The Islands of Thailand: Phuket and Koh Lanta

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From Bangkok, (entry coming soon), I took a night train to Suratthani. I paid slightly less for a comfortable upper bunk bed, and had a very nice train trip (no need for Valium!!) The most entertaining part of the trip was a Thai woman who got on the train with what seemed like all of her worldly possessions plus an entire shop inventory in various bags. She took over every remaining storage space in the car of the train with her boxes and bags and then went around saran-wrapping it all so it wouldn't fall down during the trip. Yelling (yelling) directions at the constant stream of men carrying her things onto the train the entire time.

I arrived at Suratthani, got a bus to Phuket, ate some breakfast and left. The 4 hour bus ride was uneventful. I got off the bus and got into a van, where we dropped everyone off in a very exciting town before we got to my down. It was...the Russian one. It was really nice, though. White sand that squeaked for some reason with every step, clear blue water, fat sunburnt Russian families in Speedos....

Since it was 2:00 and I hadn't eaten since 7:30, I asked my hostel about food, and they sent me to the best Pad Thai in Phuket, which it truly was. Huge bowl of pad thai, and so good. My next order of business was to go to the beach. The water was warm, and I swam around for a long time. At one point, I re-surfaced and felt a splash next to me, and then another behind me. A school of tiny fish was skipping across the water. After laying in the sun and reading for a long time, I went back to the hostel where I made a Danish friend. We went to dinner at a fancy resort place (I had soup because I'm poor and was still full from the pad thai) and then drank beers on the beach and watched couples take pictures with lanterns before letting them go. As we walked on the beach we kept seeing things scurry into and out of the water. Upon closer inspection (iPhone flashlight), we realized they were crabs, big and small, scuttling into and out of the water. They were everywhere!

The next day, I woke up and went for a run on the beach (yes, an actual run). I cannot describe the severity of the sunburns I saw on the Russians. Also, they really enjoy laying down right in the water and letting the waves just destroy them. It's a weird thing. The other thing the beach is full of is fully-clothed Chinese tourists in the water up to their ankles or knees (depending on how daring they are) taking pictures. After my run, I enjoyed a nice big American breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, potatoes, and coffee. On the way to the beach I walked around for a bit and then went to the beach to lay out in the sun for a long time. I spent all day at the beach and couldn't have been happier. I had an early dinner and early bed because I had a big travel day the next day and I love sleeping.

The next morning I woke up and got picked up at 6:30 by a taxi driver who took me to a pier to get my ferry. I couldn't find the actual ferry forever, but 15 minutes before it departed, some guy sat at a table and started checking tickets. It was weird, but it worked. We got on another weird boat with 6 seats across set up like a plane. About halfway through the trip, I realized there was a top deck. As we arrived at Koh Phi Phi, I sat on the top deck until I was soaked enough to go back below. We arrived at Koh Lanta, and I caught a truck to my hostel. The guy wanted me to sit in the cab with him somehow with all of my stuff (big pack, little bag, purse), but I climbed into the back anyway because, you know, room. He brought me to my 2-star hotel (thanks, Mom and Dad!) where I was immediately able to check into my OWN ROOM (thanks, Mom and Dad!) Once I was settled and had sprawled across my giant bed for a good amount of time, I went downstairs to rent a motorbike.

Now, I have never driven a motorbike. So when I asked the guy to rent one, I paid him and he gave me the keys and helmet. "...so, can you teach me how to drive it?" He brought me outside and showed me how to start it and make it go. It was easy to figure out from there. So, the first time I drove a motorbike, it was on the wrong side of the road (they do that in Thailand), and it probably wasn't the safest idea. But I drove slow and made it into town. It took me FOREVER to find my diving company that I had decided to get my open water certification through, so while I looked around for it, I had some chicken satay for lunch. I finally found the company, signed a bunch of paperwork, and got a manual that I was told to read. They informed me that they would pick me up at 8am the next morning and to be prepared for a LONG day. Normally, to get your Open Water certification, the courses last 4-5 days. I asked them if I could do it in 3. Like a champion.

I spent the rest of the day driving my motorbike around the island because I could. I found a monkey school thing and played with monkeys for a while. There were 5 I could play with. One of them tried to take a nibble out of me. We weren't friends. The biggest one immediately jumped on me and climbed on my head. He liked to outstretch my arm for me, climb up it until he was on my hand, jump to swing from the rafters, and then swing back onto my head/shoulder. When I didn't comply, he would pull my hair. The third monkey played a game where he would climb up a post, jump from the post to my shoulder, and then jump back again as many times as he could. The fourth monkey was little and tried to play that game but missed a few times. He mostly played with my bracelets and picked at my feet and legs. The fifth monkey was really chilled out and just sort of liked to sit and do his own thing. After hanging out with the monkeys, I went to the beach for a while, but the tide was low and rocky, so I didn't swim much. When it started to get dark, I brought the motorbike back, watched the sunset on the beach, and ate barbecue thai chicken for dinner.

The next day was LONG. I got picked up and taken to the office where I spent the entire morning watching videos and taking quizzes. About 5 hours in total. I met my instructor, Holly, and we ate lunch together before my final video. Right after that we went to do all the confined water dives in the pool. A bunch of us piled into the pickup truck because a lot of people wanted to see where the pool was. There were a lot of new people at the company getting their dive masters, so they have responsibilities within the company, like taking new divers to the pool. We got lost about 4 times. Finally, we found it, unloaded the truck, and everyone apologized a lot. I found the whole thing hysterical. Also, when I say we got lost, I mean there is one road that goes around the island and we just couldn't find the turnoff for the resort with the pool because everyone in the truck had only been there 0-1 time. Holly, Audrey (a dive master student), and I geared up and spent the afternoon doing skills in the pool. Breathing underwater was really cool. Skills involved learning hand signals, learning what to do if I run out of air (by actually having my tank turned off), clearing my mask by filling it with water and then emptying it, swimming around without a mask (since I wear contacts, I did this with my eyes closed and Holly guiding me), and all of the things to do for various emergencies. We all ended with very pruny hands. We called the truck to pick us up, but they were doing drop-offs from the boat that day, so we had to wait. While Holly and Audrey got the equipment together, I did my 10-minute water tread. I feel like I should mention that this pool is at a resort so while we were doing all this scuba training in full gear, there were a lot of people relaxing by the pool, who I'm sure were very entertained by the whole thing.

Finally the truck picked us up and dropped me at the hotel. I ate dinner on the beach and went to bed early.

The next morning was Christmas Eve! I got picked up at 7:20 and driven to another office on the beach, where Holly met me. We got our stuff, and got in a little taxi boat to be driven to the big boat. There were about 45 people on the boat in total. We got briefed on the boat rules and then ate breakfast. There was cheese!!!!!! The trip took about an hour and a half to Koh Phi Phi, which was our first dive site. I walked off the boat and submerged myself into the clear blue water. As soon as I looked down, I saw fish! We started by doing a lot of surface skills and then swam down some meters and looked at fish. The first thing I saw was a huge blue starfish about a foot in diameter. We swam around the reef for a while and saw triggerfish and rainbow fish and loads of others before we continued with more skills. After 35 minutes of diving and reaching 12 meters, we resurfaced and got on the boat.

We ate snacks and rehydrated before the boat moved on again. We stopped at a beach that is famous for being the setting of the moving 'The Beach,' which I didn't know existed but is apparently super famous. It was pretty. We moved onto the next dive sight but stayed on the boat for a while to get our nitrogen levels down. At the second dive site we practiced more skills and then went down along a wall to 11 meters. We stayed under for 45 minutes, practiced more skills, and saw a lot more fish, coral, anemones, slugs, and urchins. We got back on the boat, ate a big lunch, and moved to the third dive site. Rather than do my third open water dive and have to pay 2000 extra baht the next day for 2 fun dives, I decided to forego the third dive of the day and instead do my 200 m of swimming and all my tests. I took 4 10-question quizzes and then once all the divers got in the water, the boat shut off, and I had to swim around it twice. Easy enough, but the current sucked one way and was amazing the other way. When I got back on the boat I took my 50-question test, nailed it, and was 2 dives away from becoming a certified diver. We went back to land, I got some thai chicken for dinner, and then I skyped with my grandparents and my friends in Budapest for Christmas Eve.

The next morning (Christmas!) we did the same thing on the same boat but different dive sites. And we started off the day singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. And I wore a santa hat while diving. This boat was more...cultural. AKA fat Russians in speedos. STOP. After a 2 hour boat trip with breakfast, we stopped at Koh Haa Lagoon to do some easy skills and then dive. One of these skills is the CESA in which you start at 6 meters, take a deep breath, take out your regulator, and say "ahhhhhhhh" while deflating your BCD (life vest) and kicking your way to the surface but not going too fast. It took me most of the dive to do it. I had to keep taking breaths. It's really deep and I have pathetic lung capacity. We took breaks from it and swam around a bit and did others skills. I FINALLY got it, but by the time I reached the surface, it was time to end the dive. Boo. That dive was 30 minutes long and we only got down to 7.5 meters. We got back on the boat, went to Koh Haa Yai (where a whale shark had been spotted a few days earlier!) for my last open dive! This was the best one because my only skill was to use a compass for 25 meters. Easy. This dive was 40 minutes long and we got down to 17.6 meters (I'm certified for 18). We saw some squid, moray eels, a mantis shrimp (!!!!!!) and a yellow seahorse that was probably 5 inches long. It was amazing. I love diving. When we resurfaced, I was certified! We ate lunch and moved onto the last dive site, Koh Haa Neung for a fun dive with no skills. I paid 1000 baht extra, and Holly and I went down and saw 2 cuttlefish, which was super cool.

After the dive, I went home and showered. I met Holly and her girlfriend for Christmas dinner (after my tuktuk driver getting super lost) at a bar on the beach. We ate pizza and ribs and drank cocktails. We did Christmas crackers (British) and wore santa hats and crowns. Then the three of us piled onto Holly's scooter and drove to another bar, but it was time for me to go home and Skype with my family for Christmas morning. While I was falling asleep from how late it was and Jeff (in Colorado) was falling asleep from how early it was, we all got to hang out and watch Mom, Dad, and Duncan open presents and Risky be needy and Maggie be old. It wasn't the same, but it was something.

Merry Christmas!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Ko Lanta
Nice photo