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Published: August 2nd 2008
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So where was I, oh yes I left the Beautiful Perentian Island on my birthday to head to Koto Bharu, my Gateway to Thailand. The border crossing on the east side of the Island has had some bad press so I decided that tonight I would book into a hostel in Koto Bharu hoping to make friends to cross the border with and that could help me celebrate my Birthday. Everyone on the boat was heading in the other direction to me so to save myself some moolah, i decided to get the public bus to KB, I waited and waited at the bus station but no bus came, finally a taxi driver asked if i wanted to share the costs with two locals that were heading to koto bharu and i jumped at it, was not going to spend the day awaiting an imaginary bus - Ive done that before, it isnt that much fun.
So I get to my hostel and guess what, im the only guest - there is no one but me and the owner who was lovely but I could hardly bring him out partying with me, i decided then to make a executive decision -
my birthday this year was not to be held on the 10th but a day later to be confirmed. I wondered around the town and took in the sights which basically was just the market. I was stared at every move I made, the Great KB is not use to westerners and they do not hide this fact, so i was getting used to this paparazzi style stalking and decided to find myself something to eat, this was not easy and there was no vegetarian options at all and the meat looked a tiny bit dogdy so i ended up making a move towards McDonalds if you can believe it along with the crowd of malaysians that had been following me alas at a distance for the entire of my restaurant quest. So after my birthday dinner of some substandard french fries i headed back to the hostel to one escape the stalkers and two because i couldnt depend on anyone to bring me across the border it was all down to me - scary scary.
The next day I headed on the local bus to the malaysian border town and while i was the main attraction on the bus
the locals were very friendly shouting thailand and pointing at correct buses and screaming at the driver to stop the bus so I could get off, I crossed over the bridge to the thai side with no hitches at all and then when queing to get my Thai stamp, it happened. This man at the side was poking me on the shoulder and telling me i had to fill in a form, I read about this and just because I was the only backpacker he wasnt going to pull me into one of his scams thinking that he was going to make me pay my way into the country so i stood firm in the queue refusing to listen to him when a fellow Queuee told me that it was a form I had to fill in and he doesnt want money but was trying to save me from queuing up again, so i sheeplessly called him over and asked for the form. I must stop thinking everyone is trying to scam me but after hearing so many horror stories and making mental notes to myself that it wont be me, it is hard to trust people sometimes but my
lesson has been learnt not to assume.
So I through the border no problems and jump on the train to Hat Yai, my timing was perfect and arrived just 5 minutes before the train left and though it wasnt the most comfortable as i got to sit on the ground the whole journey it was great for people watches as the carriage was alive with chatter and the time passed quickly. I jumped off the train to be greeted by what seems hundreds of tuk tuk drivers screaming "Where you go, Where you go" and as I was the only backpacker on the train they all concentrated on me and i believe were having a bit of a competition to see who would get me, so i tried to walk through them and decided that the first guesthouse i came across would be as good as any so i ran as fast as i could with my backpack, which isnt very fast and is quite comical to look at until i reached the first guesthouse which was luckily only 5 minutes away, threw my bags down and went to get something to eat. I finished my meal and then started
to make my way make to the hostel to figure out what my route was in Thailand when i bumped into Suzanne and Denise, the two Irish sisters that i spent time with on the Islands we decided to have a few drinks to celebrate and decided to head off the next day to Koh Tao, they were even staying at the same guesthouse as me so it was perfect. We decided that the Night ferry would be the best option so the next day we took the train from Hat Yai to Surat Thani and then headed towards the ferry port, the ferry was to leave at 11pm and we arrived after a tiny arguement with our tuk tuk driver at 10 so enough time to grab a quick bite and a few beers for the journey before getting onto the ferry. in order to get to the ferry we first had to pass a ferry that was sinkling on the harbour with the sign Koh Tao, we tried to make out whether this was good sign that there must be a newer boat now or a bad sign telling us to get out of there, because we had
already paid for our tickets we decided that it was a good one. so we got onto the ferry, what can i say, its a good thing that us backpackers are a friendly bunch as we were basically going to be spooning each other for the whole 7 hours, on the floor were matresses with numbers on and that was to be our bed for the night, we soon got over it, tried to get comfortable introduced ourselves to the people we would be cuddling up to and cracked open the chang beers. In the end the journey wasnt to bad and my guy only kicked me about 8 times and we arrived into koh tao all looking a bit like death but it was nothing that a shower wouldnt cure so we jumped onto the back of the pick up truck and told him to bring us to the main beach so we could find some accomm. The only time i wished that someone would hassle us trying to get us to stay at their place was the time when the beach was deserted, well i suppose it was before 7 in the morning. We finally found somewhere and luckily they had the room already available so we were able to go straight in and sort ourselves out, the accommodation was beautiful and it had areally friendly vibe to it, striaght away well after a shower we were relaxed and loving Koh Tao - the girls loved it for the huge array of western food and of course the coffees, seriously I've never met people who had this major caffeine addiction and i loved it for the vibe and of course the diving.
Koh Tao is known for its diving, with many people doing their courses here than anywhere else in the world mainly because its the cheapest place to do it but it does have some great dive sites as well. While the dives that I did here were great and I saw some great marine life, im so glad that I decided to do my course in Malaysia, as here in ko tao with the numerous dive operators you cant dive without bumping in a hundred other divers appearing in the corner of your eye while in the perethians it was just us and we felt honoured in a way to be able to experience it and feel that we were the only ones down there, saying that to anyone reading this, diving in Ko Tao is great and would recommend it fully.
So to wrap this up, Ko tao was everything I wanted and more and was the perfect place to relax before the oncoming madness of the Ko Phang nan - Im heading to the Full Moon Party.
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