Rain, Rain Go Away

On our last evening in Koh Tao Russ, Lee-Anne, and Renee went to a lovely hill top restaurant with a lovely view of the west side of the island. After a wonderfully filling meal of garlicky Mackerel we went to a festival. The night before we heard a huge party going on, also, we heard about a festival that was coming, but due to most bars having raging parties every night we didn’t put the two together. A person from the dive shop told us we should check out the Save Koh Tao eco-festival. After dinner the three of us, minus Scott since he had an upset stomach, thought we’d check out what all the fuss was about. It was a full-on festival, with loads of food, drinks, two stages, Thai rat betting races, and really great display of information about ecological efforts to preserve sea life around the island.


Technically it’s supposed to be dry season in Thailand until May…not the past few days. Our ferryboat to leave Koh Tao on Sunday morning was 2.5 hours late. We saw ragged, pale travelers getting off the boat saying it was the worst boat trip ever. Standing and waiting to jump on the boat, someone in charge said, “The boat is cancelled due to bad weather.” At that very moment, and not a second later, the sky open up with a downpour in a characteristically theatrical sad-part-of-a-movie way. “REALLY?!” Fortunately, we eventually found a boat that was to leave several hours later and it was the last ferry out of Koh Tao – all the other ferries were cancelled due to the weather. Of course it was delayed, and they gave out Dramamine and barf bags when we got our tickets, but we got on board and away we went for a 3-hour torrid ride through the 12-foot swells. Russ put a short movie on youtube about our difficult voyage. Click here to see it.

We made it to Koh Samui to our beautiful flooded resort; I don’t think they intended to have an infinity pool. We made the most of the situation and went ahead with plans to celebrate Scott’s birthday by going to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian meat lover’s paradise. Lee-Anne was happy to see they had several seafood options. They also had beautiful Brazilian dancers (who may not have actually been Brazilian) who playfully beckoned us to dance with them. Which made everyone happy.

Monday, today, we are calling Monsoon Monday. We were suppose to catch our flight to Bangkok then to Chaing Mai. Before we got to the airport we knew that it was going to be delayed, but for only 2 hours and we got another flight to Chaing Mai to make up for the difference. Not to get too excited though our delayed time came and went, other flights to BKK were cancelled, more planes delayed and the rain fell. Sure enough our flight was cancelled too. No flights out for two days, most were already booked. We scrambled to change flights, hotels, get new accommodations, and our luggage. I know that I, Lee-Anne, felt utterly defeated at that moment. However, just as quickly as the tides change from bad to worse, they can change back again. We were able to get a beautiful hotel near the airport on high ground, important with all of the flooding on the island. In fact, it has been declared a disaster zone in five Thailand regions including Koh Samui, the island we are stuck on. One of the five regions had it’s worst flooding in 30 years. Click here to read more about the flooding.

The past several days, it’s rained on and off. However today the rain started at 8am and has not stopped for over 13 hours. This is INSANE!! Man we hope we’ll be able to escape the island (& our hotel room) soon!

Koh Tao – nearing our end on Turtle Island

It’s our last full day here on the beautiful island of Koh Tao. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday scuba diving during which time…Scott, Renee, and Russ completed their open water scuba diving certification. Thursday we went to Nangyuan island--a private island owed by the Japanese person that runs the boat ferries between the three main islands here. The beaches look straight out of a postcard, with its land bar connecting three small islands. The resort island had the best coconut shake ever and great snorkeling.

We’ll now describe Russ’ most memorable moment scuba diving, but first let us preface the story with a little information. On the ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Tao, we met this really nice Canadian scuba instructor, named Kent, and we asked him “What dangerous fish/sharks do we need to be careful of while we scuba dive in Koh Tao?” He said Triggerfish pose the most danger to scuba divers--more so than the docile native spotted whale sharks. They are territorial fish (several feet in size) that will viciously swim at you and could bite you when you’re in their cone-shaped territory.
On the first dive of our scuba certification, Russ, Scott and Renee finished the skills training and went exploring. In the distance, we saw a large and colorful fish (~2ft tall & ~3ft long) then noticed the dive instructor looking back at us and made a hand signal in the shape of a gun followed by a sign of biting. Renee and I concluded the large fish we saw was a dangerous Triggerfish and swam away from it. I looked back to view the fish and see where Scott and Renee were. I noticed Scott swimming towards the big fish and he gave me a signal to look at the fish as he pointed to it. I immediately signaled back “No, come here”. Apparently he never saw the dive instructor’s signals and he signaled back to me with another “look” signal and pointed to the Triggerfish. He swam within 10 ft of the Triggerfish then as he started turning back…he triggered the aggressive fish. Suddenly the large Triggerfish started swimming directly at Scott with his large mouth (about the size of my hand) chomping up and down. (At this point Scott had turned around and had no idea what was about to attack him). The massive Triggerfish (it was the largest Triggerfish our instructor had ever seen) reaches Scott and bit down on his fin. Startled, Scott turns towards the fish to see this huge fish with his mouth open and its characteristic big teeth swimming toward him. Instantly, Scott swam and kicked as hard he could to escape the attacking fish. The fish kept charging but he did a great job of keeping his fins between him and the fish. Russ soon realized that Scott and the aggressive, attacking fish were getting closer to him too so he started swimming quickly away too. Finally, after about 15 seconds the Triggerfish finally chased Scott out of it’s territory and swam away. Fortunately, Scott wasn’t hurt in this incident but afterwards we’ve heard about other Triggerfish attack to the point of causing stitches to a diver’s head. After that incident no one strayed away from the dive instructor. However, the next day on our navigational dive training Renee was leading us and accidently triggered a Triggerfish without her even being aware of it’s occurrence; she kept navigating the dive while Scott heart stopped when he saw the fish swimming towards his sweetie.

Most of the non-natives we come across here seem to be 20 something backpackers. We’re right on the cusp of being too old and it appears most bars & nightlife cater to the young backbacker crowd. Our private villa (located a short 10 min walk from the beach) is the perfect location for us. It’s not the summer camp vibe of the bungalows near the beach but it also isn’t the all-inclusive older crowd. We’ve enjoyed lounging around and taking early morning dips in our private little pool.

Friday Russ and Lee-Anne embarked on one last dive session (consisting of two dives), but our first fun dive together. The dive resort, Big Blue, was going to one of the most revered dive spots, Champhon, which was our favorite Koh Tao dive site. With its diversity of fish, and known for big fish around Barracuda rock, no wonder we saw endless species of fish. Lee-Anne’s favorite fish she saw was a large, 3-foot long porcupine puffer. It was like being in a large tropical fish tank! Lee-Anne especially loved rolling upside down to look up at the schools of fish reflecting the sunlight. The second and last dive our morning dive session, took us to White Rock, another beautiful sight where we saw blue spotted stingrays, a diver filming a Triggerfish, and so much more. Once we surfaced…it was sprinkling…and a few minutes later we were on the boat and a downpour started. It made for a slow, wet boat ride back to shore.

The first few days on the island were hot and sunny! (a bit too hot for Russ) However, the last few days have been filled with occasional rain, downpours, and a few thunderstorms. We now know what torrential rain is like. While Russ and Lee-Anne were on the scuba boat, the roof at our villa started leaking. They also were amazed to see the road in front of our villa turn into a fast moving river due to the flash flooding. Utter downpour all day we played cards (San Juan); in the late afternoon we went for massages, then food and games (free pool, air hockey, & foosball) at the Simple Life restaurant & bar.

Today the weather has eased a bit but could change at any moment. We are lazily spending our day reading by the pool (and blogging) with an occasional food break or to make another cocktail.
Tomorrow we spend one night in Koh Samui before heading to the health spa in Chaing Mai.

One Night in Bangkok…

…and the world’s our oyster. That was the theme song of our one night stay in Bangkok. Our flights from SFO to Bangkok went well with one exception. The chairs on the Cathay Airline flight to Hong Kong wouldn’t recline. This made sleeping a bit difficult. After Scott elbowed Russ to stop squirming around next to him in his seat, he decided it was morning and time to watch a movie. Fortunately Scott is forgiving and we landed in Bangkok with excitement and smiles. Bangkok’s airport is the self -proclaimed airport of smiles, and has many beautiful gardens.

With less than 24 hours in Bangkok we made it to our hotel, the Sleep Withinn, which was located one block from the famous Khoa San Road. It was right across the street from the first hotel Lee-Anne ever stayed in Bangkok (it's Lee-Anne’s third time and Russ’ second time in Thailand). Lee-Anne and Russ happily reacquainting themselves with the familiar sights, smells, and noises of Bangkok while Scott and Renee were enjoying – for the first time - the many wonderful sights and cultural aspects of Thailand’s capital city. Lee-Anne noted that it is like sharing her childhood home with her friends. We took a scenic stroll around the neighborhood (the university, outside of the royal palace, and the amulet market) We made a few purchases before treating ourselves to a Thai and Foot massages before passing out after a long couple of days.


Koh Samui and the Full Moon party

The next morning we were off to the islands of Thailand; Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Going to the beautiful, paradise-like, islands of Thailand was the main purpose of this trip. Our resort on Koh Samui was perfect…it had an awesome infinity pool (w/ swim up bar) and lounge chairs on a beautiful, white sand beach. We spent the whole day enjoying the warm ocean waves, sunshine, tropical drinks, and our companions. During our short one night stay on Koh Samui we only left our resort once…and that was to take a trip to the island of Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon party.

Since leaving San Francisco, Scott (a DJ), was really excited about visiting the famous full moon party. Fortunately for us, there was a taxi & speedboat service that took us from our hotel to the party for an evening of mayhem. The party was filled with people from around the world wearing bright neon colored clothes and covered in bright neon body-paint. Liquor was bountiful and supplied by what appeared as hundreds of small vendors selling small drink buckets filled with a mixture of booze, fruit juice, and Thai red bull. The beachside bars were surrounded by huge groups of dancers, frolicking away to music blasted by DJs and huge sound systems. Lee-Anne had been to the Full Moon party 9 years ago. The things that are different: more alcohol, more people, bigger sound systems, fire jump rope (for any drunk fool to jump in to), a clean-up crew (although severely outnumbered by tourists), and more expensive drinks. Scott enjoy shining a new powerful laser all around the party which he had purchased the day before on Khoa San Road. The cacophony of sights and sounds reminded us of the esplande at burningman. As the night went on, the drunken crowd became more obnoxious and more packed so we headed home around 1am.


Koh Tao

The next day we embarked on a ferry to our next destination for a week on the island of Koh Tao, or Turtle Island. We rented a private two-bedroom villa (http://www.kohtaoindigo.com/) that’s a short ten minute walk from Koh Tao’s Sawadee village and beach. Our villa is surrounded by beautiful, tropical vegetation and wildlife consisting of colorful birds & butterflies, geckos & lizards, and buzzing cicada. While here…we’ve been enjoying relaxing by our pool, walks along the beach, and inexpensive Thai massages. One of our highlights has been eating at restaurants on the beach, which have low tables where we sit bare-foot on cushions and enjoy paradise.


Tomorrow we will scuba dive in Koh Tao. Lee-Anne is already certified while Russ, Renee, and Scott will become open water certified scuba divers.