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I mean come on....
Each night you just had to sit on the beach and watch the sun fade away...so beautiful and peaceful.So Long for now…Ko Tao
I am safely in Chiang Mai! I will never have to go through Bangkok again!!!!!!
I had planned on being on Ko Tao for only about 3 days to island hop before heading to Ko Pha Ngan - 9 days later I am now just getting up the strength to leave this beautiful island and head up north, but I’ll be back!
Ko Tao is what all islands wish they could be, beautiful, tropical and away from all the craziness. Ko Samui was great but it had a lot of the spring break element, Ko Tao is where you come to detox. Now don’t get me wrong it has it’s “scene” represented in the 2 “BUCKETS” I have consumed while here, but each was well deserved. The highlights of this stop; I have now adopted two pets a rooster (Fog Horn) and a Eddie the lizard, I’m a certified Advance Open Water Scuba Diver and I met new friends from the UK, Whales, Spain, Sweden and of course the locals are now my buds.
My bungalow is great, just steps from the beach, situated right in the middle of the small road
Lunch
This was the best roasted corn I have ever had and the hat reminded me of my dad BBQing in the back yard... that cuts through the town of Sai Ree with restaurants, shops and bars on either side. I chilled once again upon arrival and soon again remember that it is damn hot here and lying on the beach with sweat rolling everywhere and no relief from the water as it was 87 degrees (YES the water, the ocean was 87 air temp 95).
I needed to find something to do so I decided to sign up for Scuba lessons, do a fun dive. But of course I was talked into doing the scuba open water course that would last for 4 days, sure why not. The first couple of days were a bit trying since you have to go through all of the skills to prove to your instructor that you won’t die or kill him under water when left alone. So they make you do things like removing your mask while trying to find your air regulator without breathing through your nose while floating a meter or so off the floor so you don’t bumped into any sea urchin’s was a tad FREAKISH and terrifying, but I finally got the hang of it. Of course by day 4 Neil
"Eddie"
This made going to the bathroom an Olympic sport...at least until we had an agreement. I would have paid all the money in China to have seen my mom meet Eddie the way I did, him walking up the wall 2' from me while on the ya know! PRICELESS. (my UK instructor) was like you’re a natural you should do the advanced, what is that? 5 more dives including one at NIGHT…ARE YOU HIGH? I can barely keep my wits about me when I can see and now you want me to go under the water where I have to rely on a torch to see 2’ in front of me? Is that right? Yes! *&^%^%^…OK FINE!.
The first couple of dives were cool, some buoyancy tricks, breathing tricks, learning how to take off your gear put it back on swim through caves, etc. kinda of cool, no problem. Starting seeing all kinds of cool fish, Nemo, huge Angel fish, Parrotfish, Moray Eels, Grouper, Cleaner Wrasse (who like to bike your ear), Barracuda, Porcupine fish, Blue Spotted Sting Ray and the freaking Trigger Fish UGH!!! Damn that FISH. The 3rd dive was our deep dive heading down to 30 Meters where you can’t just pop up to surface if you freak out because your lungs could explode, Oh joy! Most fish are afraid of people and will normally swim away- NORMALLY….the damn Trigger fish has other ideas. This fish is the size of a toilet seat lid with
Certified Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver
I wish I had a photo to show of my final night dive but sad to say I barely saw anything myself except the back of my instructor's head and lot of things that glowed in the dark and then vanished...... teeth like a dinosaur (a T-Rex) seriously. His home space is an upside down triangle so if you see one you are suppose to head down to show you aren’t invading his space and if you see his rooster mane pop up then beware he is pissed and will most likely attack.
So we are 30 Meters under the water visibility is about 2 meters and we see one ok, no problem we’re low no worries, NOPE he turned and came at Neil with a vengeance he had to kick it with his fins. When diving you are suppose to keep visual contact with your buddy I was practically sitting on his tank after that. FREAKED OUT, after that little situation, all was good with the rest of the dive. 30 meter deep dive, DONE-Check!
With another dive on the schedule we head to a ship wreck where again we are warned that there “might” be a Trigger living on the boat..GREAT and why are we going here again? Headed down to about 18 meters and we see him, fan-freaking-tastic. Within about 2 minutes he came right at us, now there are 5 of us down on this dive I am cleverly in the MIDDLE (thank you very much) but the instructor at the back was getting attacked feverishly, every kick was to bat him off…the little bugger went and called a buddy so another one showed up. Now remember you are suppose to keep low to show you aren’t invading their space, which just makes them more aggressive but when you are freaking out you tend to breathe more which releases your lungs so you float….I was literally peeing in my pants what if the second one was like “ if I’m not back in 5 minutes bring EVERYONE” was there a whole family just waiting to take out the damn big bubble intruders? UGHHHHHH.…you have to Google them so you can get the full visual of these beastly swimmers. We finally got away but I was doing so many somersaults and flips in the water to make sure I was alone I was a dizzy.
Final dive of the day was our NIGHT dive. We leave at dusk so we “think” that it’s still light out then you get in, about 5 minutes in it is literally pitch black and sort of like being in a dark room with only a flash light when you point it at something, something will appear WELL when you are under water and you do that things MOVE, large things and you have no idea where they went or what the hell it was. Then there is the question of what is looking at me, after the Trigger incident I was like “if we wake up those fish after they clearly told us they didn’t want to be bothered we were D.E.A.D.” Then rocks and coral just come out of nowhere, then you have sea urchins EVERYEWHERE, the floor, the walls and they stick out and remember YOU CAN’T SEE more than 2 feet in front of you. Then clever oh so clever Neil tells us to turn our lights off so we can see the florescent fish….I could care less about fish that light up unless they are going to guide me out of here. Again saw some really cool very big fish but the thought of not being able to see anything 20 feet under water was unnerving, but we did it. That is one dive I doubt I will ever attempt again unless I have headlight size torches.
So that was my diving adventure. Other fun facts about Ko Tao, each morning almost on the hour staring at 5AM until about 9, Fog Horn starts cackling right outside my window. And this is after the night when Eddie heads out to catch his dinner and talk with his friends. On my first nights I thought it was a bird, then we met and I realized it was his was way of letting me know not to wait up but that he would stay close to the house. Let’s just say peeing was an Olympic sport until we got to know each other (I think my Mom would have died if she met him the way I did). Have met some great folks on the this leg, Lorda, from Spain who now lives in Scotland; we started with coffee in the afternoon and ended by dancing like two video vixen’s on the beach to what else Empire State (I couldn’t help myself); Steve and Sue from Whales my night dive buddies, they have been married for 31 years and act like still truly like each other, amazingly fun couple went dancing and drinking with them after the night dive, we were all in need of something that night. 2 crazy 20 year old Swedes who have just completed the same trip that I’ll be doing and have offered up their home for me to stay when I get to Sweden.
So anyone who is planning on coming to visit put Ko Tao on your list of places we will be seeing, I know there are a dozen other islands around but I can’t imagine any others being as peaceful and beautiful.
Finally made it to Chiang Mai afte 30+ hours on boats and trains, planning staying for about a week, going to see some Tigers, do some zip lining in the jungle, take a cooking class before heading to Laos.
Ciao for now.
P.S. Winston decided that he wanted to stay at the Coast he was tired of being couped up in the room all day a.k.a he was on my bag when I got on the boat and when I got off he was gone 😞 I hope he is making some Thai child very happy, but I do feel like a bad parent at the moment.
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Becky
non-member comment
Hello
Beautiful picture of sun. Glad to hear you are doing well! I am so happy that are taking this trip and experiencing such great experiences! Sounds like lots if fun!! Thanks for the update!