Went to Thailand

After deciding on Thursday that I was going to go to Thailand, I was taking off from Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan the following Sunday evening. I arrived in Bangkok at 9PM after a 3.5 hour flight and promptly got a Thai dish, which was spicy as hell, but good nonetheless. One cool thing about Thailand was that every time after you purchased something the cashier would put their hands together and give you a little bow in gratitude. After dinner I took a bus to Khao San Street, west of downtown Bangkok, popular for the countless backpackers you’ll find in this high-density hostel area. I was headed to the small island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, so I had 6 hours to burn before I caught a bus at 6AM to Chumpon, where I would then catch a ferry to the island. Prostitution was immediately apparent in the area with women struttin’ around in their high heels and short skirts. Passing a pack of four I noticed one kind of nod in my direction alerting her comrades. As I passed one broke off from the group and approached me, all business, asking where I was going. No hello? After saying I wasn’t interested about 50 times she/he and their strong jaw line left me alone. I kind of just bar hopped around to pass the time after that, did a sodoku, half a crossword and dodged two more attempts for paid sex.

My bus arrived in Chumpon around 12:45 after 6 bumpy hours of half-conscious sleep. I hopped on the ferry and passed out for the two hours it took to get to the 21 square km destination.The island is just north of Koh Pha-Ngan, which is famous for its full-moon beach parties. Upon arriving the scenery was incredible with cerulean waters, palm tree-covered peaks and bungalows dotting the shoreline. I stayed at ‘Sunshine Divers’ a diving resort on Chalok Bay to do diving and snorkeling for the week.

Ferry to Koh Tao, in Chumpon

Arriving in Koh Tao

Classic Thailand

Each carefree day included diving in the morning followed by lunch, a nap and then some dive videos and instruction for the next day. After that I would usually rent a kayak and paddle out to do some snorkeling in adjacent bay’s as the sun set. Chalok Bay had bars and restaurants on the beach so good food and drinks were never hard to find.

Bench I would take naps on. Small waves break under the bench as the tide comes in and out

Diving was incredible. This being my first scuba diving experience, I didn’t really know what to expect, but it really is another world down there. The best day was my last day of diving as we went along the coral reef. Since this was my open water certification, I was able to get down to 18 meters or about 60ft. If you look across the room, just imagine that it is filled with water and be able to maintain the same visual clarity and that is how clear the water was. There was essentially no difference besides the tint of a turquoise blue on everything. Below the surface, I saw everything from stingrays, eels, and sea snakes, to crabs, barracuda, and thousands of fish. Because its spring-time, there were tons of ‘baby everything’ and all the little fish circling the huge coral rocks looked like space debris orbiting a planet. Schools of fish would circle around us as they looked for food in the early morning hours, not paying any of the divers much attention at all. One thing that I found interesting was the personalities of some of the fish though. A very aggressive fish called a “trigger fish” would watch us as we floated by, and if we got too close to its territory, it would attack. The puffer fish did the same thing, watched carefully from a distance to see what we were going to do. It was much different from the mindless wanderings of a goldfish in a fish tank, which is what I am customarily used to. There was also this type of coral worm that would attach itself to coral rocks and sway freely in the water, but when you got close enough and made any kind of noise it would immediately retreat into the hole it was living. Seeing this happen was really cool as a rock covered in 20-30 colorful worms would suddenly disappear, leaving dozens of black voids the width of a straw scattered across the surface of a coral rock. After being down for an hour we exhausted most of the air in our tanks and had to surface. I don’t have an underwater camera, so unfortunately there aren’t any pictures to illustrate the beauty and diversity of a coral reef, but if you ever get the chance to dive in Koh Tao, you won’t be disappointed.

After a day of diving I would usually rent a kayak and paddle out around 4 or 5 to go snorkeling in adjacent bays. I went to this one bay called Shark Bay, to which it is named for good reason. About 3-400 meters from the beach I jumped in the water with my snorkel, mask and fins and began to observe underwater life once again. It is around dusk that I was told that reef sharks swim into the bay looking for food. Reef sharks are easily identified by the black tip on their dorsal fin. Free floating in the warm water, I saw three dark figures as they swam in my direction toward the beach. Upon first seeing the sharks swimming toward me I have to admit my muscles did tense slightly and did get a little nervous. I think we can thank movies like “Jaws” for that. Intimidating, but incredibly graceful and quietly powerful they swam past me continuing toward the beach. Broadening my scope, I noticed that there were sharks everywhere. I must have seen 10-20 reef sharks swimming all around me, the closest one getting to about 5 meters away. One incredible image that I will not soon forget was the intense dusk sunlight penetrating the surface water and seeing a school of 4 or 5 reef sharks swim through the light, only visible for a few seconds before disappearing again into the distant water. This being the first time seeing sharks in the wild, I can confidently say that they are badass looking fish. After I lost interest in the sharks I looked around a little more and saw a giant sea turtle, its algae covered shell feeding half a dozen fish. It was massive - if I stretched my arms out, from left flipper to right flipper, that’s about how wide it was. It was huge. And of course there were the smaller fish swimming all around, the bigger ones always bullying the smaller ones, snacking on the algae on rocks and doodling along. It was really cool.

Kayaking back

After snorkeling I would paddle back to Chalok Bay where I was staying as the sun was setting and enjoy the color spectrum in the sky on my kayak in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. The fresh air, and the warm pleasant breeze was nothing but comfortable as I passed the silhouettes of docked dive boats listening to the water drip from my paddle and my kayak skim the surface as I made progress homeward. Often times I would just pause to just soak in the beauty as the sun sank into the gulf day after day and the sky faded to black.

Upon my return to land I would shower then head out to dinner at one of the many restaurants overlooking the bay eating an authentic Thai dish. Afterwards I would head to a bar called “Eazy Bar” where all the guys did every night was make really good drinks and smoke weed. Nightly there would be another guy that would spin fire, providing a show. The cool thing about it was that he wasn’t doing it to impress anyone or to attract business. He was just doing it because he liked to do it. It really added to the whole chill-out island vibe that I was seeking out from the beginning.

Eating dinner and watching the moon rise over a peak across the bay

A week later, I left Koh Tao with the intention of going back in June as I am likely going to backpack all during that month in SE Asia. It was one of the coolest places I had been and if you’re ever in need of some solid R&R be sure to check it out.