Island Life - Part 3

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Met a guy from Lanark (well, Symington) on the boat to Koh Tao, had conversation about climbing Tinto - very random indeed. Checked into a little wooden bungalow by the beach and set about exploring this tiny island. Very nice vibe to Koh Tao - very pretty, much quieter and no taxis or tuk tuks...heaven!

Spent a couple of nights in the bungalows, giggled at Joel feeling all uncomfortable at a lady boy show and indulged in some of the comforts only offered on the west side of the island before moving to the east side to spend a couple of nights in a more isolated spot only accessible with a 4x4.

The resort had basic bungalow accommodation - bed, mossie net, bathroom (no plumbing!) and electricity only turned on overnight. No phone reception, no internet. The days were spent snorkelling in the coral reef bay swimming with thousands of fish of every colour including shoals of reef sharks if you were lucky enough - a bit of a pulse quickening experience I heard! Joel caught a crocodile needle fish - a really long skinny fish which was cooked up and had for dinner.

Fabio, the resident dive instructor, turned 30 on the Friday night and a big celebration had been planned out including a giant birthday cake baked by Ping Pong to a secret recipe with some extra special ingredients. And that was the end of that.

On our way to back to Bangkok, we took the night boat to Chumphon which I’m still not sure was meant to take passengers. The boat was a big ugly thing with nothing to offer other than a mattress (think school gymnastic mat) in a big room with a couple of fans. Looked a bit like what the crew might sleep in, perhaps I should help out loading those coconuts!

Good experience though and the big ugly boat delivered us and the coconuts safely into Chumphon early the next morning.

Find ourselves back in Bangkok at the Palace Inn for a couple of nights (upgraded from Leo’s room to one with air con and tv for an extra 150 baht.) Decide to be tattooed by a Khao San artist after much contemplation throughout the trip. Get “balance” translated into Thai and inked onto the back of my neck - Buddhist / Libra connotations, I like it! And since we had missed out the first time round we decided to pay a visit to Patpong in search of the famous ping pong show. We were well read up on the tourist scams out there but fell at the first hurdle nonetheless. Were taken up to a bar - happy hour so it was cheap as chips for drinks and entry - first danger sign. Then girls swarmed around us like a pack of hungry dogs - “you buy drink for me?” It wasn’t really a question. Second danger sign. So we got a beer, and continued to be overwhelmed and frankly a bit frightened by the number of girls in our faces and then came the icing on the cake - we were presented with a ridiculous bill for about 1000 baht each by the particularly scary ringleader. Third danger sign and time to get the pumpkin out of there. We tried to contest it but it was useless, we paid, we took our drinks and we left. We cursed. Lesson learned.

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