper needed a prime people watching spot. We clearly have needs or issues, it's debatable how one would describe it. However, we both appreciate and love the other one's bag of crazy, so we know what we need and how to get it. Off and headed to the best scuba diving spot in the world, we were excited and anticipating what this island would bring. Since planning the trip, only a month ago, Ko Tao was Lindsay's number one spot to visit for the diving. Since we started the trip with colds we decided to detour and have Ko Tao be one of our last stops so we were in perfect health for diving. Kemper made it clear from day one that diving was a huge fear but she would consider it. Linz was on a mission to get Kemp in the water and show her the magic under the sea. So far nowhere in Thailand had let us down so we were optimistic that this place would be no different. We arrived to the Ko Tao Ferry dock and unloaded onto a dock of a hundred plus locals trying to silicate us with scuba diving classes, hotels, taxis, and other tourist info. In Ko Tao, if you pay for a 3-4 day course for getting certified in scuba diving then almost every dive school will put you up in their hotel accommodations free. And every dive school had Thai locals at the dock trying to get the business. We took one of the locals up on his taxi bargain and hitched a ride in the back of his pick up to our new home, Ko Tao Cabanas. We thought we booked a deluxe room, no biggie, king bed, nice. The lady at the front desk led us up a windy staircase into the owners villa... A two tower mansion of a cabana. The first tower consisted of the master bedroom with 30 foot ceilings, a 360 wraparound deck, 3 door way entries, and a bathroom the size of a Hollywood one bedroom off the side to it. Tower 2 consisted of the entertaining quarters with male and female toilets, male and female showers, a lovely open kitchen, a huge living room area with a flat screen tv and the decor of studio 54, and finally a chair swing which hung in the middle of the room. It would be a crime not to take advantage of this party pad. We threw down our bags and let the excitement of our villa sink in. Then we headed out for some food and drinks, ready to explore Sairee Beach. We stumbled across Big Blue's Diving School where we sat and had some fries and margaritas...Pretty much our vacation diet. This is where we got our first taste of the diving community in Sairee Beach. We saw an instructor gathering his class for their first intro into diving and were intrigued. We got a good vibe from this place. The instructor seemed cool and Kemper was feeling it. We weren't ready to lock into anything too fast, so we headed down the beach to talk with some other diving schools. We weren't feeling great about the others. I'm sure they are all good, but we weren't digging the vibe as we did with Blues. We decided to go back in the morning and explore the possibilities at Blues. We walked Sairee beach for a bit just taking it all in. This was our speed. It was a small beach town community with all the things that are very much Thailand. It was chalked full of open minded travelers, friendly people, friendly and smiley Thai locals, not too aggressive lady boys, and Kemper's favorite...hot British boys. We were feeling it all. In our bliss, an adorable young guy named Billy approached us and invited us to a pub crawl that evening. Lindsay was all about it, but Kemper was a little skeptical. It didn't take much convincing and before you knew it we were putting on pub crawl tanks at Choppers Bar getting shots poured down our throats. A great decision yet again. We are just gonna sum up where our night went... 3 bars, a whole lotta fantastic people from all over the world, a lady boy interactive cabaret, a fire dancing show on the beach, skinny dipping in the ocean, a douche bag Kiwi, a sweet Swede, a swing ride, stolen I-phones, broken doors, Lindsay checked off #34. God bless a good night!

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