The last bits of Thailand

I haven’t written on here in a while and I decided it was time.

Koh Tao
I had been on the island of Koh Tao for nearly 3 months, as nice as it is there, in hindsight the island was just not for me. I had a nice time, I met some nice people (especially my dorm friends!) and the Dive Master course after a load of moaning actually turned out okay.

I have some happy memories of Koh Tao but I don’t really think it is ‘all that’.

Food
The only thai thing about it was the food and the ladyboy cabaret. I need more culture than that. On the subject of food though, my favourite koh Tao eats were:

Janies on sairee main road (great Masaman and Green curry, but be warned, it’s spicy!)

All seasons restaurant, a few doors down from Hippo bar, great authentic thai food, the owner is lovely and gives out free bananas. Look out for their well loved rather plump poodles and ‘lucky’ the kitten.

Sairee Cottage restaurant. Good all rounder, on the beach, nice and chilled out. Love the muesli with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. Good pizzas. Look out for the scabby looking beach dog with a black ridge of fur on his back (see photo), he’s so loving and friendly. Please feed him in my absence!! His owner died and he became a stray, he will whine for pats and attention.

Gym and fitness cafe, great coffee and breakfast after a workout in the gym, fab healthy salads and wraps.

Fizz lounge. Great at everything, from steaks, pasta, salads to thai food. Even their fish pie and cottage pie are good! All the cocktails are made with decent alcohol and the wine is good too. Right on the beach with loads of comfy bean bags to sit on. Nice tempo and volume of music. A firm favourite.

Diving in Koh Tao
In total I did roughly 70 dives around the island, only 5 of those dives were of a good category. Most days the visibility was between 5-10 metres at best although regularly it was under 5m. I saw one turtle, lots of barracuda, a sea snake and a number spotted rays, along with the usual coral and angel fish, clown fish, banner fish and wrasse. Sadly no sharks or whale sharks or anything to get exited about. I’m honesty I probably wouldn’t recommend Koh Tao for diving, everywhere else I have been is better . It’s a nice place for long term living, it’s a nice place to work as an instructor but for Dive Master training I think the west coast or Indonesia would have been better.

I would show you some of the photos and footage of the dives, but annoyingly my new GoPro 4 drowned on dive 3, the case failed and at 5m’s deep, the most expensive toy I have ever purchased was now a goner. Grrr. I have since met 3 other people in the dorm at Sairee Cottage who have also had the same Gopro issues, drownings, all the same reason that the case failed. I personally would not recommend them for diving.

Oh and did I mention I am now qualified as a Divemaster. Woo!

Visa’s
My visa was up so I had to leave the country. I had bought a double entry tourist visa at the Thai Embassy in London for around £50. This would allow 2 x 60 day entries, each once can be extended by 30 days at a immigration office allowing in total up to 6 months. At the end of my first 60 days I journeyed off to the immigration office at Krabi (I was at Railay with friends for Christmas) and the process with pretty simple. I took a ticket, came to the counter when called, handed over my passport and around 1500 baht then had some photos taken. In all it took around 30 mins. At the end of each 60+30 day visa you have to leave the Kingdom then return to activate the next visa, hence when I decided to give Bali a try.

Time to leave
I had a fairly hefty journey to Bali. My ferry was booked for 6am which meant I had to check in at the Lomprayah pier for 5:40am. ouch! I set my alarm for 4:30am but barely slept as I was worrying about oversleeping, so at 4am I got up, careful not to wake my sick room mate, showered, dressed, did the final packing checks (passport, tick, purse, tick, marmite, tick) and began the walk in the dark.

I left at 5am and was pretty anxious about walking alone in the dark for half an hour, but all was fine. It was nice to look up at the stars and see them all properly, without any noise or people around me, it was nice to have a moment alone in the dark, just the stars, my 20kg backpack and the jungle.

I made it to the pier at 5:30am, glad that I had been going to the gym and heaving around heavy diving tanks for the last 2 months and found a quiet, stable spot on the ferry.

For the last 2 months I have suffered with the most terrible seasickness, nothing, not even tablets, green apples, tonic water, fresh ginger, can stop it, you name it, I’ve tried it! Even sitting in the sea by the shore was making queasy, some days just looking at the wobbly horizon would send my stomach into turmoil. The most irritating thing is that I worked on a floating pier for 5 years and never had an issue!

The journey was fine, and overall I was glad to be leaving Koh Tao and on my was to my next destination and start being a tourist again.

The Sairee Cottage beach dog

The Sairee cottage dorm

Koh Tao

Woohoo I have checked in at paradise!

My journey began in Bangkok taking the overnight sleeper train to Chumphon in the South. I bought a 2nd class upper berth ticket for 1350 baht, the equivalent of around £30 which considering the distance (like london to Scotland) and that my accommodation, coach transfer and 3 hour ferry ticket to koh Tao were included, that’s an absolute bargain!!

Shortly after getting on the ferry at 5am I met a group of people, all of them had met on another carriage on the train but we then all made friends and shared beers. Yes, at 6am.

I swiftly ditched my plans of going to sairee beach to dive, instead opting to stick with the funny bunch of people I had just met. I then got persuaded to ride on the back of a scooter with one of the guys (backpack x 2 included) which he then rode into a wall and cut my knee and scratched the bike. Magic!

However on arrival at the High Bar, my annoyance immediately vanished. Stunning views, great bar, fab company. And rooms only 500 baht a night, so sharing with my roomie Tony, that’s 250 baht overlooking the sea, just £5 a night.

We are going down to the beach in a mo followed by more beer and some dinner. I haven’t eaten since 9pm last night on the train, I foresee a hangover tomorrow.