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Published: January 13th 2009
Polly:
After spending another night at 'P' Guesthouse in Krabi, we woke up early on Sunday morning and were picked up at 7am for our minivan journey to Chumphon, on the east coast. We were the first to be collected, so had first pick of the seats. The front row lacked legroom so you had to twist at the knees which wasn't very comfortable. In the event of a crash, it also had an increased chance of you flying through the windscreen! The back row had four seats with no spaces in between them so you could get squashed between two larger people. The middle two rows had a 2-1 layout which was great, so we could take two seats on their own and manoeuvre our elbows without bothering anyone else. Strangely, the 2nd row had about 6 inches extra legroom, so we sat there. I think the driver thought we were a bit odd whilst we were figuring all this out, but given that the journey was about five hours we wanted to be comfortable.
The next passenger pick-ups were about 15 minutes away in the sea-side resort of Rai-Lay. Although there were only three hotels to find,
this took our driver about 50 minutes, 30 u-turns, 20 enquiring chats with locals and frequent huffing and puffing.
After a few hours, peanut-sized-bladder Ivens asked the driver to stop, which he didn't seem too happy about, having wasted an hour earlier searching for the passengers. Eventually he pulled over at a sort of service station, and the four oversized guys who'd ended up on the back row were pretty thankful to get out and stretch their legs.
Ten minutes later we were on the road again, and eventually arrived in Chumphon. We were hurried onto a coach (which I think had been waiting for us), and escorted 20 minutes down the road to the pier. As we were the last on the coach, we didn't get a seat so Ross and I perfected our bus-surfing in the aisles.
Chumphon pier was a bustling backpacker hub, with a strange queuing system, and a long walk down a rickety wooden walkway to our vessel. Seeing the exasperated look on my face, Ross carried my big rucksack on his head while I took the little bags.
Once on the boat we found two seats together and braced ourselves
for a rough journey. The Lomprayah catamaran service is pretty quick, reaching Koh Tao in just 90 minutes, but has an unfortunate motion in big waves. After just five minutes at sea, the hurling had begun. Staff were rushing up and down the boat with bags, tissues, and a strong menthol concoction to sniff. I was close to joining the sick, but thanks to my double dose of Dramamine and pressure point wrist bands I was OK.
On arrival at Mae Haad, in Koh Taoh, we went straight into the Easy Divers office next to the pier. We had a chat with one of the instructors, Chris, and discussed a diving & accommodation package where Ross could do his Advanced Open Water (AOW). Ross went with one of the divemasters on a scooter to check out the accommodation. He took a couple of photos for me to see, and we agreed that whilst it was very cheap, it wasn't on the beach, and wasn't a patch on Best House Guesthouse in Koh Lanta. We knew we'd been totally spoilt in Koh Lanta but wanted to check out the competition before we committed.
We ventured up to Sairee Beach,
Our open-air toilet
Note the position of the shower which made it soak EVERYTHING!and found that not only was most of the accommodation full and overpriced, the beach was skanky and full of chavs. We made some enquiries at other dive centres and realised that Easy Divers was by far the cheapest on the island. With both of us happy that we'd had a good look around, and agreed that our first offer was probably the best we were going to get today, we decided to phone Chris at Easy Divers. A shopkeeper let us use her phone for a donation of 10 Baht, and a guy from Easy Divers came to pick us up. He took us back to the office, where we signed up and paid for an AOW course for Ross, starting on the 30th, and a Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB) accredited dive and two fun dives for me. They threw in 3 nights free accommodation at Easy Village Diving Resort and 450 Baht of meal vouchers. We got all this for 11200 Baht, about 220 GBP!
Once we had accepted that we had been so lucky with Koh Lanta, and that we may not find such a perfect spot again, we started to unpack our things and enjoy
our new surroundings. The room was basic, but fairly spacious, and had a TV with 3 movie channels. The bathroom had a foot or so gap where the wall met (or didn't meet) the ceiling and allowed various bugs in, but was more civilised than some of the bamboo huts we'd seen early that day. Also, it was free! And Easy Divers had told us that if we wanted to stay on afterwards we could have the room for 200 Baht a night. Bargain! Really, we were not roughing it - we had our privacy, and it was a damn sight nicer than some of the hostels we'd ended up in. Plus, it was in a peaceful spot, set back from the noise of the town, and surrounded by palm trees and other exotic plants.
The next day we went exploring on foot to two secluded beaches, Charm Churee and Sai Thong, just beyond our lodgings. The first, an 'exclusive spa resort', took us ten minutes to reach down a picturesque path, but required a fee to access. We went back up the hill and turned off into the jungle to find the more secluded Sai Thong resort. The
fact that it's fairly secluded didn't surprise us one bit after we'd trampled through the undergrowth for half an hour or so. At times the path seemed to disappear, or divide, with no sign or indication of where to go! I started to have flashbacks of disappearing into the spider-infested undergrowth in Arraial de Cabo, Brazil, but Ross had remembered the map of the island and worked out which way to go. Eventually we were joined by overhead electricity lines, tied to palm trees, and we realised that we were heading to civilisation. We knew we were near when we could smell and hear the ocean, and soon small, wooden huts on stilts were visible through the trees. The tranquil resort had a range of accommodation, from budget to luxury, spread out on the hillside, overlooking a private bay. It emerged that guests normally arrive & leave using a taxi boat! We chilled there for a few hours and enjoyed the peace and quiet, before trekking leisurely back up the hill.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a wander around the town. Ross had some reading to do for his AOW course, and me for
Jansom Bay
Well worth the walk my PPB dive, along with some knowledge reviews to complete, so we spent a few hours swotting up. We then went out for a Thai dinner before heading back to the room to get a good night's kip before diving.
On Tuesday we met our big and bouncy female diving instructor, Luke-Mi (meaning 'Baby Bear' in Thai), at our Easy Village cafeteria area, which also doubles as a classroom. Along with Robert, from Poland (but living in Brighton), we watched the AOW video. We then strolled 5 minutes down the hill to the Easy Divers' office where we were fitted out with our scuba equipment. We carried our boxes of kit onto the boat and set off for the first dive site, Tao Thong. Here we all did the PPB dive. The visibility was a bit naff, and the instruction rather brief, but actually focussing on our breathing and doing a few exercises involving a big hoop really helped me & Ross hone our buoyancy skills. Ross' buoyancy was awesome, and considering he had only done a handful of dives, I was uber impressed. Robert, on the other hand tended to shoot up and down within a 5m depth
range, which was a little disconcerting!
After the first dive I was dropped back at the pier, whilst Ross and Robert sailed out to the 'Pottery' dive site, in Mae Haad bay, for their 'navigation' dive. The visibility there was much better, and they both coped well with the navigation, although thought it a bit odd that the instructor abandoned them half way through the dive and went back to the boat!
I went to fetch the laptop, and did some e-mailing at 'Safari' restaurant, which had free WiFi. Ross came to join me after his second dive and we shared some cheesy garlic bread before he went off again out to sea for his 'night dive', at White Rock.
Meanwhile back on dry land, I returned to Easy Village to discover that the staff had set alight a big bonfire of waste about a metre and a half behind our hut. It was a windy day and the flames were licking the side of our bathroom wall. When I went into the hut I could hardly breathe, everything wreaked of toxic smoke and the bathroom was covered with black ash. I went to speak to the
reception girl and asked them to put it out immediately. They did so, but I was a bit nervous that the embers may re-ignite. I considered gathering our most precious belongings before escaping from the smoke, but figured I was being dramatic, so went for a massage instead...
Ross returned from his night dive pretty excited after seeing barracuda, a stingray, and many other fish illuminated by his torch. He really enjoyed the whole experience, finding it relaxing and using very little air.
I told him about the fire and he set to work using our shower to super-soak the remainder of the embers. We're not sure what they were burning but it stank of weird chemicals and plastics, and continued to miraculously reignite for the next 3 days!
Wednesday morning was an early start. We were due to meet at the diving centre at 7.20am before our last two dives. At first we went to the Hin Pee Vee dive site, where Ross & Robert did their deep dive to 30m, and I accompanied them. The visibility was pretty poor again, but it was great that everyone descended easily and enjoyed the dive, not phased by
the extra pressure or the murkiness. The last of Ross' AOW dives was the 'multilevel' dive, and for this we went back to White Rock. Before the dive Luke-Mi briefed us on using the multilevel wheel to plan a dive, enabling you to stay down longer, and within the 'no decompression limits'. We then used this model for the dive.
Back at the diving centre Ross and Robert submitted their knowledge reviews and a couple of passport photos for their licences, and got signed off as Advanced Open Water divers. As it was New Year's Eve, we didn't need an excuse to celebrate, but postponed the beers for a few hours whilst we both had a Thai massage and a rest.
At about 8pm, still very sober, we went out for pizza and were looking forward to a chilled out NYE. After dinner we met up with Jess & Cath from South Africa, (who Ross had done his Open Water course with in Koh Lanta), and some of their mates from both SA & the UK. We strolled down to Sairee Beach and spent most of the evening at AC Bar and Maya Bar, watching fire-dancers and firework
displays. The party flowed onto the beach and everyone was dancing in the shallows and merrily celebrating the start of 2009. Along with many others, we lit a lantern made out of a bin-bag stretched over a wire frame, and watched them ascend into the sky, illuminating the night.
About two in the morning, and many buckets of cocktails later, we found ourselves in the back of a pick-up style taxi, on our way to a psy-trance festival in the jungle. Apparently, it was the first of its kind in Thailand, and people had come from all over the world for the event, which was due to last for 50 hours. The day-glo, luminous, inflatable, weird & wonderful decorations turned the jungle into a strange place, especially under the UV lights. Aging hippies swayed and hugged, and a Billy Connolly look-a-like in a pink T-Shirt popped up all over the place, with a big grin on his face. The many ladyboys set it aside from the British festivals we've been to, but kind of added to the charm. Neither of us are really into trance music, but we enjoyed watching the hardened fans reaching for the lasers, and all
that. As the sun came up the view out to sea was eery, and we could feel a storm blowing the weather our way. We got a taxi back, and as soon as we got to Easy Village, the heavens well and truly opened.
It rained for most of New Year's day as we slept. When we woke up, the storm was near ending and we went out for grub. Although we are loving the Thai food, our hungover bellies required some stodge, so Ross had a bacon-burger with garlic jacket potato and I had fish and chips. We stopped by at Easy Divers and paid 400 Baht to stay for 2 more nights, then I went back to watch a film while Ross went to use the net.
On the second day of 2009, feeling much fresher, we decided to hire a quad bike. It cost us 600 Baht (about 12 quid) for 24 hours (including 2 helmets, which are hard to find on Koh Tao), and enabled us to reach some more remote parts of the island. First, we drove (by 'we' I mean Ross, as I was a bit too scared to drive) to the
southeast corner of the island, up through the jungle, past where the festival had been. Stragglers were still leaving, looking somewhat disorientated! We descended a huge hill to the coast, down a muddy, pot-holed track, and eventually came out at Tanote Bay. It was a beautiful spot, and it's 'hard to reach' location made it really unspoilt. We stopped for a milkshake then got back on the quad, and went to play mini-golf. We then drove to Coral View Resort and hooked up with the South Africans/Brits from NYE/Koh Lanta. We had a tasty lunch, then Ross and I hired some masks & fins to have a snorkel around the bay. The weather was deteriorating and we couldn't see much, but we enjoyed the swim.
We dried off, bid our farewells, then drove northwards, through Sairee, and out to the northwest tip, about 500m from Koh Nang Yuang. Koh Nang Yuang is actually 3 tiny islands joined by narrow spits of sand at low tide. We watched the sun set over the small, neighbouring islands before heading home.
Before dinner we went to try and book a ferry for the following day back to Chumphon, but were informed
that all four companies were fully booked for the next three days as it was the end of a Thai national holiday. We went for a curry at 'Flavour', one of our favourite WiFi restaurants, and managed to Skype Tam & Tobes, Jan & Mike, Dom, Dad, Ade, & Din.
On Saturday morning we were woken abruptly by a very loud and annoying water pump outside our hut. Admittedly our resort had run out of water and was in need of a top-up from a road tanker, but the noise was deafening, and I had a mini-strop as it wasn't even 8am! With hindsight, it was probably a good job that we woke up early, as we had no ferry, nowhere to stay that night, and with all the Skype action the previous night we had forgotten to think about it! We packed up our bags and went to the pier to suss out the ferry situation. The first Lomprayah catamaran of the day was about to leave, but they'd had no cancellations and couldn't fit us on. We put our names down on the waiting list for the afternoon ferry and were hopeful as we were second on
the list. We went to look at some accommodation, but couldn't commit until we knew what was happening with the ferry, so killed a few hours getting breakfast, lunch, and an amazing oil massage. When we returned to the ferry at 2.30pm, we discovered that the ferry was delayed, so they sent us away for another hour. On arriving back for the third time, and with everyone already checked in, they confirmed that they had space and immediately sold us two tickets. Bingo! We had fun on Koh Tao, but with the weather being a bit poo, and the diving a bit murky, we really wanted to move on, so were dead chuffed to have made the ferry......
.......That was until we set off. It made the outward journey seem like the swan ride at Disneyland. The catamaran heaved and lurched, and many of the passengers did the same. Even Ross, with a usually strong belly, was feeling slightly worse for ware, although this may have been down to fear rather than seasickness. I joined the 'special group', with our heads over the back of the boat, getting soaked by the four-metre swell. Occasionally we caught each other's eyes
and giggled. I'm not sure why, but the situation seemed a bit strange and funny. After the boat ride, while waiting for our respective onward transport, it was easy to spot members of the 'elite' club, identifiable by the fact that we were soaked from head to toe and a little bit grey around the gills.
A coach was waiting to drop us in Chumphon town centre, and we boarded quickly to secure a seat and try and recover from the past 90-minutes of hell. A quarter of an hour later it dropped us in town and within a few minutes, some angel at the Lomprayah office had greeted us, found us a hotel with AC, TV, bed with a duvet, and a BATH!!! She arranged a car to take us there, and all for 400 Baht. I could have kissed her. We looked at each other and smiled, happy to be alive and in relative luxury.
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