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Published: June 28th 2007
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- June 27 - Night in Surat Thani
- June 28 - July 9 - Sairee Beach, Ko Tao
We woke up early in Surat Thani to catch the first boat in the morning. Our trip here coincided with the up coming full moon on June 30, which attracts thousands and thousands of people in their early twenties, especially British, to the island of Ko Pha Ngan for the monthly full moon party. Our boat was pretty packed and there were many people drinking beers starting at 6 in the morning - by the time the boat was at Ko Samui at about 10:30, many of them were fairly tanked. The boat continued onto Ko Pha Ngan where everyone had to get off the boat. We were actually glad that we'd decided to skip this full moon thing and head straight to Ko Tao. We had met a few people who had been to the last one and most of them said it was 'ok' - I guess if I was still 19 this might have been my dream vacation destination... The boat that left for Ko Tao was nearly empty, and after we arrived in the early afternoon, it
was quite easy to find a room. We just went to the guest house where our friend Tom was staying in Sairee Beach. We really hadn't planned on staying 11 nights, but we were planning to stay through Jen's bday on the 6th.
The storms came in though, the first night we were there. We went out a bit, went swimming, then I decided to look into doing some diving. I had met a divemaster from here when I was down in Sipidan and decided to just go with his dive shop. The morning we went was overcast and the waves were probabably 6 - 8 feet high just off the shore - I made an anything but graceful entrance onto the main boat as I fell flat on my face - yes I am very coordinated... by the time we reached the dive site, I was feeling very naseous from the huge waves. Two others on the boat actually got sick - I was close a few times, but some kind Japanese tourists gave me something for this which seemed to work. Starting a dive like this, jumping off the end of a two story boat into the
water with 6 foot waves was a little overwhelming but I thought if I could just get under the water, it would be relaxing, no problem. But I had problems with my equipment - my mask wasn't fitting correctly, and annoyingly kept filling with water as we descended down the line to 12 meters (the dive was going to be as deep as 30m). When I indicated to the divemaster that I was having problems he took me aside and proceeded to freak me out. I had been calm, but he grabbed onto my BCD (vest for diving) tightly and wouldn't let go. He signaled to me to stop and I thought he'd rip my mask off of me at any minute, which still freaks me out a bit, especially under 12m of water (It sounds deeper if you say it in feet I guess). I got angry and a little freaked, not because of the mask but because he was holding me underwater and I wasn't in control anymore. I started finning up, He got angrier. I was then breathing heavily, and that in itself can induce a slight panic at that depth and I decided just to abort
the dive. The divemaster in training, Shekhar from Dubai who was a day away from getting his divemaster went up with me. The scariest part of that dive was actually getting back on the boat with these gigantic waves. The plank on the back of the boat would lift 8 feet above the water and then come crashing down. I was afraid it would come crashing on my head. I guess they're used to diving in these conditions, but I'm here to have fun - this really wasn't fun.
The second dive was a lot calmer, but visibility was a lot worse than other places we've been and there was just no life there. I probably should've given it another chance, but I wasn't too impressed with the diving here in Ko Tao. I guess it's really not known for it's diving but rather for all the diving schools and courses you can do here. Ko Tao is second only to Cairns near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in the number of Open water diver certifications it issues. It is a dive factory, and that's kinda how I felt diving with Big Blue. At least I met some
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Lady boy mermaid advertising some juice drink in Surat Thani, Thailand nice people on the boat, but I was done diving in Ko Tao.
Ko Tao is a lot more built up than the other islands we'd been to - and it's probably good we did Malaysia before coming here. It is a lot less expensive. It's also very clean (I guess starting our RTW trip in India lowered our expectations of clean). It was quite funny - after the full moon party is over in Ko Pha Ngan, many of the mainly british travelers come over to Ko Tao. We overheard some English girls in the line for the bathroom going on about how disgusting and dirty the facilities were here. I had to laugh - had our standards fallen that much? I really didn't think so, but these are really clean. These are also girls that come traveling to Thailand with a suitcase full of belts, jewelry and other accessories. Not that I'm saying it's the wrong way to travel, it's just amazing to realize how little you actually need. We've been throwing away more and more crap every place we go - and I think about what a pack rat I am, especially at home - how
Ko Pha Ngan
Locals helping the masses of mainly British tourists at our stop on Ko Pha Ngan. I was glad we were moving right on to Ko Tao and skipping this full moon party. much shit I've collected over the years. It's a little crazy. The other thing about Ko Tao is that it really doesn't feel like I'm in Thailand. It's a beautiful and fun place, but it really has very little to do with Thai culture. I'm glad we came here, but there's definitely the feeling that we need to get a move on. I don't really feel like I'm on vacation. That's not really what this year is about for me. There's a lot more to be gained by experiencing these places on a different level. I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of Southeast Asia.
But our time here has been a lot of fun and we've met some great people. Shekhar and Vineet from Dubai who just got their divemasters here; Miles and Jim, their flat mates from the UK who have all been here diving - Miles is staying here for another year to pursue videography and do his divemaster; Darron my buddy on the dive a big blue; Chris, our friend from SF who we met in Tioman who came all the way back here from Cambodia to help celebrate Jen's 30th birthday; Lee the
Vineet and Shekhar
New friends from Dubai crazy Scotish guy who could very well be a comedian...
It's now July 9th and we're catching the ferry at 4 to a night bus to head up to Bangkok. The plan is to sort out some business there - our RTW ticket for which we now have no bookings and then head over to Cambodia, up through Vietnam, over to Laos, and end in northern Thailand and then fly out of Bangkok.
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