February 28, 2008

Koh Tao (THAILAND)

Arriving on Koh Tao, Ultra-Chilled Sairee View, and Seeing a Doctor

One way or another, alighting from a train at 3:25 am in a foreign country is always going to be interesting. In my case, I was the only person getting off at Chumphon station in the dead of night, and I was doing so with all my possessions strapped to my back. As far as what came next, well, the only real option was to follow the concrete walkway leading from my train car, the last on the train, to the central waiting area where a few lights still attracted mosquitoes and lost travelers alike.

I came across a woman and her son who were running some sort of late-night soup stall, but with the train only providing a few minutes' worth of sales opportunities - and sleepy, difficult to capitalize on opportunities at that - I had to wait my turn in line before requesting help. The young boy was busy running up and down the train cars in an attempt to find customers, while his mother filled cups with the spicy Thai broth boiling in her pot. When the train chugged onward, I bought a few cups of left-over soup for 15 baht each, and explained I wanted to buy a ferry ticket to the island of Koh Tao. The woman had already guessed as much, pulling out her cell phone to call a travel agent who arrived 30 minutes later. She sold me a 450 baht catamaran ticket with a 7:00 am departure, and even drove me to a guesthouse where I was able to shower and freshen up while I waited.

The high-speed boat took two hours to reach Mae Head on Koh Tao, but I was too tired to focus on anything except the most comfortable sitting position so I could get some more sleep. At the docks, I was approached by a dozen touts hoping to lure me into a diving package, but my loyalty already lies elsewhere: with the ever-affable New Way Diving on Sairee Beach.

I caught a lift to the shop, and began the painful process of finding a bungalow. Unfortunately, I arrived on the island two days after a full moon party on Koh Phangang, which means all the drunk, drugged-out party-goers were now congregating on the small diving Mecca of Koh Tao to recover and become dive-certified. The bottom line is that there were people walking around with their backpacks on, and no place to check into: not a good situation.

Luckily, I had Ms. Jai, the kind Thai woman who runs New Way Diving, on my side. She called around, and after much searching, hooked me up with a room at Sairee View, which overlooks Sairee town from a mountain at the Northern end of the beach. After some friendly bargaining with the owner, a man who was wearing a black police t-shirt with handcuffs strapped to his belt-loops, the bungalow price came down from 600 baht to only 350 baht - a real steal at under $10USD/night. (Of course, I owed him a large bottle of Chang beer later!)

Shown to the right is the view from my front porch.

Next on my agenda was renting a motor-bike for my stay so I could reach the bungalow and traverse the island. I ended up with a manual orange scooter for 110 baht/day ($3USD), making to sure to select one that already had plenty of scratches so that my upcoming falls wouldn't be as obvious. So far, I was doing brilliantly, but I was too tired to savor the moment, and spent the remainder of the afternoon in my bungalow, catching up on several night's worth of lost sleep.