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Published: January 27th 2008
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Tong Sala Beach Sunset
You could walk right out and around the rocks here in these shallow waters. I was back the next day! So I decided to trust my instinct and do the Visa run to take the extra 30 days in Thailand while I am here, the decision was swung by the low cost of scuba diving in Koh Tao, which I have never done before. First of all before I go into the visa run my finishing piece on Koh Phangan from what I have seen of it including the full moon party the day before I left. Many people head over to Koh Phangan purely for these parties, which are in Haad Rin. All a full moon party is, is a bigger than normal piss up on the beach, which makes a huge mess of the place where the Thais are selling buckets of 250ml of your favourite spirit with which ever mixer for 250 baht (so for less than 5 pounds you get hammered). A full moon party is nothing special, I gathered this anyway before hand, never the less I was happy enough as that they were spinning my beloved drum and bass at a couple of bars on the beach front so I bought a bucket, got chatting to a few people and crashed out before sunrise.
Many people then leave the island not seeing any of it's treasures. I rented a moped out for a couple of days before and went up to Tong Sala as advised by the boys at the reggae bar on Samui where I found the most beautiful beach scenery I had ever seen, with just a few people scattered about. Also there is the Amsterdam bar located on the hill above looking down at this perfect spot with these 2 small islands, one of which is protected by blokes with guns apparently as there are endangered birds or something.
Down at this beach you could walk quite far out in these shallow rock formations which was awesome but unfortunately I slipped while climbing on to one of the rocks and have now damaged my digital camera by shock/slight water splash, so these are the last shots I have for now.
So the visa run after the full moon party - I left my room not long after 3pm (late but they let me off) and chilled out at the Lazy Bar until my taxi pick up at 8.30pm to the pier at Tong Sala. The lazy bar at Haad
Slow Boat Conditions
This was a 10pm to 5am journey in these conditions, we tried to sleep! Rin was great. It just played movies on and off through out the day and had floor lying down pillow things so I rested there for the afternoon with mixed fruit shakes to boost me back up.
I got into the taxi from the travel/diving agent who I booked all my stuff through as at this depot it was run by an English guy which helped a great deal. It was kind of a back packers info place also. Then on to the slow boat from 10pm to 5am to Suratthani. Now I was expecting a bed but it seems I was in the economy class so was directed below deck (just above waist height for me) where there was nothing more than a hard beaded floor, a foam edging and life jackets to make a pillow out of. I lay next to another sound Ozzy guy and English girls, there was a Russian couple the other side and some Swedish girls nearby also. No surprise we hardly slept in these conditions, but it was an experience so made a joke of it!
On arrival at Suratthani everyone was directed to their awaiting pickup trucks for the different travel companies and taken to the local depots. We were then labeled up so I had the sticker 'Visa Run' on my shirt as others were off else where and sent to the relating mini bus (luckily air conditioned) after a Thai omelet. this was about 6am by now, the journey to Ranong (far west Thailand) was a further 4ish hours then!
Here we went to the Thai immigration office to get our passports stamped as 'left' and then headed off on a short minibus trip to the nearby pier. We jumped aboard these tatty boats and headed off past a couple of check points across the border to Myanmar (formally Burma), got off and entered their immigration office. We paid them 10 US dollars and was stamped as 'entered' and 'left' in one go. Local children where there hassling us for what spare money we had before we got back aboard the boat past the check points (the Thais searched us this time) and back to the filthy port at Ranong. Then back to the immigration office to be stamped as 'entered' for 30 fresh days before a return 4 hours to Surrathani by maybe 3.30pm. Then it was a coach to a closer pier to the islands (Donsak) and a 6pm ferry back to Koh Phangan making it a quicker return journey for an 8pm return to Koh Phangan. This 24hr journey cost just about 30 British Pounds although I won't be doing it again. It kind of signifies me as a proper traveller now than just a holiday maker!
I found a cheap room to collapse in for a short while after a light bite until my alarm sounded at 7am for another boat journey to the next island Koh Toa for some scuba diving where I am now, although I have delayed my course due to an eye infection! I am set to do the 4 day open water course, which enables me to dive to 18m worldwide where I can do further training to 30m.
Right enough time online, it took me a good few goes on and off to compose this!
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