Sorry about the lack of posting for the last week or two, I was struggling to find much to say seeing as most of my days have been filled with diving, lying on a beach and eating! Not a lot of grade A material for an interesting blog post! But I will relate the missing time in as interesting a way as I can….
So Koh Tao was great, everything came together pretty well. In general I was diving every other day as quite a few of the days were fairly crap as regards to the weather. The dives were mostly great, a day trip out to Sail Rock which is essentially a big rock pinnacle sticking out of the water was cool, the best part about the site is that it has a ‘chimney’, essentially a long vertical swim through from around 4m down to 18m wide enough for 2 divers to go down side by side – lots of cool stuff to see. The visibility wasn’t great on the day we were there but I sorted out my deep dive qualification on the first dive (30m) but unfortunately had a pressure build up in my sinuses on the second dive and had to come up after 10 minutes, I had only got down to 8m but the squeeze was not nice. There are only really 3 other dives worth describing in a bit more detail. The first of these was at Chumpon down at 30m, we sat on the floor and hung around for 2 minutes before about 6 sharks (oceanic black tips mostly, although there was one decent sized bull shark) came out of the murky water and started pottering around, very cool. Had to shallow up quite quickly due to being so deep for a relatively long period of time – my dive watch gave me 3 minutes until it went into deco as we were leaving. Second dive worth speaking about was the first night dive, first one I have done actually and a pretty good way to start I must say. It literally is pitch black down there apart from the torches which are pretty crappy. Trying to judge your depth and keep level without the aid of a computer or looking at console is actually pretty hard….I just followed the DM. But we did see a big Hawksbill turtle, hunting barracuda (one got a kill right in front of us….awesome sight) various nocturnal fish and if you turned the lights of and stirred up the plankton then they began to glow which was cool. Balance that dive with the second night dive the day after, we were all hanging on the line as somebody had problems with their ears. There were also 4 people who just finished their open water and were doing the first part of their advanced cause so they were a bit nervy. All of a sudden a guy drops down through us head first, cracks me on the head with his tank and turns around as if to say ‘what you doing here?’ tosser. About 12 people then dropped down causing absolute fucking chaos, no one had any idea who was who and where they were meant to be going. Only having one dive master for the advanced group plus me and a couple of other people wasn’t great but it was the actions and attitude of the divers from one of the other schools that was a complete joke. Ruined the rest of the dive to be honest. But there you go, take the rough with the smooth and all that, it won’t always be brilliant. The diving around Ko Tao is not as good as the other side of Thailand but the weather and conditions are better at this time of year, was a really nice place to chill out for a couple of weeks as well.
The island was quite busy when I arrived but then quietened down dramatically as at least 3/4 of the people went over to Koh Phannagn for the full moon party, those 3-4 days were the best ones I had on the island. There weren’t so many motorbikes needlessly crowding the roads (seeing as most places are a 15 min walk at most), the dive sites were much quieter and the place seemed to have a better atmosphere. Contrast that to about 2 days after the full moon when the place was mobbed with people coming over from the party and the place almost turned into another version of the Koh San Road – pretty much everyone I had been spending my time with now decided it was time to leave Koh Tao. Must be me getting old but why is it so difficult for people to put on a top or even a vest when they are in a bar? As I have mentioned numerous time….people get some respect for the local culture! Oh and while I am at it, driving an ATV (quad bike) on paved roads when you could walk in about 2 minutes does not make you look cool….in fact it makes you look like a cock.
The night before I was due to catch the boat/bus combination up to Bangkok turned into a rather big night. Originally we were going to the Muay Thai boxing but they wanted a stupid amount of money to get in so we went to the free ladyboy show instead, much more fun! A few slightly strange sights but the guy who did Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” whilst changing from a woman into a man, scrubbing off make up, changing clothes etc was quality. One of the guys in our group got dragged off back stage and came pack with lip marks all over his nipples, I got away with someone (he, she, mixture??) telling me they loved my eyes. Think we left there about 11-12 and then I stumbled home at something like 4.30am. I woke up the next morning an hour after the boat had left which also meant I would miss my flight to Chiang Mai from Bangkok that I booked. Stupid Thai Air Asia don’t allow you to make any changes within 48 hours (what?!) so I had to write that off. Lesson of the day kids is don’t drink buckets of Sangsom the night before having to catch a 10am boat. I did manage to complete my advanced diving course though after nearly a year so am now qualified to 30m depth and at least round here that’s where the cool stuff is.
The journey back to bangkok was alright, bloody glad I missed the boat the day before actually. Catamarans may be fast but they don’t half bob up and down with the swell, there were lots of extremely sick looking people knocking around! 8 hour bus journey after that which was ok, nice bus, tv etc. I also updated my iPod with a couple of movies before I left Koh Tao. If you get the chance to see it then go and see ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ absolutely bloody brilliant film. Essentially it is about a lonely guy who can’t talk to women who buys a true to life sex doll off the internet but has a delusion that she is real. He does not use the doll for her intended purpose (doesn’t even kiss her until the end) but instead treats her as a real person essentially using her to learn how to speak to girls and get over his insecurities. The scene just before and just after the dolls funeral are some of the most moving bits of film I have seen in ages.
So I am back in Bangkok and have re-booked my flight to Chiang Mai for tomorrow afternoon. Will sort out a cookery course for a few days, maybe do some trekking and then see where I go after that. Looking into going into Burma for a 5 day tour. It is a bit contrived and you don’t get anywhere near the main parts of the country and it is meant to be ‘like Thailand but different’, would be interesting though I think. Still thinking about going down into Laos or maybe I’ll just get off the track around Northern Thailand, we shall see!
In terms of photos there isn’t that much to put up. I didn’t hire an underwater camera whilst diving as it was about 20 quid a day and the visibility wasn’t too hot sometimes. The rest from Koh Tao are mostly of the beach and I haven’t got many in Bangkok yet. I’ll take a look later and think about putting something up to give you an idea.
Will probably go and check out Patpong’s night market later on or I might just skip out on that and go see Kung Fu Panda at the cinema….
xx
Chris's Travels 2008 