Koh Tao - 30/06/2009

We arrived in Koh Tao from Bangkok 2 days ago and we are ready to leave this island.

Bangkok

Our time in Bangkok was pretty uneventful. We got our Chinese visa organised for a ridiculous fee of 1,650 Baht which is equivalent of A$64. It's the most out of any country that we've visited (although it is for a double entry visa). I was dead scared when I walked into the Chinese Consulate. I was really glad that I got out from the Consulate in one piece in the end without a major argument. They did ask me to change my former nationality from Taiwanese to Chinese but I refused. In the end, I just crossed it out and told them that I have no former nationality.

It was a bit of a mission going to the Consulate itself. It took us 3 hours and 4 different means of transport to get there the first time. When we got there we found out that it was closed for the day and we had to wait until the following Monday to apply! We were so despondent that we went to watch Terminator 4 and have nice food in the foodcourt of MBK shopping centre (one of the biggest in Bangkok.

MBK was absolutely HUGE. You could seriously get lost in it. It's like half of Queen Street Mall rolled into one concrete building. We went back a few times afterwards and still couldn't see the whole 7 floors.

When we went back to the Consulate on Monday morning, but almost missed the business hours again thanks to the Thai royal family. The police blocked the roads and the pedestrian overpasses to wait for a royal convoy to pass. We couldn't understand why the police officer was stopping us at first so we kept walking. He nearly pulled a gun on us for being above the royal convoy below.

We did a lot of markets in Bangkok on Naomi's insistence. I was ready for a foot massage every night after market visits. I don't think I ended up buying much at all from the markets.
We also managed to visit the National Museum. It was actually very informative and had a great collection. Apparently it has the biggest collection in SE Asia. It was interesting to learn about the history and the culture of Thailand without going to all the remote towns in the country.
Tuk-tuk drivers in Bangkok are seriously out to make big bucks from tourists. I told some tuk tuk drivers that they were dreaming when they quoted us 220B ($9) to going 4-5km. We ended up catching a full on air-con metre taxi back to our hostel after the night market for 35B.

Ko Samet

We went to Ko Samet for 3 days while we waited for the Chinese visa to be processed. Ko Samet is around 3.5 hours south-east of Bangkok. We stayed in a bungalow which was 15 seconds from the beach. I had the best time there. The beach was awesome. The water was crystal clear and the weather was fine every day during our stay. The Lonely Planet guide didn't really rate the island as it apparently get overcrowded on the weekend with rubbish on the beach etc. We didn't experience any of that during the 3 days that we were there. Mind you, we were there from Tuesday and left on Friday.

We had a very relaxed time there. We caught up on plenty of sleep on the beach under coconut trees. We had really cheap cocktails on the beach and some delicious BBQ seafood dinner almost every night on the beach. We had high hope for the southern islands as they apparently are a lot better than Ko Samet, UNTIL we got to Ko Tao....

We met the funniest Kiwi guy Richard on the way to Ko Tao. He's probably in his late 30s and travelling by himself for 2 months in SE Asia before he heads back to the cold in Wellington. He was telling us that how he agreed to go on a tuk-tuk around Bangkok for like 20B and of course, the driver insisted on making a quick stop to a tailor shop. He apparently walked in and walked out in 20 seconds and complained to the driver that if he was going to be taken to a tailor shop, might as take him to a proper clothing factory. Off he went and an hour later, he walked out a few hundred bucks poorer after ordering 2 suits, 2 silk/cotton shirts and some ties. I bet the driver absolutely loved him! The same thing happened to us in Chiang Mai, except our tour finished early cos we were too stingy to buy anything.

He also had some experience on the sleeper buses in Vietnam. The same one that we went on. Except apparently someone vomited all over himself and the seat on the exact seats that we were on right down the back. I am sure it would have been interesting if it happened on our bus...Not.

Richard also got himself a 4 week package from some travel agency the tuk-tuk driver took him to. Apparently he spent just over US$1,000 for a whole 4 week action-packed beach/island holiday around here. He booked up the package deal after a monk told him that the King of Thailand had declared that all tourists could get 30% off package tours for one day only. Hopefully it all worked out for him. So far so good as we saw him check in to his hotel in Ko Tao. God speed Rich!

Ko Tao

We heard a lot about Thailand beaches and islands back home and I was really looking forward to experiencing them in person. We decided to come to Ko Tao first as it was supposedly less-developed than some of the others but also boasted great beaches and spectacular snorkeling.

We picked this beach area called Chalon Baan Kao bay as it is away from the main town but still had a beach of its own. So after an exhausting overnight bus/boat, we got to our nice bay at 10am. After checking in our bungalow and walked a little on the beach, we realised that there was no way in hell that we would be able to swim in the mud and among the jellyfish. After our resort staff described it as stinky, we fully gave up on the idea.

We hiked to Shark Bay which was recommended by the resort staff. After some cross country hike we got to the coral beach. The water was very calm and emerald green and had lovely brown floaty things in it. Needless to say, we were slightly disappointed again.

The second day was quite exciting as we hired a little scooter to roam around the island. It was the first time that Naomi let me hire a scooter. I had some opportunities in Langkawi and even Cambodia and Laos until she vetoed the idea. Thankfully Ko Tao was difficult and expensive to get around places. It was also small enough to navigate without constantly worrying about traffic (which was light anyway). I was quite excited when I mounted the bike. I was a champion at it after the first 3 minutes of riding! It's like riding a bicycle but without pedals. I had the best time riding up and down the island. I even took it out for a fun night ride after we got back to our hotel that night :)

We spent a day down at the popular main beach - Sai Ree Beach. The beach was passable. It still wasn't as good as I had expected (def worse than Ko Samet!!!). At lease that water was clear and calm I suppose. It still had some bluebottles and other jellyfish though, but not on our part of the beach. By the end of our second day, we both were quite annoyed and disappointed with the beaches here in the southern islands. We decided to give it one more chance by going on a snorkeling trip (650B each) around the island the next day.

Thankfully, it was the BEST idea ever! The day was absolutely beautiful and the island looked nothing but spectacular from the sea. There were thousands of fish at each spot that we went. I even got to snorkel with sharks and school of tuna. We also saw this garfish that was around 1m long. Snorkeling with sharks was interesting. After we spotted them, Naomi instinctively pulled me in front of her as if I would do some karate chops on the sharks or something. I think they sensed danger from me and swam away after a while.

The underwater world was truly amazing. The coral gardens were sooooo huge. Corals of different shapes, colours and forms were everywhere. It definitely restored a little bit of our faith in Ko Tao. The operators also took us to this 3 islands (Ko Naan Yuan) which were joined to each other by a white sand bar. The beaches there were gorgeous. The water was clean and was of pristine blue colour. As the sandbar was in the middle of the sea, you could see thousands of fish just from the beach. We did around of 2 hours of snorkeling and swimming there. It was such a beautiful setting. There was also a diving resort there with sea-facing bungalows....maybe next time.

We could really see why people come to Ko Tao. Perhaps we came for the wrong reasons. It was quite obvious that people came here for the scenery under the water. There were dive shops everywhere on the island. I also overheard some people say that divers on Ko Samui and Ko Phangan all ended up here in Ko Tao as a day trip. I really wanted to do a 4 day dive course. It would be the most logical place to do it. Except that it would set me back 8,500B. I know it's only equivalent of A$340, but still would have broke my budget. Maybe next time....

Overall, it was really a beautiful island. It's 1/7/09 today and we are off to Phuket on quest for that beautiful beach that we have been hearing about all these years.