Island Hopping: Gulf of Thailand + Andaman Sea (continued)

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY RICH!!! Hope you have a brilliant day.
Some of the keys don’t work very well on this computer (i.e. colon) so I have used - - - a few too many times.

8/11/06
Catamaran from Ko Samui to Ko Tao – ROUGH RIDE (1.5 hours) …they were handing out sick bags to passengers – was glad to reach land.
On board a ‘Big Blue’ Diving School tout approached us - the price for an Open Water course seemed reasonable (130 GBP) and the accommodation was free so we agreed and managed to get a free ride from the port. We had originally intended to do a PADI course but they have just introduced a compulsory book (which you have to purchase separately – more expense!) so the diving school suggested we just do the SSI course – same international reputation, but more popular in Australia than in Europe. 6 people on our course (one couple from St Albans! Such a small world). The instructor, Rick, was Hawaiian and turned out to be a really cool guy – very pleased with our ‘choice’ of dive school. It was located right on the beach and our al fresco classroom doubled up as the restaurant/bar. Only drawbacks = homework (on a tropical Thai island?!?) followed by a written test and the fact that we have arrived in November (worst visibility).

Ko Tao is a very small island in the Gulf of Thailand, dominated by dive schools. It has a really chilled out atmosphere as there are very few shops, restaurants and roads, but plenty of beach bars. I read that in 1983 only 1 bungalow existed on the island – there are now over 40 dive schools! Tourism gone mad. We both loved the place, but could see that if you didn’t dive there was little else to do…it is just too small.

9/11/06
1st Dive Day
Morning = all theory…breathing techniques/equalisation, nitrogen level assessments, dangers and fish types etc etc…
Afternoon = water skills…mask clearance + removing mask, regulator retrieval, buoyancy etc etc… We all mastered the skills quickly and finished ahead of schedule so the instructor took us out for a shallow dive (5m) to some coral relatively near the shore. We got used to breathing under water for long periods of time and tried to work on our buoyancy – was excellent – really good fun!

10/11/06
Morning = theory again, but finished early so we took our exam a day early – easy 50 multiple choice question– all passed no problem (yes….Wayne passed a test first time! He was chuffed! Haha).
Afternoon = first proper dive – very excited…went to the dive site ‘Twins’ and dropped to a depth of 14m. Unfortunately visibility was dreadful – 2m at most! It was so bad that Rick (instructor) lost navigation (around a site he has visited over 500 times!) When we came up to the surface a storm was raging – very rough waves, rain and generally very dark and gloomy – bit scary but we all managed to get back to the boat. Apparently achieving neutral buoyancy in these conditions is extremely hard – so I think we all did ok. We spent 1.5 hours sitting on the boat (recovery time –allows your nitrogen levels to lower) and then tried a second dive at ‘White Rock’ dive site….even WORSE! We could barely see each other. We stayed down at around 14m to achieve the required dive time and then surfaced as there was no point – you couldn’t see anything. I was a bit anxious during this dive as it sometimes felt like you were on your own down there, in a murky sea with dangerous creatures that could approach you without warning….a few days earlier a whaleshark had been spotted at this site so I think I had good reason! We were all a bit disappointed, but had our fingers crossed that tomorrow would be better…

11/11/06
Early Morning (7am) = third dive and visibility had improved (slightly = 9m – usually visibility in Ko Tao = 30m). We returned to ‘Twins’ and ‘White Rock’ but it felt like a different place…we saw so much more – clown fish (nemo), angelfish, parrot fish, massive jellyfish, cleaner fish (that eat the bacteria out of wounds), stingray, red breasted wrasse, scissor tail sergeant majors, trigger fish and green blood!! (I cut my finger on some coral and my blood looked green underwater – very impressive!) Enjoyed it so much more than the previous day. Noticed that Wayne breathes in more than his fair share of air, which meant that he was ALWAYS the first in the ‘red’ (air cylinder – like petrol tank) and made the whole group return to the surface. We couldn’t understand why he ran out of air so much faster than everyone else, but after watching the video of our dive (made by our accompanying videographer) we could see why…my ‘buddy’, unbeknown to the rest of the group, was constantly dancing around - doing numerous spiral dives and rolls in front of the camera – show off!
Afternoon = no test as had been completed the previous day so we had a free afternoon – slept! Met up with the others later that evening, collected our dive cards and log books and then went out for dinner…good fun.

12/11/06
Gulf of Thailand to Andaman Sea (Ko Tao to Krabi) – 6 hour boat ride, 4 hour bus ride – non-eventful and therefore dull for both you as readers, and us as passengers!

13/11/06
Hired out a moped and found a mediocre beach. Sunbathed for a few hours but then got caught in a storm so ran to the nearest restaurant. Once again, bit of an unremarkable day. Krabi town is bit of a dump – surrounding area is beautiful karst scenery (therefore popular place for rock climbing) but didn’t want to stay an longer so booked a boat for the following day.

14/11/06
Krabi to Ko Lanta (boat, bus, truck). We originally tried to book to go to Ko Phi Phi, but it is so popular that there aren’t any rooms available unless you book a few days in advance. Ko Lanta is also a popular place and we could only find accommodation in a bungalow at Last Beach Resort – as the name suggests it was the last resort on the island (if you work you way down the west coast.) Very isolated (no road – just dirt track, no phone reception, no internet) and bit of a dump – the bathroom stinks! When we arrived we were a bit pissed off.

15/11/06
Decided to make the most of it since we were here. Hired a bike to try and find civilization – found it, but unimpressed. After Ko Chang and Ko Tao, Ko Lanta was a bit of a let down. Beaches were ok, but nothing spectacular…towns were developments of nothingness.

16/11/06
Rainy season became very evident….bit of sun in the morning, but were then forced to retire back to the dump for the rest of the day. I read an entire book and Wayne found solace in his psp (I think). I know it is awful to convey this when we are so lucky to be on this trip, but on 16/11/06 we were BORED!!!!! Wouldn’t recommend Ko Lanta – not much going for it.

17/11/06
Up at 6am (eager to get out of Ko Lanta) so that we could catch a truck lift at 7am to the pier…our next stop Ko Phi Phi …. no show!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANNOYED!!!!!!!!!!!!! The island has no taxi service so we were forced to wait until 11am for the next lift. By the time we got on a boat (6 hours after we’d hoped) it stared raining and the staff onboard failed to cover our luggage….everything in my backpack was soaked…books ruined, cards soggy and clothes drenched. Once again, very pissed off!

Arrived in Ko Phi Phi late afternoon. Tsunami damage is still very evident across many parts of the island – lots of derelict plots and copious amounts of construction going on. Yet it is so popular here. This has caused accommodation prices to rocket (we bumped into someone we met in Laos and he said that he had met someone who was here 2 months ago, staying in the same room as he was now, but had paid 350B then, and was paying 1500B now! – crazy!) Our room is the most expensive we’ve stayed in yet (10 GBP) but is certainly not the nicest….the bathroom is the size of our freezer in the garage at home, and it is situated on the main road, next to some steps which we now recognize as the social hub for all returning clubbers. It is noisy outside the room all day and ALL night!! The hard core clubbers (unfortunately not us) decide to return to their rooms about 5am, and the local shop keepers decide to open up around 5.30am. Sleep deprivation. Wayne got so pissed off last night he started banging on the window to get them to shut up – unfortunately he forgot there is a mosquito guard across the window and he has punched it in…whoops….now we’re getting eaten alive as well! I think we are staying in the wrong area –the rest of the island sounds gorgeous, but since there is no road network, nor motor vehicles, the only way you can get to the other towns is by boat. Upon arrival, an employee from the guesthouse turned up with a metal trolley to assist us with our luggage – no tuk tuk’s on this island!

18/11/06
Snorkeling trip around Phi Phi Lay (the smaller of the 2 Phi Phi islands – with no development whatsoever) via longtail boat. Visited various shores…Bamboo Island (excellent visability), Monkey Island, Maya Beach (aka ‘the’ beach in the film ‘The Beach’) and Shark Point. Good fun, but not nearly as rewarding as diving (too expensive here – boo hoo). We got drenched in sea water on the boat as the sea was very choppy – not the best of experiences but we survived…I heard a lady telling someone later that day that their boat had sunk!

19/11/06
Happy Birthday Rich (again!) Wondered around, lazed on the beach and booked our bus/boat to Malaysia for tomorrow morning….fancy a change of scenery. Phi Phi is not as stunning as all the hype (and accomodation prices) suggest, although to be fair this could be because of the Tsunami damage. Generally though there are just too many people in such a small place.

Quick update - we bumped into the guy we shared a dorm with in Hanoi, Vietnam AGAIN this evening – its so weird….AND Wayne is now having a drink with Michael (the Dutch guy we met in Laos) whom we also bumped into today. I’m now off to join them.

I’ll write again once we’ve traveled a bit around Malaysia….E xx