Koh Tao

We need a break from our travels. India took a lot out of us and we are fed up with people trying (and sometimes succeeding) in ripping us off. We’ve had enough of bargaining for food, lodging, water. We need a rest. And, we found a fabulous place to do just that.

We travel south, down the Thai peninsula on an overnight train. The train, like every other train we’ve taken here, is late. But, this time we are thrilled. The train was supposed to arrive at 4:50 am, but pulls in at 5:45—giving us almost a whole extra hour sleep! We take a bus to the pier and then a 3 hour ferry out to Koh Tao, Turtle Island. This small island in the Gulf of Thailand has beautiful boulders strewn picturesquely at the ends of crescent shaped beaches. There are fabulous coral heads encircling the island, and we explore them by snorkeling and scuba diving. Ethan and Siena are quite the novelty, as the youngest certified divers the instructors have ever met. We discover that none of our family quite fit into the usual demographic for the island. Everyone else is between 18 and 30, from all over the world, although almost no people from the US. Our dive boat has a British and a Canadian instructor, with one French man, an Israeli woman, three Germans and us. The diving is great. We’ve never seen so many anemones before, and the colors of the coral and the huge clams range from brilliant purple to a neon green. I’m afraid we don’t have an underwater housing for the camera, so you’ll just have to imagine.

As there are no weird animals for us to ride, we contrive to try some other conveyances. We rent a kayak one day and explore the nearby coves. We hear that the cove just to the east of where we are staying has some interesting snorkeling. The cove, nicknamed Shark Bay, lives up to its moniker. We see a dozen black tipped reef sharks, ranging from 1 to 2 meters in length. The water is only 1 to 2 meters and a bit murky, so the sharks appeared and disappeared in a rather eerie manner.

Taxi costs were prohibitive. When a round trip fare into the nearest town cost more than a night’s accommodation, we refused to use them. So, we rented motorbikes to explore the limited paved parts of Koh Tao. It takes us barely 15 minutes to go from one end to the other, although we toodled along very slowly. Unfortunately, I sprain my ankle hiking down to a view point/snorkel spot. At home, we advise Rest Ice Compression and Elevation (RICE). Here, where we’ve already had plenty of rice, we tried Rum Exercise by Snorkeling in the gulf of Thailand (REST). Sometimes the ice was on the ankle, sometimes the ice was with the rum. When I went to the pharmacy for an anti-inflammatory, the woman initially quoted me 120 Baht for the pills. I expressed surprise at the cost. She immediately dropped the price to 90 Baht. I hadn’t really been intending to haggle for my medicine, but I sure wasn’t going to argue and pay the 120. Suffice it to say, the recovery has been remarkably swift. I’m not a doctor, but I myself will be dosing with rum for all injuries from here on out.

We spent 4 days on Koh Tao. The cost for our bungalow, just meters off the beach, was less than $15/night. The kids had a more basic room, which was only $6. Thank goodness they gave us a $3/night /room discount for diving, or we might not have been able to afford it! We leave rested, and ready to resume our adventures.

Chock Dee!
The Beatties