September 13, 2007

Koh Tao (THAILAND)

Arriving on the Island Paradise of Koh Tao and Diving Lessons

Our train from Bangkok pulled in at 4am this morning, and we spent the next few hours hanging around both the train station and a local bus terminal. We had a ferry ticket for the 7:30am departure for Koh Tao, which is one of the smaller and more serene of Thailand's gorgeous islands. Jo has been here on a number of different occasions, and she could fully vouch the island is free of the obscene party atmosphere found in places like Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and the more obvious one: Phuket. Plus, Koh Tao ('Turtle Island') boasts the East coast's best diving, which along with relaxing on the beach, is how we were planned to keep ourselves busy for the next 10 days.

The ferry to the island took nearly three hours, but on the way we got in touch with a dive operator, New Way, that Jo has been coming back to for years. They picked us up at the pier and whisked us down to the nicer end of the island's coastline at Hat Sai Ri. I signed up for a PADI open water course, which would begin later in the afternoon, and received not only a discounted price (since Jo and I are together), but also a free bungalow for as long as I am training. It really is a good deal, and was probably helped by the fact that we are visiting just after the end of tourist season. So, we threw down our stuff in the small, non-air-conditioned bungalow and headed out for a swim. The water was magical, and exactly the kind of beach one imagines on an island paradise.

For lunch, we met up with Jo's friends, Jenny, Jemma, and Mark (the ones she was with in Cambodia), but I had to leave early to begin my lessons. My instructor was a Scottish guy named Mike, and he had all the tell-tale attributes of a dive instructor: athletic, talkative, funny as hell, and still suffering from a hangover. Also in the class were a couple Irish girls, a German engineer, and a Dutch entrepreneur. It was certainly an eclectic group, but for today we were confined to watching videos and copying each other's worksheets.

Tomorrow the diving will begin, but in the mean time, it is all about partying the night away.