Day 13

Got up early to go snorkelling as the friendly resort owner told me you can sometimes see turtles or sharks around 7am. Spent a few hours in the water and saw much more fish than usual including a massive shoal of many kinds of fish. And I was very happy to briefly see a little shark! He was about the length of my arm. I couldn’t keep up with him to get a photo. The compact camera (a Lumix FT-20) is surviving well underwater and living up to its hardy reputation, it’s been bashed and covered in scratches but still working fine.

I spent the afternoon chilling in the Sea Breeze bar/café, working on the blog and chatting to the bar man, Ni-Ni. It’s on the other end of the beach to the Banana Rock bar. The bar’s owners have a restort behind and are a friendly family with a cute girl who must be about 2 years old. She has lots of energy and always has a big smile on her face. She’s always entertaining, coming down to the bar to see the tourists. Today I gave her a crisp and later she came down to the restaurant to show me her Barbie doll and colouring book. The lazy tkye hadn’t coloured any of it in! I showed her photos from around the beach which she recognised. She really liked the pictures of the elephants from Kanchanburi!

Not all the fish are colourful down there. Sometimes they’re really hard to spot amongst the reeds. If you float in one spot you start to notice more and more life the longer you look.

Ni-Ni (pronounced Nee-Nee) the bar guy is 28, speaks a little English and is Burmese. He told me the family pay him every month, customers or not, all year round, he gets a free bungalow and when there’s no guests they harvest coconuts to sell on the mainland which reach a good price. He likes it here as there is little work in Burma and he likes his job and it pays well. He sends some money to his mum back home, who wants to see him as he hasn’t been back for 5 years! He’s got 9 siblings (!) – many are working in south Thailand sorting fish catches at the docks. He’s going back to Burma this year to visit.

Ni-Ni (pronounced Nee-Nee)

An impressive stormy sunset brewed, the clouds here are dramatic in the evening. I spent the night chatting to the German couple again and a group of young Brits on holiday. Ni-Ni was already giggling from drinking most of a 45% rum bottle he had hidden away in the back! One of the resort guys offered me a smoke of some pretty strong weed in a bong and I had a try. Didn’t need any more than that, trust me! Spent the end of the night chatting away in broke English and sign language to Ni-Ni.

My German pals

One of the friendly resort dogs was still there when I left, and he led the way – stopping regularly to check behind to make sure I was ok. I heard that the same dog escorted the German couple all the way to town (half an hour’s walk) and back! Along the way the other resort dog joined us (from the other night) and she came up to my hut and went to sleep in my doorway. What a cool dog! I had to shift her to close the door so she slept on my porch instead. I think she scared Mr. Flobber away. The Germans told me they have two Mr. Flobbers in their hut the same size as mine!

This is the dog who freaked me out on the beach at night and slept outside my hut two nights later! I reckon beach resort life is a dog’s paradise. Plenty of food, people, other dogs, lots of things to chase, sand to dig in and lie on, sea to swim in. The dogs seem super happy here.

Beaucoup Fish

Day 12

I woke up in the night and couldn’t get back so sleep so went for a walk on the beach with my torch. Got a shock when something big brushed my leg – turned out to be one of the resort dogs who was petrified of me. I sat on a swing between two coconut trees and watched the glows on the horizon – big fishing boats which use arrays of spotlights to lure fish in. The dog overcame its fear and came to join me. It was relaxing with just the sounds of the jungle behind and the waves ahead.

After another bad sleep (I’m exhausted all the time now), I stayed out of the blazing sun to protect my sunburn, catching up on my photos. Then suncreamed myself to the max wishing I had a nubile German girl to rub it into my back. Applying suncream to your back is pretty much impossible to do properly with just one arm. In the end I improvised, putting suncream on a water bottle and then a t-shirt to get it to the spots I couldn’t reach! Definitely need a girlfriend soon 😛

Fishy stalkers

Went for a long snorkel out by the big boulders where I found more coral and some big shoals of fish. I saw a cuttlefish (like squid but without the tentacles), and some big needlefish. There were also some giant clams which are wedged between rocks and have vivid blue insides. They pulse regularly. There are Finding Nemo fish out here as well, poking out of their swaying pink homes. The little black and yellow striped fish are quite curious fellows and liked to follow me around. One type of fish kept biting my legs aggressively when I got close, a bit painful, but it didn’t draw blood. I learned to keep clear of those! Smaller ones would sometimes peck at my leg eating dead skin or whatever delicacy my leg has to offer.

Find Nemo…

Koh Tao is a pretty safe place for snorkelling and diving though, there aren’t many dangers in the water compared to other places in Thailand. The only fish you are supposed to watch out for are big trigger fish, and the occasional jellyfish and spiky urchin. Compared to Koh Chang where I learned to dive a few years ago it was very tame, the incentive to master your buoyancy is high there as the seabed’s covered with massive spiky urchins!

In the afternoon the weather became worse eventually becoming stormy. I sheltered in the Banana Rock rasta bar with a Chang beer and watched the moody skies and the waves crashing on the rocks. Sea spray, rain and wind whipped through the place. My amazing sex appeal caught the attention of the resident dog who after becoming friendly decided to take things a step further and constantly tried to hump my leg. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and so I let him have his way with me (haha – not really, the owner tied him up!).

Had a tasty mussaman curry for dinner and discovered my big spider friend lurking menacingly by the bed. His eyes shone in the torchlight as he flobbered up the wall at 500 mph. No scorpions in my bed so considered it a good night!

Day 11

The day started with an hour or two on the Catamaran to the island of Koh Tao, sat inside in rows like an plane. There wasn’t much to see outside except spray. They showed a Canadian version of Beadles About, and then their version of You’ve Been Framed, and the universal entertainment of tomfoolery and people hitting things hard with their face gave everyone on board something to chuckle at. Unfortunately it was on loop so the second time round the jokes got old real fast and we all went crazy and set fire to the TVs and jumped around like monkeys throwing shit at each other. Well that’s what should have happened anyway.

Water taxi

Arriving at the pier masses of people filed on and off the ferry, most with big backpacks. A throng of touts offered taxis and accommodation. I already knew one of the nicest places on the island from my guidebook so I ignored the yells and shambled down to the rather grotty beach to get a water taxi. Water taxis are your classic Thai longboats with the coloured ribbons on the front. Getting on-board was troublesome with one arm (you have to wade and haul yourself in) but half-soaked I got there in the end. My bags didn’t even get dropped in the sea which is always a bonus. Of course I found out later that week I could have got the taxi for half the price so I need to remember to haggle.

The coast has lots of resorts like this

Our trip was about ten minutes around the coast, past an awesome palm tree, jungle and boulder landscape dotted with beach hut resorts and little sandy coves. We pulled into Sai Nuaan – a nice little white sand beach and I wandered around the the three beach bungalow resorts there looking for the best deal.

Sai Nuaan’s bigger beach

The smaller beach

Sai Nuaan has two nice little beaches and beach bungalows (huts) by them, with some further back in the jungle and among the coconut trees. Beach view huts cost double. I found myself a cheapish hillside hut, they’re all a bit gappy but have mosquito nets. Then I chillaxed on the beach at about 11am in the scorching sun. There weren’t many other people around, maybe a dozen tourists spread between two beaches, mostly couples.

I like the stripey ones. They are quite curious and like to follow you around for ages. Or maybe they just want human flesh and are waiting for the perfect moment to strike…

In my typical restless fashion I soon did some snorkelling around the bay and was happy to find quite a lot of fish, including multi-coloured ones. There was a lot of seaweed growing on the floor and dead coral, though there were a few live corals.  After a while I had to walk to town to buy more suncream – a 30 minute walk along a winding concrete path which goes along the coast and passes through loads of posh resorts. They looked great but I think the ones I was at had more character and were more natural.

Ban Mae Haad; the main town where the pier is, is your typical concrete touristy mess with no character. It reminded me a lot of the Greek island tourist resort towns. It’s full of dive centres, shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. Motorbikes whizz around it, many driven by tourists. You can even hire ATVs. The big beach there is littered and has lots of debris, and it’s noisy being near the roads and pier. Glad I was staying away from there, though it’s a good place to party. On the way back I saw a grey squirrel in the jungle. Probably hid in my luggage from Scotland.

Did some more snorkeling. My little waterproof camera worked fine but it has trouble focussing underwater, and the quality depends a lot on the water visibility. Because the lens is always exposed it’s really easy to smear too. As you’re taking photos from above it’s hard to get interesting images but being able to take photos underwater at all was a pretty good novelty for me! My shoulder coped ok with snorkelling (1 armed swimming for the win) but it did get sore especially when taking photos underwater. Photography, stop damaging me!

The Banana Rock bar

As the sun went down I relaxed with a big Chang (Thai beer) at the wicked little rasta bar “Banana Rock” which sits above the beach on pillars, made of planks and driftwood, filled with tribal trinkets and pumps out Bob Marley. As the tide comes in the sea swirls around the pillars. Very chilled, but no rest for the wicked, I tried my tripod for some sunset photos but it was very windy so there was too much vibration. I joined a young German couple I met at the bar for dinner. These islands are very popular with the Germans, in fact they’d practically taken over the resort. To be honest most of the German I know comes from World War 2 films and video games. I could run around screaming “Schnell! Schnell!” and “Schizer!!!” but I probably wouldn’t win many friends here.

Back at the hut, I discovered this beast chilling out on my floor.

Spiders don’t bother me much but this just looks a bit urgh and moved in that horrible “flobbery” way, really fast. I chased him away. I knew he’d come back later, I just didn’t fancy standing on him accidently or have him jump onto my face or crawl into my stuff. And then looked over to the bed, which is covered completely by a mosquito net – but wait, what’s this on my white sheets? Ah yes, just your standard bedfellow, a scorpion!

A bit perturbed by the “security” of my mosquito net I rescued the wee chap (he was only about the size of my thumb) on a bit of paper, and put him out of the window. He wasn’t too happy about being moved, his tail arching and pincers snapping away. So that’s big lizards, spiders, mosquitos, ants, frogs and scorpions to have graced my bedrooms so far. They should make an I-Spy book for exotic bedrooms. “Alligator is pillow – 100 points”. And then, having a shower I realised that despite the suncream I’d been painfully sunburnt on my back and worst of all, my shoulders. So now my only good shoulder was a red sore. Can’t believe the difference in weather in this part of Thailand. Can I cripple myself any further? Tune in next time to find out! (the answer is probably yes).