Christmas in Koh Tao

I had ten days off over the Christmas break, so ended up going down to Koh Tao for a great little holiday. Koh Tao is a little island off the pacific coast of Thailand, just north of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

Went down with two friends, Lauren and Emily. We met up with many more of their friends throughout our time there. We took the overnight train from Bangkok which left at 7pm on our last Friday of work. We had a very slack last week of classes, especially on the Friday. We were watching some of the Christmas pageant, then I ended up leaving school at 11 am. Was quite a wait til 4pm though, when Lauren got off work!

It was all very exciting getting on the train. We were in a 2nd class carriage with fans. The train has benches on either side, two facing eachother. We all had top bunks since we bought our tickets late. Lauren brought her ipod and speakers and we were listening to Christmas songs as we were waiting for the train to leave. The thai people were looking at us thinking "crazy farang..." as usual though.

We got on the train and almost instantly they starting changing the seats into beds. Not sure why they didn't just have them as beds to begin with. The thai workers come along and quickly pull the beds out and snap everything together and lay out your pillow and blanket. There is a tiny ladder you climb up to the top bunks which have no windows and are smaller than the bottoms, but are fine. Also straps across to keep you in.

Since it was only 8pm and we were so excited for our trip, we couldn't sleep. So we ventured down to this carriage that was transformed into a tiny restuarant/bar. Most of the space was dedicated to the kitchen. They cook food and will bring it to your seat for you. So we sat there for a while and met some people who were going down to Suratthani, then on to Koh Phangan.

Emily and myself were in the same carriage, but Lauren was down one. A thai man happened to know we wanted to get off at Chumpon, so he thankfully woke her up before our stop. We set our alarms, but no one woke up (I think because the train was so noisy -- I was sleeping with my ipod in). He woke her up saying "Chumpon! 15 minutes!!". Because we were not getting off at the end of the line, we had to be ready to get off, since they do not announce any of the stops. So Lauren ran down to our carriage and told us to get out quick. So we jumped out quickly grabbing all our things, then waited by one of the train doors. Unfortunately we had to stand there half asleep for about 20 minutes before we were at the stop. The train was stopped for a while as well, so it wouldn't have had to be a dash of the train anyway..

We got off the train at 4am or so, and there are people saying "Koh Tao?? Koh Tao!!". So we bought a bus/boat ticket from one vendor. He put us on a mini van and then we went to this little bus station/restaurant. It was very strange, had tables, computers, and a sleeping room with many people passed out on mats. Then we took a big bus to the pier, since the first boats don't leave til 7am. The boat was good, but long and the seating area was sooo cold. We all took our towels out and were sleeping in fetal positions in hard plastic chairs. But then realized sitting upstairs on the deck of the boat was a lot nicer, so did that at the end of the journey. Was also nice to see the island start to slowly come into view.

And the island was sooo gorgeous. Had many rocky cliffs and rolling hills covered in trees and palm trees everywhere. Long stretches of beach.

We get off the boat and then take a saewngteaw (a pickeup with seats in the back) to Sai Ree beach where we were staying. Find our bungalows, which were very nice. Just a sandy area shaded by many coconut trees and little bungalows on either side of the trail to the beach. We had to rooms attached by one wall. Each had two small beds and a small bathroom and that was all. Was my first experience with toilets that you have to flush yourself (using a pail and bucket of water). The beach was literally 15 steps away. A couple steps from our door you could see the crystal blue water spread all the way across. So nice.

For the duration of the trip our days looked almost always the same, except for a few special outings. Mostly walking up around 10am, going for breakfast at this amazing restaurant. It was wooden platforms looking over the water. The tables were only a couple feet high and you sit on axe pillows, which are pillows with a back to them to lean on. The food was amazing. Fresh coffee, croissants and other baked goods, omlettes. The best food was Set E for breakfast which was any kind of eggs and any kind of potatoes. Scrambled or fried eggs with mashed potatoes (with all these seasonings in it) was soo good. After breakfast we would maybe walk around the village a bit. Had many little shops, mostly clothes, travel agents, massage places. No one wears shoes, it was very quiet and relaxed, many young people. But didn't really feel like Thailand! So few Thais and I didn't speak a word of Thai...

Then we would go to the beach til around dinner time and eat more amazing food. Then would go out all night! Everythign was a lot more expensive than we were used to. But we had soo many amazing meals. They had many restaurants in the town and set up along the beach. They also had these bbqs set up along the beach. Was very very good. Also had an italian dinner that was incredible. The woman who ran the restaurant was European, so knew what to do. We had the most amazing thin crust pizza and great pasta. Such good ingredients, I have no idea how she got them. And the cheese was soo good!! One thing Thais CANNOT do is dairy products!

We also had a really great Christmas dinner. Many places put on Christmas buffets, but they were quite expensive. At least 500 - 1000 baht a person, which is only $15-30, but when you spend 40 baht on meals at home, it seems a lot! We were sitting in the restaurant at our bungalows, checking out the xmas dinner, which was being served throughout the day. And a guy approached us asking if we had bought our tickets yet, and if we hadn't he could give us some. So we ended up having it for free, which was very nice. Had turkey, ham, potatoes, and many other vegetables, was veryyy good. So much food as well!

So the food was amazing, and we ate very well. I've been sooo hungry my first week back though, not getting three huge meals a day anymore!

So apart from the beach all day, which was very nice, we also went on a hike up the mountain and scuba diving. The tides went kind of strange after the full moon, so we didn't get as much of a beach near the end, which was annoying. At the start during the afternoon, the tide would be quite far out, so there would be lots of space. But then the tides were going out in the early morning and it was high tide in the afternoon. So some days only had a small sliver of beach to claim a spot on. But it was fine and the water was sooo nice. Such blue water, so clear, and very warm. So nice to swim in.

We decided to take a hike one day to work off all this amazing food we were consuming all the time. But we just had a inaccurate tourist map. We did manage to get up most of the hill, but the paths were very confusing. Ended up on this half finished road for a while, but it was still nice. Very hard hike though, was sooo steep. And it was of course, so hot out. But it was nice and we got some nice views at the top. We were all soooooo sweaty and hot though. We ran most of the way down, and literally ran right into the ocean. It felt so good!

We also went on a scuba diving adventure for one afternoon. Lauren has already done her open water course in Vietnam, but she did it in May. Emily, myself, and Lauren's friend Erin all wanted to go and had never been before. So we did a scuba discovery day and Lauren joined us for a fun dive (which is cheaper, but she actually needed a refresher anyway). We left around noon after being suited up and getting a short talk from the instructor. (That was a good thing about the tides, Lauren did her discovery in Koh Tao, and had to leave at 5am to go!) Was a really cool experience all in all, except for our instructor, who was absolutely horrible. We could tell from the beginning that he had no interest in teaching us, and didn't care at all. It was pretty disappointing.

Just from the start, he took us in the equipment room and told us to grab a few things. I was trying on flippers and asked him if the size was right. He said "Yeah, that's fine". Then Lauren happened to look and said "No!! Those are way too big!! Your feet will slip out of the instantly!!". And this really set the tone for the whole dive, Lauren was more our instructor than this guy.

So he gave us a very brief talk about the dangers, then we got on a long tail boat which took us to the big dive boat. We were on this boat with about 10 other people. We then went to the dive site which was this small island off the coast. On the boat we put all the equipment on and jumped in. Our instructor mumbled to us how to do it, then jumped in himself. While in the water, he was trying to yell back to the boat how to do it, using hand motions we didn't understand. The thai helper on board had to show me what to do (hold on the your face things with one hand, and the weights around your waist with the other). We then swam to a small beach close on the island. We stayed in shallow water we could stand in to learn some skills.

But with everything, the instructor would not explain very clearly and then just tell us to do it. He would say something that wouldn't make sense, and then Lauren would explain it to us and show us how to do it. We learned skills like taking air out and in of your jacket, sharing air if something runs out, finding your regular, and purging it of water to get back in your mouth if you lose it.

I did a lot better than I thought I would. I just remembered before, getting nervous snorkeling! And it can be really scary, but just really had to stay calm and breathe a lot. Lots of things to check, but you get used to it very quickly.

So we did the skills, then the instructor was like "Ok, now we'll go, follow me". And just took off and started swimming and didn't even look back!! Lauren had kept telling us how important it is to be really careful and go down really slowly so everything is ok. She said her instructor was really good and stayed by their side and checked everything for them. But this guy didn't attend to us at all!! It was really bad. If anything went wrong, he wouldn't have noticed for a while. I was swimming to keep up with him, trying to stay calm, and go down as slowly as possibly, while popping my ears all the time. It did go really well, only Emily had problems with her ears and he helped her. But still didn't even notice for a while, it was really bad.

Saw many colourful fish and those huge sea slugs. But wasn't really as spectacular as I thought (I think I was invisioning the great barrier reef), but it was still really good as an experience. We also did a really shallow dive, so I think there are way better places to go on Koh Tao.

I think we were under water for about half an hour. We then swam back up the boat and climbed on. I was freezing, even though we were wearing wet suits. Lauren decided to do another dive with another group of people. But the rest of us didn't.

So all in all, was really cool, regardless of our instructor's attitude. Would definately like to try it again, and maybe take a course. In Koh Tao especially, it's all about diving. Usually if you take a course, your accomodation is free.

Those were our two big activities. But was a very nice relaxing trip and a very cool place to visit. They had really neat bars set up along the beach during the night. They would put candles and lit bottles (with gas) everywhere. So the beach would be all lit up. And there were fire dancings, really neat. But only trouble, was that you couldn't take a night off. Well, at least where we were staying. The music would be pumping until at least 3 am. But was still a lot of fun. New Years especially was really neat. We set off a paper lantern into the sky. Was a huge one, about 4 feet tall. When you looked out from the beach, the night sky was covered with consellations of these lanterns. It was really cool. You could see them all going up from the other end of the beach too. We could see our lantern for so long! They go sooo far, so quickly and you don't see them go out. Really neat. There were also tons of fire works the whole night. Some were amazing, right over the water. Some were very freaky. Like when we were sitting at this restaurant which was on a deck over the beach, and the fireworks started going off under the deck. Could have ended badly..

Unfortunately, we had to leave New Year's day. I was kind of ready to go home, and kind of missed my apartment and my students.. haha.

We left our place at 9:30 am, to get a ride to the pier to be there at 10am. We couldn't take the train back, since the boats didn't leave early enough to catch the day train? (And we wanted to get home in the evening.) So we took a boat, then bus. But the nice hour and a half boat ride we were expecting turned into the boat ride from hell!!

We get on the boat and the workers start handing out tons of plastic bags and drugs. We are all confused, but take some. Then think, maybe since it's New Year's Day, they think everyone will be hungover and sick. But it turned into the worst boat trip ever! The waves were sooo high and the boat was rocking violently back and forth. We were inside the boat, but huge waves were crashing over the sides. The boat kept hitting big waves then crashing down really hard.

Needless to say, I don't think a person on this boat didn't puke. People were running to the washrooms, vomiting in their bags, over boat, constantly! It was sooo bad. I saw the thai workers running the ship also puking. It was horrible.

But the worst part was when people started complaining that they couldn't handle it anymore and the boat had to go back. So after half an hour of this boat trip (a third of the way there!!) the boat TURNED BACK! It was ridiculous, I couldn't believe it. Where else in the world does a boat turn back because people don't want to be sick anymore. It wasn't even because it was unsafe. Since after we got back to Koh Tao, we dropped off 3/4 of the passengers and then turned around and went back to Chumpon. So a short hour and a half boat trip turned into over three hours of hell. Just constant vomiting by everyone all the time. It was such a disaster. We had been really careful the night before too and had drank lots of water so we wouldn't be hungover for our trip back. But I was still dry heaving for two hours straight... And the most ironic part ever, was that their dvd choice for the trip was "Waterworld".

But we did finally make it to dry land. And thankfully our bus was soo nice. We had these huge plush seats that reclined. So we just curled up and slept a long time. The bus ride was very slow, and for three hours driving into Bangkok the traffic was crawling. Very annoying. We were expecting to get into Bangkok at 8:30 pm, but didn't get in til past midnight. Were sooo hungry since we had just had a sandwich after the boat. Got some street pad thai then a taxi up north to home.

Was sooo exhausted the next day. Couldn't think at all. But my students were pretty out of it too, so it was okay. Also, first day we are informed that the princess has died (I think early that morning). So we are now in two weeks of mourning, wearing black and white to work every day. But other than that, all is good back here. Am trying to jump back into teaching, and not think too much about the gorgeous tropical island I was on not so long ago...