Traveling with the siblings: Thai Islands

---

We crossed the Cambodian border back to Bangkok and finally started to head down to the southern Thai islands. This was the last destination of the three week travel I did with my brother José and sister Vale.



The bus left us in a familiar place; right next to Mo Chit, so getting bearings was easy. From there we took a taxi to Ram Buttri near Khaosan and spent a few hours in the guesthouse we had been in before.

At around 6pm we took another taxi to get to the Southern bus terminal. Ther terminal was big and quite modern. We took an overnight bus to the south to arrive in Krabi.



There are renowned islands on both the east (Gulf of Thailand) and the west (Andaman Sea) coasts of southern Thailand. There are several options and we didn't really know whether to go east or west. We ended up going to Ko Phi Phi on the western side, because Vale wanted to go there (Ko = island). Krabi is both a popular tourist destination and a place to take ferries to the islands nearby.



When we arrived at the bus station in Krabi we were confronted with the problem of how to get to the ferry terminal. Also, as always, there are people trying to either scam you or overcharge you. I avoided the tourist office in the terminal and only had to walk for 5 minutes to find a tourist office that charged me what I was expecting.



We were driven to the ferry terminal, got on the ferry and had a 1 1/2 hour ride to get to Ko Phi Phi. The island is beautiful and has a lot of great beaches.

I had read and heard that the weather wasn't going to be the best. And indeed it wasn't. It rained every day at different times and usually it poured. We stayed in the island for about 3 days until we decided to move somewhere else.

Even though it rained quite a lot, it was still good fun. The other good thing was that there weren't many tourists on the island.



The main things to do there are the "island hopping tours" and diving. Because of the weather, there wasn't much point of going island hopping (going from island to island on a boat). There are a lot of nice beaches around, including "Monkey Beach" and "Maya Beach" (made famous because it was the shooting location of the movie "The Beach").



While I was there I decided to do some diving. I went to a dive shop that was located near the place we were staying at (Harmony guesthouse) and ended up talking with Henry, an English instructor that worked there. I asked about the different sites, weather, etc. I also asked about the "DSD program".



Vale had mentioned to me before that she was interested in maybe trying scuba diving. For none-divers, there's a program called "Discover Scuba Diving" (DSD). This program consists on a short theory class and then getting in the water and doing 3 underwater skills. If the person completes the 3 skills and seems comfortable in the water, then they'll go for a dive with the instructor (up to no more than 12 meters of depth and up to no more than 4 people with an instructor).



She made up her mind and decided she was going to give diving a go, but she wanted me to go with her. No problem. I didn't really mind not going on fun dives and I was very happy she was actually going to try diving.

That night José, Vale and I went to get something to eat and then, back at the guesthouse, I did a short DSD class for Vale so she would know what to expect (while I was working as a dive instructor in Australia, I was mainly doing the DSD program. I did that for 8 months, so I knew the class almost by heart).



We woke up early the next day and headed for the dive shop. From there we went to the beach and got on the boat. Ko Phi Phi is made up of two islands. The biggest and the main one is "Phi Phi Don". The smallest is "Phi Phi Le".



The dives were done in Ko Phi Phi Le. After getting underway, one of the instructors did the DSD theory class for Vale and 4 other people. It was a bit rainy that day and the seas were pretty rough, especially on the way back.

After getting in the water, it took a while for Vale to get the underwater skills right, but at least she was calm the whole time, which is the most important thing. Vale got to do the DSD with Henry and the other 4 people had the other instructor. It may have been the fact that I was an instructor and that I had spoken with Henry the previous day, but for us it was excellent having a 1 on 1 class for Vale.

And then we went for a dive. It was really cool watching Vale dive and I took the opportunity to get good footage of her with my GoPro camera. We saw a few clownfish, a moray eel, scorpionfish, etc.





Afterwards we had a surface interval that included a snack and then a second dive. It was a great experience and Vale and I really liked Henry as an instructor.



We were back at around 2pm and then we joined José for lunch and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day. We did a bit of walking and browsing in the different souvenir shops.



In the evening, Vale stayed at the guesthouse sleeping and José and I went to get something to eat. After dinner we ended up in the "Reggae Bar" to have a few drinks. In this place there's a boxing ring in which people can go and volunteer to fight with random contestants (more or less weight accordingly). The fights are up to 3 rounds. Watching drunk tourists give it a go is a lot of fun to watch. Most definitely.

To finish the night we had a last drink at an Irish Pub.

We spent one more day in Ko Phi Phi not doing much and then we decided to move on to the other coast.



Our next destination was Ko Samui, on the Gulf of Thailand. We took a combination of ferry-bus-ferry to get there.

Before getting off the last ferry, we were scammed. So were most of the people in the ferry. An "official guide" went on the ferry and sold tickets for the taxis (called "songthaews") that we had to take to get to the tourist areas. He had an ID card that said "NAS". He sold the tickets for 120 Baht (1.70 USD more or less). Apparently, as he said, it was very hard to get transportation there. Everyone was buying it and I didn't want to have any problems getting to a place where we could get a hotel ASAP after arriving there.

"NAS" was the first person off the ferry and never seen again. When we got to the parking lot, there were several vehicles to choose from and a sign that had the real price written on it: 60 Baht. It wasn't about the money, but it's just the fact that someone just robbed you. Needless to say, all the people getting on the songthaews wanted to kill the bastard.



The weather on the western side was much better. We stayed in a beach called "Chaweng" for about 3 more days. Chaweng is the most popular tourist destination in the island and it's full of shops, restaurants and hotels. It was more expensive than other places we had been to.

During those days we went to the beach, visited markets and went to a beach called Lamai, which was really nice. Besides that, not much else that I can recall.



We then went to our final destination - Ko Tao (Turtle island). This one was by far our favorite island.

The beaches was great and the weather was better than in the previous islands we had been to.



There wasn't much to do here besides diving. Ko Tao is probably the top destination in Thailand for backpackers looking to do their Open Water courses. This is because the courses are extremely cheap and the conditions for diving are extremely good.

I opted to go for a few fun dives here (I hadn't done any proper diving since the Philippines). The company I chose was called "Mojo Divers". It was a small dive shop and I was glad with the choice.



Vale decided that she wanted to do another dive. As she didn't have her Open Water course, she had to do the DSD program all over again.

Ko Tao was cheaper than Ko Samui and there were good retaurants and a few good and chilled bars by the beach, to which we ended up going to every evening, usually before the sunset.



I got up really early the next morning and went to the shop just before 6am. I grabbed a quick breakfast in a 7-11. I was the only customer from that dive shop, so I had a Divemaster going with me and there was nobody else. Good for me and good for him.



Mojo Divers operates with another dive shop, so they share the boat, but tend to their customers individually.

Because of the tides, the boat had been left the previous day on the side of the island opposite to where the dive shops are. We had to take "taxis" (4x4 pickups) and be driven to the other side. I can't remember the name of the places where we did the dives. There was a bit of current that day and the visibility wasn't great, but I really enjoyed both dives. The first one we dived for 1 hour and the second one, 1:10. Two long, relaxed dives. On the first one we saw a banded sea snake which was a nice treat; first time I've seen one.



The seas were a bit rough on the way back and we arrived a bit later than expected. I grabbed a very quick lunch at the same 7-11 and then joined Vale to go out again in the same boat and accompany her on her DSD dive.

With Vale, there were two other people that were doing the DSD program. When we got to the site, from the boat we swam to the beach and while the instructor was teaching the underwater skills, I was entertained watching a massive school of sardines right by the shore, at no more than 1 1/2 meters. There were 2 barracudas hunting amidst the sardines and a bunch of "Sargent Majors" (a type of damselfish) swimming around. It was actually a lot of fun.

After the students had done the skills I went with them for the dive. Vale was a lot more confident in this dive and it showed. I got more good footage of her diving.

We only did 1 dive and on the second site we snorkeled for a while.



The next 2 days we spent more time on the beach, went to the beach bars and visited more markets. During our stay in Ko Tao, there was a festival held for a few days. It's the annual Ko Tao festival and we went to check it out.

It was an area in which there were games for kids, food stands, souvenir shops, a photo exhibit and a large stage in which they were doing plays, handing out awards and doing traditional dances and songs. It was all in Thai, so hard to follow. It was good fun and I had some good food there.



The 10 days in the islands went by very fast. I think it was a good time to not move around too much and just take it easy.



From Ko Tao, we took a ferry and bus to get to the airport in Surat Thani and from there get back to Bangkok.



Back in the city, we had two more days before José and Vale had to fly back to Chile. Of course they did more last minute shopping in between, but besides that, we didn't do too much else.



After they left, I spent about 5 days figuring out where in the world I wanted to go to next.

---

Comments

[Andres]

saludos desde Lonquen
Hola Dani, veo que pasaron excelentes días juntos. Quedarán recuerdos para siempre. Acá todo bien. Ayer fue el winter festival en el colegio y Clemente fue el actor principal de su curso en la obra it´s raining again. La disfrutamos mucho. Los niños salieron hoy de vacaciones de invierno por 2 semanas. Creo que vamos a ir la 2da semana a Puerto Montt. Hoy está lloviendo y bastante helado. te mandamos un fuerte abrazo Andrés