We boarded the cheaper 10 am ferry to Ko Phangan with Laura and Adam (and tons of other Full Mooners) and said farewell to the supposed scuba paradise. The ferry was so overcrowded that we had to literally fight for room to sit on the floor. Signs on the boat said the capacity was 250 or so, but there were definitely more people than that. The four of us wedged ourselves into a walkway on the side of the boat with our feet dangling over and settled in for windy, bumpy, and salty boat ride.
When we pulled up to the dock, there were hundreds of Thais waving signs for taxis and yelling at the top of their lungs to those of us on board. Each one claimed to be offering “the best price” but we quickly found out that they are charge exactly the same price, no matter where you are going or how hard you bargain. Our taxi dropped us all off at Charm Beach Bungalows in Ban Tai, a highly recommended little spot that we all love. We had decided a few days before that we wanted something a little cheaper, quieter, and probably safer than the Full Moon madness of Hat Rin, about 7 km south of Ban Tai. We found our bungalows and the grounds very charming, and right on the beach. Our bungalow is about 30 feet from the water with nothing blocking our view!
We spent the next few hours napping in lounge chairs by the pool, complete with the scent of gardenias and the sound of singing birds. The family that owns this place has a pet monkey that provided us with endless entertainment in the form of pulling hair, stealing money from pockets, and peaking up shorts!
We had been trying to meet up with our friend Scott from Cal Poly for the last week or so, and took our first insane taxi ride to Hat Rin for dinner. The road to the little peninsula makes any mountain road I have ever seen in California look like a walk in the park, and the drivers fly around turns with tires squealing and passengers fearing for their lives. We made it safe and sound somehow, met Scott and his traveling buddies, Roman and Marie, and walked to dinner. Hat Rin is like a more rundown, dirtier Isla Vista on crack. The place is crawling with people, most of whom are drunk from a day of beach partying or still hungover from the night before, and taxis and motorbikes fly through the streets with no regard for pedestrians. You get out of the way or it’s your own fault when your toes get run over! Loud techno music blares at all hours of the day, and the beaches are filthy. Needless to say, we had a great time in Hat Rin for the night, but all four of us were so happy to be back at our wonderful Charm Beach when it was over.
After dinner, we all walked to Sunset Beach, home of the infamous Full Moon Party, to get a feel for what was in store for tomorrow night. It was crazy, but so mellow compared to the following night! We went to a Muay Thai boxing match for the night’s entertainment. The fights were definitely an experience: the fighters move so well and so quickly that it almost looks like they are performing some sort of choreographed dance that involves brutal kicks and punches. I’m glad we went to see it, but I can honestly say that all the boys enjoyed it much more than Laura, Marie, and I. We would have been fine leaving after four or five fights, but we stayed through all nine. It was good to see, and we are told it’s one of the more authentic places to go because all the fighters are actually Thai, but not something that I will probably ever do again!
With the ambitious plans to kayak to the neighboring island, Ko Nang Yuan, we were disappointed to wake up to a rather grey day. The ocean had a grey tint to it as well, punctured with lots of small white caps, so we decided to wait a few hours to see if things cleared up. In the meantime, we had brunch and settled into comfy pillows in one of the beach front cafes to finish our books.
While waiting, we saw the sun come out for about 10 minutes, and then the rain came in. Because wind and rain and choppy ocean is not a good kayaking combination, and because our less than stellar Ko Tao dives were still fresh in mind, we decided to scrap the snorkeling plans for the day. We continued to be lazy and treat ourselves to massages instead of exercise. When we finally decided it was time to head back to our room it was raining buckets and we were soaked to the bone in about 30 seconds. Good thing even the rain water is warm here!
We cleaned up and went to Ban’s restaurant/bar to meet our new Canadian friends, Adam and Laura, in celebration of their new scuba status. We had dinner and drinks with a few of their dive class buddies and their instructor, Santi. When the rain finally stopped, Santi took us to one of the more local bars up the hill where his friends were simultaneously bartending and serenading us with guitars and bongos. It was a great night that ended at the Lotus bar down on the beach, sitting on overstuffed pillows in the sand and sipping Changs with all of the friends we had met on the island. On our walk back, Justin decided to try a rope swing over the water that led to a long conversation with some very drunken Thais from Bangkok who gave some great travel advice!
After a lazy morning that looked formidably cloudy for a diving day, we met at the dive shop at noon. The ocean had continued to get rougher as the morning progressed, but we had already paid and were ready for the amazing diving of Ko Tao, even if it wasn’t going to be top notch today. Our ride out to the first dive site, Hin Wong Pinnacle, was pretty rough, and the seasick meds almost failed me when we were getting our gear ready. But we made it, and giant strided about 15 feet into the rough sea below. Our dive guide told us we were going to go down using the buoy line, but we just bee-lined it to the bottom to get out of the waves.
Timo, our dive guide, had told us that the whole dive site was between 18-20 meters. We knew something wasn’t quite right when we got down to about 25 meters with no sight of the bottom (granted the visibility was about three meters, but still!). So we kicked around, obediently following our dive guide and answering his incessant “Are you okay?” questions. About five minutes into the dive, he told us to stay put and he swam up to the surface. We looked at each other and thought, “Oh great. Our dive master is lost. And we are paying for this?” He came back down a minute later, pointed us in the direction of the dive site, and we kept kicking. The problem was, Timo kept turning around to make sure we were okay, and every time he turned around, he veered off course slightly to the right. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were quite literally swimming in circles. Our annoyance only heightened when he had to go to the surface a second time to reorient himself, and we continued to swim in circles! We swam in circles for our entire 40 minute dive, never found the dive site, and didn’t see a damn thing. To make matters worse, when we came up, we were easily a quarter of a mile from the boat. This is a big boat, the kind that doesn’t come pick up divers. We had to kick all the way back! It took forever, and on the way Timo informed us that his compass was broken and he was convinced the current had taken us all over the place. There was no current.
Back on the boat, we did our best to laugh it off and hope for better conditions on dive number two. As we headed to the second dive site, Ao Leuk, Timo asked if we had ever dove in poor visibility conditions. We both laughed out loud and said in unison, “We are from California. That’s all we have.” He was a bit taken aback at that, but oh well.
The second dive proved to be much better. Feeling bad, Timo made sure we were the first group into the water so we could have a longer dive. In the improved visibility, he managed to get us to the dive site and point out every clam he saw (about 200). It was really neat to see all the different corals that this dive site is known for: the corals literally battle for position on the ocean floor, combining forces when necessary and killing out the weaker species. It was spectacular to see all this taking its slow course of action, but the “Are you okay?” questions punctuating the beauty put a bit of a damper on the situation. We also saw a school of small barracuda that literally swam in circles around us for awhile.
At the end of our diving day, we took naps and half laughed, half fumed about the injustice of having to pay for our first dive of the day. We ate a cheap beachfront meal and watched some of the fire spinners that were able to perform on the much clearer night. We went to a few beach parties, and enjoyed a Thai “pancake” at the end of the night. It was some sort of very thin dough filled with thinly sliced apples and cinnamon and drenched in honey butter. It was delicious!
We boarded our catamaran ferry headed north to Ko Tao early in the morning, hoping to have most of a day on Ko Tao instead of in transit. Before we left, we took a few early morning pictures at Lamai Beach.
Once on the ferry, we found ourselves in the midst of tourist Asian invasion day-trippers. Apparently, most backpackers take the afternoon ferry to avoid the crowds of loud, picture taking snorkelers headed to Ko Tao and Ko Nang Yuen for the day. Either way, we arrived around 11 am, found a place to stay in Sairee Beach and headed down to the beach to check things out.
Ko Tao is a very mellow beach town with the laid back feel often associated with (but rarely found in) blockbuster movies. The beach itself is lined with restaurants and bars containing a mix of lounge chairs, hammocks, low table with adjoining floor cushions, and bamboo tables all on sand covered porches looking out onto the beach and the ocean. All the shops and restaurants are operated by a hodge podge collection of local Thais, backpackers that never made it home, and die-hard divers that need money to keep up their expensive taste in recreational activities. Beachgoers on Sairee alternate between the too-hot sun, the tree shaded patches of sand, and the thigh high water that is too shallow to swim in, but perfect for sitting on the sandy bottom. The shallow waters host a small reef about 100 feet off the shore, great for an afternoon snorkel session. All in all, we could easily see how backpackers get stuck here and make the all too smooth transition to “locals.”
Ko Tao is a known across the world as a scuba town in which is the best place to get certified. And it’s true, in three days and for about a quarter of the price you would pay in California, you can get certified. And tons of people do! We were amused by the little things that made this island different from the others we have been to and those things that contribute to the scuba vibe it has. You know you are in a scuba town when: • All the guest houses have adjoining scuba shops and school, in addition to discounted rooms for divers • The beach is empty until about 11 am, when all the dive boats return from the morning dives • A dry bag is a fashionably acceptable purse or “man satchel” • You drink, eat, and party with dive buddies and instructors • There is a discrete lack of tourist operators, owing to the fact the 99% of people come here just to dive • All the swimming pools on the island have dive classes in them 24/7
Our first day on Ko Tao consisted largely of beach lounging. We had lunch on one of the beachfront porches in low slung chairs before making our dive arrangements for the following day and retiring to our day at the beach. The dive shop operating told us that we should dive the afternoon session, because the mornings are full of beginners and check out dives in shallow water. So we went with it.
The afternoon on the beach led to the bar associated with Ban’s, and just in time: as soon as we had ordered beers, it started to rain. We watched as the brunt of the storm came across the ocean in the form of a literal wall of water. It quickly became so windy that half full bottles of liquor were falling off the open shelves in the bar! In the midst of all this madness, we met a few Americans and Canadians that were getting scuba certified at Ban’s. We joined them for dinner two doors down, and got soaked in the 100 meter dash through the ankle deep water that covered the streets. We had a blast, and spent the rest of the night chatting, drinking, and dancing with the Canadians Adam and Laura. Let’s just say we were happy with our decision to dive in the afternoon the next day!
We spend a lazy morning on Lamai Beach, enjoying the slightly cooler waters of the Gulf of Thailand and the beach chairs provided by our little Sea Breeze Bungalows. We eventually rallied and decided that because there wasn’t anything to do in Lamai other than sit on the beach, we would rent a motorbike and tour the island.
We drove north through the overdeveloped shopping centers and somewhat dirty beaches of Chaweng, decided that nothing on this stretch of the island was worth stopping for. It has much more of an American beach feel than a Thai beach feel. We kept driving and came upon fisherman’s village in Bo Phut. Because you can’t park anywhere within the village, we just drove through really slowly and took in all the knick knack shacks and smiling Thai faces, marveling at the odd smell of bananas, kerosene, and wood polish.
Our first stop of the day was near the entrance to the Big Buddha temple on the beach near Bo Phut. We parked our bike, and commenced a 15 minute struggle to open the seat and get out our day bag. This bike was unlike the other two we had rented and didn’t have a key release for the seat. Needless to say, a small Thai woman emerged from the coffee shop across the street (after she had ample time to laugh at us) and helped us out. We figured the least we could do was have an iced coffee in her beachfront shop. We sipped our drinks on barstools looking out on the bay through a big, open picture window, enjoying both our beverages and the quieter atmosphere the northern part of the island is known for.
We walked up the ornately tiled stairs leading up to Big Buddha itself, admiring the vibrant colors, seven headed serpents, and scenes from the Buddha’s life that decorated the staircase. The statue itself has five smaller Buddha statues in front, surrounded by a square shaped veranda overlooking a very picturesque bay. Bells hand from the open roof of the veranda, separated by ten feet of uninterrupted ocean views. If I was Big Buddha, I would be pretty proud of my view! Big Buddha is one hundred feet tall and painted solid gold, reflecting the heat of the midday sun onto his admirers. The temple was very peaceful and majestic in a mysterious way that we thoroughly enjoyed.
After paying tribute to Buddha, we drove our motorbike through the hoity toity northeast coast of Ko Samui littered with five star resorts, private beaches, and expensive rental cars. We headed south the roundabout way, but saw some beautiful coastlines on our way to the Namuang Waterfalls. After our 25 minute walk to the “swimming hole” we were sorely disappointed to see a barely flowing, dirty waterfall. We used our imaginations to picture what it would have looked like with more water, but couldn’t imagine there ever being enough water for people to jump off cliffs into the small ponds that we saw depicted! However, it was beautiful, even if not what we expected, and the walk was a nice change from the seat of the motorbike.
We continued to drive south in search of another temple, but we either took a wrong turn somewhere or didn’t go quite far enough. We ended up on a beach in Laem Sor, a quaint nontourist town on the southern shore of Ko Samui. I would guess that the locals don’t see many tourists, considering the puzzled looks we got as we drove through the sleepy town. No one even tried to sell us anything! The beach we found by accident had a deserted, castaway feel to it with no one else on the sand as far as we could see, other than a few nearby grazing cattle. The views of the mainland to the south, the palm tree lined strip of sand, and the fallen coconuts strewn about contributed to the charm of this little gem.
When we got back to Lamai, we decided not to try the party scene again and opted for dinner and cocktails on the beachfront. We were joined by our friend the centipede who was more than willing to pose for a few pictures and crawl all over us.
Today we caught our last glimpse of the Andaman Sea as we headed north to Ko Samui and the Gulf of Thailand. While we were waiting to be picked up, we picked up a conversation with Will and Dan: two born and raised Californians who were visiting Asia (and Vietnam in particular) to remember their more youthful days. I was wearing a Cal Poly t-shirt that started our little chat, and we soon found out that Will lived right down the street from the Pruneyard and picked prunes there as a kid. It’s so random when you meet someone on the other side of the world who grew up less than five miles from you!
Anyway, our “air con bus” arrived 30 minutes late, crammed full of other deceived backpackers. Our bus was actually a glorified pickup truck, and our driver knew no English, and none of us knew enough Thai to ask any questions, so we were unsure if this was our transport vehicle for the three hour drive or not! It turns out we got dropped off after half an hour at the Krabi bus station and waited 45 minutes before boarding. We then bused to Surat Thani and waited another 45 minutes before finishing the bus trip to the ferry port. By this time it was already close to 3:30, and we realized we had been very misinformed about our 2:00 arrival time in Ko Samui!
On the ferry ride, we admired the only slightly less impressive islands of the Gulf of Thailand. What they lacked in towering limestone cliffs they made up for in lush vegetation spilling directly onto long curving stretches of sand. We watched the local fisherman in the big boats with odd contraptions that no one could explain to us and we still haven’t been able to come up with a logical explanation for how the boats brought in their catches. Once we arrived at the pier in Na Thon, we were ushered onto another bus to take us to the opposite side of the island and our final destination, Lamai Beach.
By now it was getting dark, we were all tired, and ready to be done with the day. Our bus driver got lost, passed our desired bungalows, stopped at a guest house and walked into a bar, cracking open a beer. It looked like we had no other option but to stay here, so we booked a room and settled in. No complaints though, we had a clean, cheap room about a 30 second walk from the ocean.
We decided that the weary travelers (us) deserved a meal and a beer. We ate at a fantastic little Thai place with a canvas ceiling, no walls, and an indoor waterfall. About halfway through our Massaman curry, it started downpouring and we were glad to be undercover during the short, sudden rains. After about half an hour it stopped, and we decided to check out the bar scene in Lamai, which was rumored to be quite fun. Although the bars were ablaze with neon lights and blaring loud music, they were pretty much empty and awkward, so we settled for beers on the beach thinking it would pick up in an hour or two. We were wrong, and on our second round of appraising the night life we encountered the same atmosphere and decided to go to bed instead.
We woke up to a rather cloudy but welcomingly cool morning with plans to rent a motorbike and head up to a rain forest national park with caves and waterfalls near Krabi Town. As we were finishing our subpar American breakfast buffet, it started pouring rain! Literally, downpouring! It was madness, but we decided to wait it out with the hope that the locals were right: it never rains for more than an hour at this time of year in Thailand. So, luckily, after about two hours the downpour stopped. We decided to rent a bike any way and head up to Krabi town instead of the national park.
About five minutes into the 20 km drive to Krabi, it started pouring again. It was definitely a sort of tropical storm because we stayed warm even though we were soaked! Justin took the brunt of the rain, as he so kindly volunteered to drive, and just my arms (wrapped around his waist) and my shins got wet. We decided to stop for lunch when we thought we were getting close to our destination, ate our cheapest meal yet in Thailand, and pulled out a map to orient ourselves. We realized we had already driven through most of Krabi Town! But we were really close to the Krabi River, so we biked there in the much lighter rain. We drove around town, found it pretty empty and boring (it seemed like there weren’t even any Thai locals out and about after it had stopped raining), and stumbled across the Thailand Authority of Tourism (TAT) office. We decided it would be handy to have a few maps that were actually decipherable, so we picked them up.
We continued to wander about town and drove by a market setting up. According to our map, this was the well-known Krabi night market. We decided to park our bike, walk the street to find a bathroom, and come back in about 45 minutes. We walked for awhile before seeing a sign that said BEER/ COFFEE/ TOILET: exactly what we were looking for. This place turned out to be equal parts coffee shop, bar, bathroom, pool hall, gym, and pottery shop, and we were the only customers there. Pretty entertaining, and we couldn’t turn down the cheap beer and free toilets.
We wandered back to the market, and started to walk around when we noticed something glaringly obvious: we were the only non-Thai people in the whole place. And it was only 4. This was not the night market! We are still not sure where we were for this market, but it was really neat to see the bustling non-tourist market after the ghost town of downtown Krabi! The market can be described as half farmers market with fresh fruit and Thai food and half flea market with used clothes and cheap knockoffs, all with a loud Thai radio station blaring in the background. Everyone was a bit skeptical of how these crazy tourists had found their hidden market, but warmed up to us when they all realized that we had just stumbled on it! It was definitely a taste of traditional Thailand that we both loved and can’t wait to see more of. It was spectacular to see the locals in action and doing what they would normally do without the constant drone of drunken tourists.
On the way back to Ao Nang, we got lost. Big surprise, seeing as we had no idea where we were to start with! But we eventually found our way home without any rain and any incidents. I actually braved driving the motorbike and had a great time with it, but it was a good thing there weren’t any other people on the road! Once we got back to civilization, Justin drove us to the hotel and we headed toward a beach front restaurant with a drink in hand. Once again, our waiter was a lady boy in disguise/hiding/training: he had on makeup, tight silk pants, a flower “do dad” in his hair (as Justin says), and lots of jewelry to compliment his practiced feminine walk. We are used to this spectacle by now, but still find it so funny!
After having exhausted the majority of “sights” in Ao Nang the night before, we hopped on a longtail boat to the nearby West Railay Beach for about two dollars apiece. The seas were calm and framed by dynamic white clouds that looked like they were about to burst with excitement at how beautiful a day we had happened upon for our beach day. The sky high limestone cliffs and empty, immaculate beaches were an added bonus to the already perfect day.
After walking through the ghost town of West Railay Beach, we asked a local how to get to the lagoon we had heard so much about from our friends Justin and Emily. We followed the directions given through East Railay Beach (more of a mud flat and garbage dump lined with ironically fancy hotels than a beach) toward the trail leading up to the lagoon. On our way, we asked another couple heading back toward the beach if we were going the right way. They said we were, but that the lagoon is just a big muddy mess at low tide, and the hike to get up there is horrendous! They also told us the lookout nearby was worth going to, so we kept walking. We somehow missed the turnout for the lagoon, probably because we were too busy admiring the karst geology of the area: stalagmites, stalactites, caves, intricate overhangs…. It was so neat! We stumbled upon the trail up to the lagoon, took one look, and laughed out loud. It was basically a sheer cliff of red, sticky clay interlaced with banyan tree roots. Add that with bathing suits and flip flops and you would probably get a downright mess! We decided to walk right past it.
The trail we were on dead ended into one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen, Phra Nang Cave Beach. The most noticeable feature on the beach was the limestone wall about 500 feet tall at the southern end of the beach that made a sort of cave over the ocean with a hangover of at least 50 feet. But to add to that, the powder soft white sand was lined with trees that shaded half the beach (perfect for a hot day), gorgeously clear water, a Buddhist temple, and a handful of food vendors selling ridiculously cheap food. It was quite literally the perfect beach day!
After quite a few hours of taking it all in, we caught a longtail back to Ao Nang from Phra Nang in a slightly rougher ocean. We took naps after our long day in the sun to recuperate. We had plans to go out on the town tonight, but ended up spending all of our time at dinner and admiring local paintings in an art studio instead of at a bar!
