The train from Bangkok was a dream. Every stop, vendors flood the train with goodies: soda, beer, rice with chicken basil, soup, popcorn, smoothies, fresh fruit, coconut ice cream, dried fish, and so many things I wouldn’t be able to describe. One of the many times I wish my dad was with me, so he could explain every food passing by, and load Rosie and I with snacks. If only I were a kid again. The train did last a little too long. There were ants crawling all over me by the end, there were too many people dying in my book that I had to stop reading it, and it got dark out so I couldn’t watch the farms of palm trees, rice paddies and coffee pass by anymore. We finally got off at Chumpon at exactly 9:15. I think the three of us had the same thought…more punctual that Philly’s trains!
At our arrival in Chumpon, we were greeted by two teenagers who were supposed to take us to the guesthouse we would be staying in. Though I deliberately told them there were three of us with large backpacker backpacks, the two teenagers arrived on their two motorbikes. So Jillian and I climbed onto the back of the two motorbikes, promising (crossing our fingers) that one would come back for Kayleigh. Goofballs didn’t tell us the guesthouse was around the corner from the train station, and we could have walked through the cool night market on the way to the house. But they did go back to get Kayleigh, and we stayed in this adorable room in this adorable house for 250 bhat, so no complaints. I wish I could have taken pictures or noticed more about the house, but we just got there, ate a quick dinner (Pad Thai) at the night market, went to bed and woke up and rushed out of the house at 6 to catch the taxi to the pier. When I checked in and told them we were taking the ferry in the morning to Ko Tao, the teenager guy said okay, I’ll call the taxi, it will be here at 6. I thought that was odd, since it was 9 km away and the ferry left at 7, but I took that since I wouldn’t have been able to call a taxi myself. We woke up to this large vehicle outside that looked like one of those tour buses an amusement park that sits 16 on benches facing each other. We thought, this for the three of us and another trio at the guest house? Very cool. Though we soon realized, this taxi was picking up everyone in Chumpon that was going to Ko Tao. So our taxi for 16 ended up being smushed for 25, with a couple people hanging off the back. One cramped taxi ride, and a two and a half hour ferry ride in a very intense morning sun later (I may never get rid of that tanline…) we made it to Ko Tao. Okay, I’ll tell this story even though it’s embarrassing. As we were getting onto the ferry, some guy handed me a map that said “Turtle Island”. So Jillian and I opened the map and were looking at all the attractions on Ko Tao, and I kept saying, where is this Turtle Island, I want to see turtles. And I really hope there were tourists on this boat that could understand what we were saying and were laughing at us, because my scuba instructor later told me that Tao means turtle in Thai. Jillian and I burst out laughing when he told us. What stupid tourists we are. You would think that all the statues of turtles that we say before that that said “Ko Tao” on it would have made us realize.
Our first day in Ko Tao, we dove right into our scuba diving lessons. We have to watch these orientation videos that have really cheesey messages like, “Fact: Did you know that people who scuba dive have more fun than other people” and “Fact: Did you know scuba is spelled SCUBA”? Seriously, who are these videos targeted for? But we only have to watch 5 hours of these silly things, some classroom instructions, and four dives off Ko Tao with our instructor, and I am scuba certified for life!! Plus this certification program includes accommodations in the most adorable bungalow I have ever seen in my adult life. Much better than the backpackers dorm we were looking into, for about the same price! We’re in a little village of adorable bungalows, all with little front porches facing the walkway, and a two minute walk to the beach…not quite close enough to hear the waves which is just far enough to not have to hear the nighttime crowd.
The food here is rubbish (our scuba instructor is English, and having to listen to him for hours everyday is making us catch onto his expressions) and very westernized. A lot of coffee shops and bakerys, Italian, and Mexican. The Thai food has been okay. When I was in Bangkok, it was comparable to my dad’s. But here, it’s just lame. I actually feel like I’m in Hawaii. Noone really speaks Thai, its just a bunch of tourists looking to get scuba certified (guilty), and living an island life. Which is really great, especially if you have an adorable bungalow close to the beach with your best friends from college. But don’t be fooled, it’s not Thailand. We’re heading to Ko Pha Ngon after this scuba extravaganza to relax. Its supposedly much more desolate, minus the Full Moon Parties, which we (thankfully) just missed. By the way, I’m very impressed with how motorbikes can weave and basically follow no laws in Bangkok. Here, a lot of the people on motorbikes are not Thai, and really suck at this lawless thing. It’s much more scary walking along the sidewalks with white people on motorbikes. Who said Asians were bad drivers?
We had our first dive on Monday afternoon. Both Jillian and Kayleigh were having issues with their regulators trying to breathe underwater without having anxiety, and my body decided to (gentlemen, close your eyes) menstruate on the boat on the way to the dive (my poor instructor; he was in the middle of telling us how to prepare all our gear, and I’m running back and forth to the bathroom, trying to explain I was having a girl emergency. He gave me a blank, unconcerned look, which I mistakenly took for I should elaborate on what’s wrong, until he finally just barked, “okay, go!”) so we were not in the best of sorts.
4 dives later, we were scuba certified. Weird that it’s that easy. I am not certified to dive anywhere in the world as deep as 18 meters. Really?! So Jillian and I can go diving in Bali and New Zealand unsupervised. That sounds like a terrible idea, but very exciting and that is indeed what we intend to do. Diving was really cool though. Though we didn’t see any whale sharks or sea turtles, we saw plenty of parrotfish, moray eels, barracudas, sting rays, and other things I couldn’t really identify. My favorite part was watching the bubbles: we were with a few groups of divers, and would see them in the distance and their exhale bubbles floating up to the top in the crystal blue water was really amazing. But, after 3 days straight of scuba with only time for 6 hours of sleep in between, I’m pretty scuba-ed out. We had to get up this morning (Wednesday, Day 4) for a 6:00 AM dive. But then we had the rest of the afternoon off to sit on the beach, get some fruit smoothies, and check out the local shops.
We treated our diver instructor, Jimbo, to dinner tonight at a really nice seafood restaurant. It was probably the most expensive meal we’ve had to pay for, which was about $10 a plate for fresh barracuda, tuna steak and bubbles and squeak. Have you ever heard of bubbles and squeak?! It’s kind of the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of. It’s a British dish that uses leftover vegetables to make a vegetable mashed potato thing. It was pretty fantastic, more so than the tuna steak.
We’ve spent 3 days on this island, and though it really is one big tourist trap, it’s starting to grow on me. Even though three quarters of the island are European, and the Thai food is just okay, I do like just walking a half block to the beach, walking to diving class, going out all day on the boat to see some really great fish. I don’t know if I can handle anymore loud bars with American pop music. Tomorrow we leave for Ko Pha Ngan, supposedly a very quiet island that is infamous for the full moon party (basically an all night drug fest). Luckily we missed the full moon (it was a crappy night- too cloudy and rainy to see the moon!) so the island is left to the hermits and is a nice getaway for seclusion and beach bumming, which is what we intend to do.
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