Day 17

It was time to leave Koh Tao for Koh Samui. I wanted to go to the national park there tomorrow, the only dry day on the forecast. I hid in the frog restaurant from the rain in the morning (the frogs were making a poor effort in the day), using the wi-fi to plan. In the afternoon I got a pickup taxi to the main town and sheltered in a café nomming on breadsticks and lattes until the Lomprayahcatamaran at 3pm. I piled on with a full load of passengers and sat up on the open top deck, as the rain god had taken a break.

Leaving Koh Tao

Koh Tao was covered in cloud as we left and the wind batteredus out at sea. The sea was choppy. My poncho was flapping around like a whip making a horrendous racket. The views were impressive and moody with dark clouds in every direction. To the west you could make out a cluster of small islands in the distance, the Ang Thong marine park I wanted to visit. The big forested lump of KohPangyanwas ahead (the Full Moon party island). We passed other ferries and fishing boats. I put on my iPod, leaned back and enjoyed the atmosphere, I like boat travel!

Bye, Koh Tao

Quality

We stopped at Koh Pangyan to transfer passengers and two drunk brothers came up on deck with bongo drums and beer. They were terrible at drumming but pretty funny. They had a rubber chicken which squarked which sounded ridiculous with the drums, but made us all laugh. They were pelting out on the bongos and sometimes one of them would stand up with his arms out like he was flying or a really ugly Kate Winslet. They stuck the chicken on one of the antennae and the ship honked at them in protest – there was a CCTV camera! They shook the chicken around in front of the camera for revenge, haha!

That hat RIP

The funniest moment was when a big gust of wind in an instant blew one of the guy’s hats clean off – it whipped into the distance behind the boat never to be seen again! It was even better because it had happened earlier but hit the floor, and the guy never learned his lesson. He whispered to the chicken and mimed throwing it into the sea to fetch it!

KohSamui, the largest of the three islands, dominated the view as we approached. It’s over 100km around the edge. We got off and I walked past rows and rows of transfer mini-buses, but it’s cheaper to get away from the pier and find your own transport. I didn’t really know where to go but followed the mini-buses driving out and after a long walk with all my kit, and some amazing internal compass skills (i.e. head inland) I hit the main road going around the island. I waited for a songthaew to come along. Songthaews are pick-up trucks with a roofed back, a bench running on each side. People hop on and off and you arrange with the driver what to pay when you get on. You ring a buzzer or bash the side when you want to get off. With the public ones you can sometimes just jump on without speaking to the driver and pay a flat fare.

Eventually one turned up and I got the driver to take me to a guest house I’d read about a few miles away. We drove along a very busy road past a never-ending stream of buildings and concrete, mostly geared for tourism. Resorts, restaurants, spas, travel agents, hire shops. Samui was super-developed compared to Koh Tao and this view of it was ugly. There were lots of coconut plantations too and jungle hills rose inland, but no coastline was visible from the road. We arrived but where he’d dropped me wasn’t the place I had asked for. So I walked up and down the road for ages looking for the place, I knew I was in the right area.  When you walk by the roads in Samui you are always waving away or ignoring lots of normal taxis, songthaews and motorbike taxis on the way, who honk at you or shout “Where you going?”. But you can’t afford to get taxis everywhere when on a budget!

As I passed a bar a Thai woman asked where I was going and, as she wasn’t driving anything, I replied. She spoke to an aging Aussie who turned out to be the owner. Hevery kindly got his Thai lady friend to phone the guest house I was looking for, to find out where it was. Annoyingly it transpired the songthaew had dropped me at the right place – but the resort had changed name and gone upmarket!Gah! I bought a drink from the bar and thanked my helpers- then wandered the road for ages looking at different resorts, trying to find something I could afford. It was almost dark when I gave up,I couldn’t lug my stuff around any more so I settled for a cheaper place by the beach and haggled to get a multiple night discount. This room was a luxury compared to my recent accommodation. Hot shower, air-con, wardrobe, free shampoo, free wi-fi, a fridge, free water, and with the ultimate selling point – the Towels of Love!

As it got dark I went to the beach which stretched for miles, with coarse sand (and not much of it as the tide was in). There were resorts all the beach edge, though most only had about 20 meters of sand with the lodgings in rows perpendicular to the sea. You could see planes coming in to land at Samui airport. I walked the main road looking for food, passing hostess bars with girls shouting out at me, shops, resorts and restaurants. Found popular cheap place and had a dry curry which played havoc with my stomach that night! I also discovered my credit card had stopped me from withdrawing cash. Doh. But for some reason it worked at a travel agents when I boughta tour of the marine park for tomorrow. I had to call the bank and it turns out their credit card specifically designed for world travel still needs to be activated for world travel. Never assume!

Day 16

Had the best sleep for weeks on the surprisingly soft bed in the beach hut. In Thailand they seem to like their beds and their women hard (one bit of that might be made up). The weather forecast had been wrong. It was cloudy and warm, not a lightning storm! I went snorkelling in the morning, swimming right out into the bay before the big boats arrived. I ran into a lot of really big schools of fish, many different kinds and bigger fish than usual, which was cool. I saw the big corals that the divers go down to see too

Wows

Mmmph mmph mmmmmmphh mmmphhhh mmmmph!

Then I rested on the beach and could feel the sun trying to burn me even through the clouds. The beach was busier today, everyone spread in a big line on the white sand.Over lunch the skies darkened and the rains descended. My plan was to snorkel again but when I went to get my gear in my hut I lay down for a minute and fell asleep for 4 hours! Woke up at 5pm feeling very groggy. My sleep pattern is so messed up with all the travelling and shoulder problems.

I had dinner at the frog restaurant again and found them this time, fat toads in the artificial pools, with big air sacs to make all that hubbub. The light from the torch made them stop croaking so much.The swelling in my arm had all but gone today. No amputation needed, fingers and arms crossed!

Day 15

It was time to leave and see some more of Koh Tao. I learned there’s a dirt road which comes here so I could get a pickup truck taxi to Ban Mae Haad, the main town. Sat in the back and held on tight as we travelled the winding and very off-road track! Eventually it became concrete as as we got higher there were good views over the forested hills of the island. On arrival I found a wi-fi café, buying an expensive breakfast only to find their wi-fi wasn’t working. Doh. Found another place after a full English (not as good as home but still a nice change from rice and noodles) – and then the rains came, trapping me indoors for hours.

When it rains, it really rains! That water at the bottom was flowing like a river.

My arm was still swollen and itchy but had gone down a bit from yesterday so hopefully it would be alright in a few days. The internet revealed it can’t be too bad because I don’t have any of the symptoms you get from real nasties. It sounded like a centipede bite or just a bad reaction to a mossie. The internet weather forecast was for storms in the area for the next 3 days. Damn. Decided to hold off on the national park trip for a few days because of this, so I caught another pickup  taxi to Ao Leuk beach which I’d read was quiet and had great snorkelling. I figured if the weather was going to be crap I could snorkel or hide in the restaurants.  It seemed a better option than Hin Wong Bay which is just rocks and would be pummeled by waves.

At Ao Leuk there was a reasonably sized bay and a sandy beach with three resorts. Dive and snorkel boats sat moored in the bay and people were dotted around them in the water.It was chucking it down and I got my first real soaking. Glad I had dry bags for my electronic kit! The budget option for accommodation was pricey by mainland standards, even with a 2 night discount. But that’s the islands for you, sleeping’s expensive and food and drink is usually double or triple mainland prices. So I couldn’t afford to stay out in the Thai islands for long – the rest of SE Asia’s beaches will be way cheaper!

My basic wooden bungalow was just off the beach and caught the wind, but that’s good – less mosquitos. It also had a proper mosquito net suspended by ropes – so you have an oblong net which gives way better sealing than a crap cone one. But a hut wouldn’t be complete without a wild resident and this time it was one of the big geckos, the size of my forearm. There was no way out for him as I’d blocked the big window hole with a pillow, presumably how he got in. He wasn’t very happy when I used the broom to persuade him out the front door, he squarked loudly at me as he scurried inch by inch, always looking at me like he was going to jump at my head. Eventually I got him out. I didn’t want him damaging my net or living in my stuff.

Yet another visitor desperate to spend the night with me

I hired snorkel gear and strolled to the beach in the rain. Despite the weather the sea was calm, although water visibility was poor. But it didn’t matter, the place was absolutely teeming with life! As soon as I put my head under all I could see was fish all around me, of many shapes and sizes. And at only a meter deep! The following photos I took the next day but I have put here to paint the scene. Just imagine it being darker and greyer!

As soon as you look below, you realise there’s already fish all around you

I swam out along the rockline and there’s lots of nice coral out there, it’s not colourful but there’re many types;brains, jaggies, mountainous spires. Clams and anemones live in some of them. And so many fish! The previous beach seemed a joke in comparison to this, here I could get inches away from them in shallow water and they wouldn’t even flinch.

There were much bigger fish here too and some big shoals of little two-inchers which are great, they move together hypnotically billowing and darting in formation, shimmering silver. I saw little neon blue fish, angel fish and many more. Often I was completely surrounded and some shoals would swim with you for a while. I felt like the pied piper but for fish. Shame the fable didn’t happen in reverse, a load of tasty fish on land would have been good! I swam for a few hours all around the bay, going into deeper water where you can still see the sea bed and corals at 5-10 meters down. There’s even a bamboo raft moored out there for a resting point.I was glad I came as the rain doesn’t trouble the deeps.

The wind picked up to buffeting speed, coconut trees and bushes were swaying violently. Over the past few days I’ve heard coconuts falling a lot, and you see them on the ground everywhere, even though they get collected daily. Someone told me that deaths from falling coconuts are higher than from murders or something. When it’s windy it’s a good idea to avoid walking under the trees! I ate a high wooden restaurant overlooking the bay once it was dark. On the way I saw a big yellow frog hopping through the grass, and at the restaurant the sound of frogs croaking was overpowering. “Woooooowwwwooooaaaaaaw” in a monotone, but with different frogs at different pitches. This combined with Bon Jovi blasting out of the speakers, the breaking waves and cicadas made for a bizarre audio combination! I could see a few dive boats doing night dives in the bay.

The little white dots in the distance are the fishing boats.

The restaurant had wi-fi which was really handy as I could shelter here in the bad weather and plan my next moves. I needed to get my Nepal accommodation and flights sorted soon before it all got booked out for the festivals next month. Horrifyingly it turned out everywhere here closes at 9pm. It does seem quiet, I’d only seen three or four couples around. Just as well, I spent too much on booze at the last place!