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Published: September 6th 2007
Beautiful - Koh Tao
Mango bay Koh Tao scene of our third dive!Welcome to the South of Thailand and specifically the three Islands Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and their lesser known counterpart Koh Tao. We spent time on all of these Islands and they are breathtaking! I have to say we love Thailand, the people, the food, the views and the prices!!!
We'll start our tale from arrival aboard a Bangkok airways flight from Hong Kong. I swear the flight was great. Half empty, so we had three seats each to stretch out on. You also get fed and watered non-stop. The crew are great! Anyway we flew in low over the tropical island of Koh Samui to its small airport. We were then driven to a mid sized hut which is the terminal building and immigration! We got in just in time as it started to bucket down! There are two small desks and the customs here take there time! Soon we were through, picked up our bags (they have no baggage belt) oof the floor and met our taxi. He drove us through the slightly flooded road, across the island and to LAMAI BEACH where we were staying at the Samui Beach Resort. We got booked in and were given room
Claire
Claire sits in our Samui restaurant on night one with the sea as her backdrop! 501 This was a large clean room, with a fan that was colder than air-con, 5 yds from a lit up swimming pool and 15yds from the sandy beach and sea! Needless to say we were well chuffed after claustrophobic Hong Kong! We dumped our bags and went for dinner at the resort bar. We sat at a moonlit table, overlooking a calm sea and white sandy beach, it was romantic... ehem... sorry back to the blog.We were only here for the night as in the morning we were going across to Koh Phanngan for the Full Moon Party, a must on any travellers itinerary! We caught the cataraman over to the island, its only a short hop, and made our way to Ban Kai where we had booked a beach hut at the Blue Lotus Resort. This place is well cool and i recommend it if your going to the island. Its far enough from Had Rin to be quiet, yet close enough for a 50baht, 10 minute taxi ride in.Our hut looked out onto the restaurant and the beach, which was quite wide during the day, although of a night the sea lapped at the shore 30 yds
The beach
Me on the beach in Ban Kai, we have a disposable camera with pics on as well! from our door! The owners Phoon and Shauna, an American woman were really chilled out and very welcoming. Honestly they'd do anything for you and are a font of information about the Island, do's and dont's. The food in restaurant was really cheap and quality. I'll break here and let claire tell you about her NEW favourite food!!!
(Claire) Yum Thai spicy salad is totally the best salad i have ever had, it was so good,it doesn't even feellike your eating salad and i ate it every day for a week!!! Then cut down to every other day!!! It is a warm salad (only lightly cooked) with tomatoes, spring onions, cashew nuts ,fresh coriander (or a lsight variation of this) and the drssing is made of fish sauce, lime and chilli, i had it with fresh king prawns and it was amazingly tasty and of course healthy (though this was an added extra!)
The seafood is amazing here and the best i've ever had, its so fresh, its caught in the morning and by lunchtime its on your plate!! I also tried shark steak (which was maybe a little naughty!!) but the meat was so tender and tasty,
Ban Kai
Looking towards the blue lotus resort and our beach hut really scrumtious!! The prawns out here are enormous, the call king prawns; shrimp, because they are the normal sized prawns out here (compared to them being somewhat special in UK) and the tiger prawns are enormous , i think in the uk we'd call them yetti prawns!!!! They have about the same amount of meat as a chicken leg and are easily as long as my hand, i was in heaven!!! I had monk fisk, seabass,blue marlin, red snapper, mussels, lobster and the great thing is , its so cheap in Thailand, so i ate it prety much twice a day, nearly every day!!!!
One of other things i love about Thailand is the massages, they rock and are so therapeutic! They are not what people would ususally expect of a western massage eg Sweedish, its quite a physical massage , where the use accupressure and strecthcing, its also known as the yoga massage. They say that if you can take the accupressure a little harder, the more health benefits it will have. But if you don't enjoy a hard massage, then all you have to do is tell them and they will adjust it to your taste. This
massage takes place with you fully clothed, in loose clothing. Alternatively (which is oftenwhat i opt for) you can havea an oil massage, which you take your clothes off for. This is a little more relaxing and combines seewdish techniques with Thai methods, They give you an oil massage and then cover you with a towel and use accupressure and depper massage techniques, again, just say if you want a soft massage and they will gladly oblige. I prefer quite a hard massage, but don't be fooled into saying you want if very hard, because you will be highly suprised at how strong the little thai women are, I alwys ask for it "firm" and get pumpled within an inch of my life!!!! I've again been having these about every other day and it has been so good for my neck and back problem, i get significantly less discomfort and pain since i've been having them. Again the great thing is the cost, you can have 1 hour thai massage for around 3 pounds and the oil for about 4 pounds, however these are the island costs and they are a little cheaper in Bangkok and other places
Claires new friends
Claire made friends with the kids from next door! They loved her (Tommy) We spent our first few hours eating and strolling down the beach, which was virtually empty of people. The resort has adopted some abandoned puppies which have grown into really friendly dogs, who often accompany you on walks and swims! We then got a taxi into Had Rin, just to check it out. Had Rin is a typical Thai beach town. But its all about the Full Moon Party!!!! This is an all night party on the beach that attracts over 10,000 people, its wild! Had Rin is full of bars, restuarants, mopeds for hire, thai massage places and thai tattooists. The whole infrastructure is set up for, and sustained by the parties. They have three big ones a month, the black moon party, the half moon party and the biggest - the full moon party. After a few bevvies we went back to our beach hut and chilled out. Tomorrow was full moon!!!
We spent the day relaxing and then looking around Had Rin, Claire went for her obligatory massage, and got her hair braided, she looked cool!!! About 1130pm Phoon gave us a lift to Had Rin beach. The in thing is to buy a
Bucket! This is a traditional english beach bucket, but comes with M150 (really strong red bull that is 3x stronger than in Uk and 1/3 of the size, its actually illegal to sell in Europe as it has so much caffeine!!), coke and Mekong whisky! You mix em all together and you've got your drinks for the next 2 hours. The buckets are everywhere and well cheap. The only problem is carrying them around and the fact that criminals have started spiking them, knocking you out so they can rob you. Me an Claire stuck to the Singha's (Thai Lager). You walk onto the beach which is lit by fires, and the full moon. All you can see are people dancing and drinking, strobe lights and the sea. All you can hear is the buzz of conversation and house tracks being put out of huge speakers along the beach. At one end is the headland and the other is the rock bar, set on a cliff. In between these two points are 10,000 pissed up (or E'd up) happy ravers! The whole place is party central and if your not there to party, you WILL NOT like it! We did
On the lash
The irish bar Lamai beach Koh Samui a few tours of the beach, refreshing our beers and got down to the serious business of boogy-ing! We spent some time each hour at the beach rasta bar sitting down, and chilling to the sound of Bob Marley, before heading back to the mayhem! There were entertainers everywhere, talented thai blokes dancing with fire sticks and flails! Also a huge sign in fire saying FULL MOON PARTY! The place and feeling are impossible to describe, you have to have been there to know what i mean! After hours of boogying we were partyed out and went home, it was about 7am, and we pretty much slept the day away! It was a once in a lifetime experience, but only go if you want to party, its not really touristy at all! We were also talking to some lThai people who said to warn others about the setup the police have on the beach. They said to watch out for the Thai drug dealers on the beach. They will sell you something and then inform the police on you. If they do this they can carry on selling, the police let them!!! If the bizzies get hold of you, your
Full moon party
Taken with a crap cheap throw away camera - Sorry! in deep shit! So JUST SAY NO, and if you cant say no, be careful, you have been warned.
(Claire) We were told by some lovely Thai sisters that we met, one of whom worked as a lawyer and a teacher, about how corrupt the police are, they apparently have arrangements with all the bars that sell stuff. There are corrupt police who the bars pay well and in return they get a copy of the police rosta. Theyare called if the non corrupt police are patrolling to "hide" or not sell any for that time period, either that or when the corrupt officials are on, they simply leave them alone!!! We were told that this is normal for the government systems in Thailand, that in courts the lawyers bribe the judges for their clients and that everything is about money, its really sad as The Thai people as a whole are great people, friendly, respectful and polite. The Thai people who told us about this said,
" Its just the way it is in Thailand, we are used to it. Its ok for the tourist, if they get caught they can pay their way out, e.g. For smoking Cannabis maybe 90,000 Baht (about 1,500), but for Thai people they cannot afford to pay, they get put in prison with awful conditions. On Ko Samui is the prison for the Islands which is much better than the mainland, where 100 people are in one cell and they have 10 minutes for them all to shower!"
We were really shocked at some of the things that we heard about the sentences they dish out, here are a couple for foriegners defacing symbols of the King, who
Claire at the party
She was well mashed by this time!!! the Thais adore, There are pictures and statues of them everywhere!!
In 2001 a Scottish man could have been sentenced to death for allegedly urinating on or near a picture of the King of Thailand. Following Thai law, this man faced Thai death sentence
for shameful exposure. He was finally deported.
Oliver Jufer, a 57 year old swiss man, was arrested in December 2006 after drunkenly spray-painting posters of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (King of Thailand) in the northern city of Chiang Mai. It is considered a serious crime, and he was sentenced to four years for each of five counts, for a total of 20 years, however, as he confessed, the court reduced his sentence to 10 years. He is believed to be the first foreigner ever imprisoned for the offence. Others have been charged in the past, but later expelled from the country rather than jailed.
So Tommy and I did nothing put praise the pictures and say hoe beautiful the queen was!!
(Tommy) We went into Had Rin in the day and the beach is a disgrace! If you come here for the party, don't stay on Had Rin. You will be sunbathing
Me an Claire Full Moon
Had Rin Beach May 2007 whilst lying on used cigarrette butts, next to broken bottles and used condoms; and swimming in the sea where a few thousand pissed up european and yank blokes pissed at the party, not nice! Stay in Ban Kai or Ban Tai, or even on the quieter and beautiful North/North-West of the Island. You wont regret it! We stayed here for five days and then headed back to the pier and the cataraman; next stop Koh Tao!
Koh Tao is the least known of all the Thai Islands. We have done Phuket -fun, PhiPhi which is tranquil, Samui- lovely but developed and Phanngan- beautiful in the north/party in the south, but by far, we both think Koh Tao is the best! It is a small island that (if your fit and dont mind the heat) you could run round in a day! The Island is in the middle of the ocean which is aqua blue and almost clear. It is made up of coconut trees and tropical trees which lead up to the highland (not high enough to be a mountain!). The main beach (and town) is Sairee beach, and its beautiful. The beach (again) has white sands the sea
Friends
Some friends we met at Full Moon we called ourselves the convicts!!! Yes we were pissed bed is soft and sandy and shallow for quite a way out! The only way to get to the island is by boat/cataraman. It is mainly the haunt of Divers, so is free of most tourists, and partiers who in the main stay on Samui and Phanngan! The overwhelming feeling on this island is relaxation. It is one of the most chilled out places i have ever been. We had decided to do our open water divers course for 3 days, as we were only staying for 4 days. We rented an air con room at Sairee beach hut which we got at a big discount for the four days! Our room was all tiled and very clean. Also bigger than what we have been used to. Most of all it had air-con!!!!!!!!! It was pissing down when we got there so we ate and then crashed for the night. At 9am we were met at the dive centre by Dirk (nicknamed dingo or diggler) a big german fella who was sound. We spent the morning watching dive instruction video's and were told to meet dirk at the dive kit store after dinner (or lunch for you southerners). In the
Koh Tao- ready to dive!
Me an Claire ready to dive Mango bay Koh Tao afternoon we went for our first ever dive, in the shallow waters close to the beach on Nangyuan Island. This is just a strip of sand in the middle of the sea with a large rock either side . No one lives here, but people come to sun bathe, snorkle, swim and dive. We did our dive skills in less than 6m of water. We then did a shallow dive around Japanese garden. So called because of the fine and colouful coral that make up the sea floor. I have to say that at the end of day one, claire loved it! I on the other hand, with my shark phobia and going under the sea severe dislike - did not like it at all. That night i told claire that i wasnt going to do the next day. Later whilst i was a bit sleepy on our bed, Dirk came by and asked if i wanted breakfast, not thinking i said yes. After he went i realised i'd have to at least dive once, he was buying me and claire our brekkie, shit! The next day dawned bright and calm. We made our way by boat to Mango bay,
Dirk Digler
This was the digler, our diving instructor, he was great fun in and out of the water. Some other pics show him doing some digler moves on an unsuspecting chica!!! this is a beautiful secluded bay on the north west of the island. The sea was dead calm and crystal clear. You could see the bottom and schools of fish swimming by. Setting up my own kit i found i calmed down, i thought i might as well give it a go, plus i didnt want to look like a pussy for bottling it! This time was awesome, the skills just clicked into place, i found i finally got the bouyancy thing and could control where i was in the water, and Dirk was sound with both of us. Under water is another world. You feel weightless and you can see and breathe, which is a wierd feeling all on its own! The water is so warm no matter how deep you go (30 deg). The vision down there was excellent and the fish are awesome. They are every size and colour, some swim up to you to have a look, others swim off the second they see you! After this dive i was a convert, honestly if you hate day 1 (i did), stick with it and do day 2, you wont regret it. We met a cool chick
Trigger fish
This is one of the trigger fish i talk about in the blog. They have sharp teeth , they must do, they eat coral!!! Very cool fish as long as they don't attack you! They are pretty big too !! from Oz called Belinda, who we found in tears on the boat. She had hated her first dive and never wanted to do it again! We spent a good few hours talking her into day 2, and fair play she agreed. As it happens she passed the course and loved her dives! Just goes to show! Anyone who is healthy can have a crack at diving (and no Chris your back injury doesnt mean you can't do it!!!). We dived Japanese garden, White rock, Green rock, Mango bay and Chumphon! In fact we loved the island and diving so much we stayed two weeks!!!
Claire did her advanced open water divers course and i did my deep dive (down to 30m) and a fun dive going through little caves and swim throughs. I have to add here that my shark phobia was never triggered! The sharks hang around a specific are in Chumphon and i never went there (by choice). So those who share my quite reasonable fear have no worries! Claire on the other hand dived in the Shark area of Chumphon and swam with Grey sharks and black tipped reef sharks. They never bothered her! Shes whey
Ugly buggers - Moray eels
These are certainly not the most attractive of sea life! They kind of stare at you whilst opening and shutting their mouths braver than me! Claire also did her underwater photography and video training, taking some good shots which i'm sure she'll put on this blog! Anyway Diving rocks! Also we reckon we had the best instructor in Dirk, he's very funny and relaxed, and good for a beer of a night 'n all! Highly recommended is to watch the diggler moves at the Lotus bar on Sairee beach! Also Sairee beach hut dive resort is the best, small group sizes and top instructors! Another great point is the english footy is on everywhere here, and they are huge Liverpool fans, There are some manc fans hanging around too (so o.k. for you Ben) and good for all of us, i only saw one thai chelski fan and he wore his top as more of a fashion statement than as a fan! We ate in some cool places as well. There is a mexican here where the portions are huge, the food is gorgeous and the price is right! We ate at Thong Thai, the best place for thai food and its well cheap, a meal can cost as little as a quid 20! We ate at Brothers, a cool little restaurant/bar
which also plays the Liverpool games on big screen. The staff here are awesome, friendly and very polite. They will befriend you, reserve you prime seats and look after you, and if you invite them out for a bevvie will willingly have a drink with you an' all. In the street towards the beach there is the Ozzie bar - CHOPPERS. This is the place to go for atmosphere when the match is on, its always packed, the foods good to, and the beers cheap; pretty much like the rest of Thailand! We met some really cool people, Dirk, Storm, Jin, Vic, Nan, Belinda and an American couple Shaun and Lonnie. We had quite a few meals and drinks and laughs with these people and never had a problem the entire time we were on the island. We even had Vic's birthday party one night. He bought a cooler of Singha's and gave em out for free - top bloke! I have to say i've never met a more friendly and relaxed bunch of people in my life and i can't recommend this place high enough for diving or for a place to stay for the budget oriented traveller! (Mum
A school of bat fish and neils, my diving buddy
These fish are quite bog too, oyu can see hoe they compare in size to people you'd want something a bit posher!).
(Claire) I absolutely loved scuba diving and as part of my advanced open water diving course did an underwater photgraphy dive (and also managed to tlak my instuctor into letting me take it on the other 4 dives of the course!!) So there are tons of photos on the blog and we have only put a small percentage on!!! The highlight for me, as mentioned above by my lucious boyfriend, was diving in Chumphon with the sharks. Tommy said they didn't bother me, well that wasn't strictly true, i was aprehensive about it, but just kept saying my little mantras to myself " that they dived there all the time, if it wasn't safe they wouldn't do it, dirk, my instuctor said it will be fine, how cool will everyone think i am if i do this!!" I am so pleased that i did it, it was amazing to see a huge 2 metre shark swim by you, i spotted it and was trying to shout to the others (which just comes out as MMMmmm MMmmmm underwater!!) i managed to get it on a movie and get some pictures, strangely i felt
A Giant clam
These clams are easily the size of 2 fists together. If you wave your hand near them, they close up, they're great. These were taken from inside a cave we dived in really calm when i saw it and wasn't scared, just fascinated which really suprised me !! Take a look at my proud moment on the videos!!!!!
It really feels as though you are a guest on another planet when you're underwater, some fish swim away, others come closer to inspect you, the coral is stunning and my favourite where the Christmas Tree worms that live in the coral, they look just like their name states and are all manner of bright blues, yellows, reds and pinks! When you swim by and waft you hand, they shoot into the coral as a defense mechanism, they're great, I was wafting them allover the place!!
We hels black spikey sea urchins, whichhave one little kelly eye on top and huge spikes everywhere, we'[ve hot some great pics of Tommy and I holding them, the wierd thing that we didn't expect was thet have lots of little legs that they scurry around on and when youy hold them you ca feel them on your hand as it tries to run off of it!!
The other cool fish that we saw a lot of where Trigger Fish both Titan and Yellow finned.
The titan triggerfish,
claire and tommy OK
This is us on one of our first dives, using the OK sign this is one of the most common signs to let each other know that you are .....OK is the largest of the triggerfish species and can grow up to 75 cm in length (30 inches). They feed on shellfish, urchins, crustaceans and coral. They are the workers of the reef, often being busy turning over rocks, stirring up the sand and biting off pieces of branching coral. This is why one often sees other smaller fish species around it who feed from the left overs.
However they can be very aggressive towards divers and snorkellers. Especially during reproduction season it is very territorial and will guard its nest, which it lays in a flat sandy area, vigorously against any intruders. Due to its size and strong teeth it can inflict serious injury. The Titan Triggerfish will not always bite, but can swim at snorkellers and divers escorting them out of their territory. You can tell when they become defensive as the have a fin which stands up like a Trigger, hence the name!! When the males (most colourful) start swimming in your direction, the best thing to do is swim away backwards kicking your fins as a defence at their faces. Failure to do so may result in being bitten. However we saw loads of them and
Squirell Fish
These fish are lovely little fish, a little bigger then your palm. They are not quite as timid as some fish, so you can get a little closer. I love their colourings and markings!! none of them came towards us, a couple of times they swam at us with their trigger fins up, but they tend to do this a few times before they bite you as a warning! We saw a few Titan trigger fishes, but by far the biggest one we saw was at least 3/4 the length of my whole leg and we swam right over it, amazing!! Can't wait for more diving in Borneo and New Zealand!!
(Tommy)We really didnt want to leave but realised our visa was due to run out, so we had to make a move to Bangkok! We were both gutted to leave! Life and time here is slow and relaxed. The most stressed person would come away happier and healthier and it is defo one of the highlights of the trip for me, i'm sorry we couldn't have stayed longer. Unfortunately the rest of our travels call, so its off to Bangkok with a heavy heart, but loads of great memories, we'll definately be back.............
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mum glen
non-member comment
thankyou
thankyou both for the pics of tigers apreview of your wonderful day at tiger sanctuary and all your great phone calls it looks really beautiful and you are both very brave diving and with sharks it was a nice rest but off on your travels again now enjoy take care all my love mum