The Island Life

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So the island lifestyle has seemed to rub off on me a bit, and my blogging has succumbed to the infamous phenomenon that is "island time", which basically means shit just doesn't get done. Since it's been almost two weeks, this will be a bit less detailed than the last post...

Second week of diving: Overall, we didn't do anything too crazy if i remember correctly; need to check my log book to see what we did...
Monday: Went back to the clam nursery to finish up some work...got all but 1 of the 15 cages rearranged. Tuesday: Went on a bit of a deep dive to remove a massive fishing net that had been draped over a reef and subsequently had tons of fish/crabs/etc. tangled up in it. A few of the critters were dead, but a decent number of them made it out alive.
Wednesday: Back to the BioRock, where we did some measurements of coral growth
Thursday: Two dives that were pretty cool. First one was trying to use lift bags to move concrete blocks to a new location for a mooring line. We didnt have enough bags, so this kinda failed. Second dive we had a giant sand screw that we worked to drive down to help hold the concrete blocks in place. This also failed. Despite the fact that we basically couldn't accomplish anything, it was fun as we took off our fins and were just walking around on the ocean floor as we worked...once we realized it wasnt going anywhere we messed around doing double backflips etc...it was like being on the moon.
Friday: We installed a buoy line to section off a shallow reef systems...less than a week later its already been cut and boats are all over it again.

This week:
Monday: Did a survey of the substrate (coral types, rocks, etc) along a transect line...I was pretty awful at it to be completely honest
Tuesday: Went to the coral nursery. Myself and Dave got left to do the manly stuff AKA taking a hammer and chisel and pounding holes into a rock, then transferring healthy corals from the nursery into our newly smashed out holes.
Wednesday: An awesome day. On our way out to do another survey, we ran across a school of 20+ pilot whales jumping out by shark island. Dev had the captain steer the boat as close as we could get without scaring them, then a few of us jumped in with just a mask and fins to swim with them. It was hard to get close to them underwater, but we could hear them "talking". It was just like in the movies; that high pitched squeaking noise...just amazing.
Thursday: Another great day. We were back at the coral nursery, collecting corals this time. About halfway through the dive, a giant barracuda (5 ft at least) showed up and was just chillin like less than 10m away from us. I've seen schools of barracuda here a few times, but there were never any fish that were even near this size. Leon and I swam up to maybe less than 1 m from it before it swam off...but then it came back to the same spot 5 minutes later. This time we let it be...we're probably lucky it didn't take one of our hands off the first time.
Friday: Went for a fun dive out by shark island...the current was so intense today that it was basically a drift dive. Some of us were messing around with ridiculous poses since we didn't have to kick thanks to the current. That part was fun. Going back was a different story. Kicking as hard as we could did little to anything against the current and eventually one of the other divers got swept up to the surface. Eventually, we all surfaced and just slowly kicked back until we were in a sheltered area and could descend again.

Outside of the diving, I've been gettin more and more comfortable with the island. By now I've seen people come and while thinking back to my first few days seems like ages ago, I still feel like this month on Koh Tao has gone by too fast.

Since my parents read this, I'll keep the comments about partyng to a minimum... Before I came here, I read that it was a sleepy, quiet island with little to do at night. Maybe it's just the company I've kept here, but we've had an absolute blast. There are plenty of people here looking to rage any night of the week, just head over to Lotus bar for 2 for 1 buckets and you're set.

Outside of diving and an occasional drink or two, I've mostly just hung out around the dive shop reading, playing volleyball on the beach, or just shootin' the shit with everybody. I finally rented a bike last week and have enjoyed cruising around the island on the Blue Dragon (Sorry Jeepy, but you have some competition).

I've just sorted out my last week or so here in Thailand...Sunday I'll be going to the neighboring island of Koh Phangnan for the legendary Full Moon Party. The FMP is basically just a giant beach party where 20,000 or so people show up for a massive rave. I've heard it can be a bit dangerous though, so I'll probably be trying to stay a bit more low key than usual.

After Koh Phangnan, I'll take the night boat to Surat Thani, then fly to Chiang Mai via Bangkok for a few days. From there it will be back to Bangkok (with maybe a half day in Ayutthaya to see the ruins) before flying home.

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Comments

[Justin]

Chang Mai
Matt, I think I can tell that you're having the same experience I did. What will be even more strange is coming back home because you will see everything from a much different perspective but it's a good thing. I'm not sure If you check this or facebook more often but if you're going to Chang Mai I have to tell you about a village close by called Pai. I've never been there but a seasoned backpacker told me that it's a place that a lot of people go to and never leave. Ask around about it.