After the trek to (and from) Makalu in Nepal, we were ready for a change of pace, so we headed from 5000 meters down to 0 meters and eventually -30 meters in the Thai islands. It being the low, rainy or "green" season (depending who you ask), we decided to stick to the Gulf of Thailand rather than the Andaman Sea islands as they are supposed to be drier this time of year. We settled on Koh Tao, a more recently developed, quieter island that has become a mecca for divers.
 |
|
Getting there was an adventure in itself. After arriving back in Kathmandu we found the city and indeed the country more or less shut down for a protest strike or "bandh" led by the Maoists. This left us relatively confined to our hotel in Kathmandu with no businesses open and no motor vehicles on the road. The exceptions were emergency vehicles and tourist transport buses. The tourist transport buses were very difficult to get though, so our friends at Rolwaling Excursions picked us up from our hotel to take us to the airport. We did get stopped at one point by some Bandh enforcers looking to make sure they were transporting tourists. They saw us and we had no further problems.
After the flight, we felt like we were going out of the frying pan and into the fire as Bangkok was similarly embroiled in political upheaval. However, like our first visit, we found the protests confined to a small area of Bangkok and not an issue for us. We cabbed it directly to the rail station, however, and hopped on the overnight train to Chumphon (over the bridge on the river Kwai incidentally). From there a two hour ferry to Koh Tao and another world seemingly as far away as you could get from politics and protests.
 |
|
In Koh Tao we made the decision to first head to the quieter east side (or sunrise) side of the island and Tanote Bay. Though the island is not big, a very bad road serves to fairly isolate Tanote. There are only four or five "resorts" in the bay, each consisting of maybe 10 (maybe fewer) bungalows. It being low season, we guess it was less than half full. Our bungalow, though modest, was right on the water and cost about US$13 per night for the two of us!
We spent our days lounging in the bay and snorkeling and occasionally cliff diving (see that big rock in the bay in the pic above). The snorkeling here was as good as we've ever encountered. The reefs go right up to the shore and there is virtually no tide. But swim out a bit and you can dive down along some striking walls. We saw tons of reef sharks, grouper, triggerfish, barracuda, a ray and tons of other assorted colorful tropical fish. The coral and anemone were beautiful as well. Sorry though, we no longer have an underwater camera so we have to poach pics from the web.
Each night we tried a different restaurant and ended up enjoying Poseidon the most with its treehouse-like atmoshere. We were a bit disappointed, however, in the lack of good seafood and fruit. I guess Tanote's isolation keeps that stuff out.
After five days, we decided to head across the island to the west (or sunset) coast to the more happening Sairee Beach. This is Tao's main drag just north of Mae Haad where the ferries come in. We found another cheap bungalow though this one wasn't on the beach (there are plenty on the beach for more money though). Sairee has a ton of dive operators and it seems the beach is deserted by day as everyone is off diving. Just before sunset though the boats roll back in and the bars and restaurants start hopping with beers being swapped over stories of the day's adventures. The sunset is amazing and some of locals entertained us twirling their sticks. A bit down the beach they were twirling sticks that were on fire.
We were going back and forth as to whether to dive or not since the snorkeling had already been so good and so cheap. But we relented... it is one the cheapest places to dive on earth. We decided to go for a full day, three dive trip to Sail Rock, one of Thailand's most celebrated dive spots. It didn't disappoint. Though we saw much of the same marine life we saw snorkeling, the swim-through "chimney" was worth the trip alone. We also got a great look at a lionfish which was pretty cool. We had a great time and it was a perfect day. The only disappointments were we did not spot a whale shark and the visibility at 30 meters was pretty bad.
After two dives at Sail Rock, the final dive was at the Southwest Pinnacle. This was the highlight for me as we swam through a huge school of yellowback fusiliers that was simply surreal.
Back onshore, we grabbed a spot on the beach at the Big Blue Bar and shared a beer with Jen, our divemaster and took in yet another beautiful sunset. The next day we hopped to Koh Phangan. Phangan has a reputation as a party island, but we were led to believe that if you avoid the "Moon Parties" it isn't that crazy. We made the mistake of going to the cheaper Haad Rin, the backpacker destination on Phangan and the site of the Full Moon Party. Being weeks away from the full moon we expected it to be mellower. We were mistaken. We spent one night partying with kids half our age (okay well maybe half Jim's age), drinking free Red Bull and vodkas (courtesy of the hotel) and the legendary "buckets" (see photo below of our friend Dennis deep into one). We didn't even make it to 11:00, let alone the midnight traditional start to the nightly festivities.
We quickly headed up island to the more low-key Haad Yao. One benefit of Koh Phagnan is that it is more developed and therefore things are a bit cheaper. An A/C room was about half what it was on Tao (though we stayed in a fan room on Tao). That was nice, but we definitely preferred Tao, though it is impossible to truly evelauate either island after so little time and so few places visited.
We didn't spend really any time on Koh Samui other than from ferry to airport, but it definitely seemed to be the biggest, most developed of the three with chain restaurants and even malls. It was a nice time in the Thai islands, though we didn't encounter much local culture. It is definitely a spot catering to tourists and western tourists specifically. One spot on Phangan even had a sign that said "westerners and foreigners only" which made us sad.
We decided that rather than test the political climate in Bangkok, we would re-route through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to get our visas for Vietnam and China, so we loaded into a small prop plane and left these little island gems behind.
Leslie and Jim,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. If you are looking for any recommendations for places to visit in Vietnam shoot me a note at stephenwbrownson@gmail.com My wife Kristin and I traveled there for three weeks in November and saw a good amount of the country.
Steve Brownson
The photos are awesome! :)
ReplyDeleteKoh Samui . . . just like from Meet the Parents! Cool!
ReplyDelete