Christmas on Koh Tao

From about half way down the mainland of the Thai peninsula we took a 'fast cat' ferry for the 75km ride to the tropical island of Koh Tao (21 sq km in size). The 90 minute ride turned into 3 hrs thanks to some wave action that sent not a few passengers over the side with plastic bags. Luckily Lori and I, the old salty dogs that we are managed to avoid that most embarrassing fate!

So this was Christmas eve and it truly is a weird experience to see some resorts trying to do their best of Christmas celebrations and lights in such a tropical environment. In the end you need to be with a community of family and friends to really get into the Christmas spirit and so the day passed rather uneventfully for us. We even avoided the Christmas dinner...turkey and stuffing just seem too out of place here, so we opted for BBQ fish served at tables on the beach at low tide. I think I could get into this kind of dining more often!

So on first landing, we stayed in a simple room in the resort laden stretch of the main beach. The resorts are shoulder to shoulder and it is crowded. At high tide, the water laps up to the edge of the resort front restaurants as shown below. It is very relaxing to eat lounging at a table with this as your view!



By the way, I should mention that I brought along a little pocket PC and it has a few games loaded on it. This has saved my butt a few times by distracting Lori when she is getting a little cranky from long bus rides or from just putting up with this husband of hers 24x7!.

But kidding aside...one of the games on it is chess and she is becoming quite the little chess player. She has now beaten me once and in the current game has me on the ropes again. You can see her below crouched over the little machine scheming her next move!.


The next day we rented a scooter to check out other parts of this very hilly island and came up with a new place to stay. The "OK Bungalows". Very simple cabins built on a rocky shore at the edge of a quiet bay, with the waves washing around rocks below and snorkelling steps from our front door. Here's the view from the veranda of our simple little cabin.



And the view from another angle through the window as taken from bed...

OK, that's all the photos of Koh Tao for now...in fact we have had mostly overcast and some rain in the 3 days we've been here so it hasn't appeared the most photogenic.

Today is relax, read, internet day and we have to decide whether we want to enroll in a 3.5 day diving course. This is what this island is famous for...apparently the 2nd most diving certifications of any place in the world are done here. But after a couple of snorkelling sessions off the beach I 'd say the water visibility doesn't seem that great...i think because they are on the tail end of the windy, rainy season and the water is still kind of stirred up. Also if its not going to get sunny anytime soon, then perhaps we should wait to do any diving until both these 2 conditions improve.

Well, we are pretty lucky when these are the only things we have to worry about.

Hope that winter isn't treating any of you too harshly back up there in the northern hemisphere. That's all for now.

John and Lori

Return to Thailand

Well, let's just say the bus trip to the Thai-Cambodia border became a Toyota Camry taxi barreling down mostly dirt highway in record time - incredible!



Upon arrival in Bangkok, we returned to our old stomping grounds at Kao San road. Things had a different feel from one month prior and the taxi drivers did not seem to be in the mood for bargaining even though they were starting much higher than we had paid one month ago. Things were still hopping though and the low prices for food and guest houses were still great!

Well, after our one-nighter in Bangkok, we hit the bus station to head south for the ocean, sandy beaches, islands, and fresh seafood. Let's just say, it was a pretty easy mark :) Upon arrival at our first stop down the peninsula, we booked 2 nights at a very modern, comfortable guest house.

We walked through the night market our first night and there weren't really any other white people to be seen - one Thai couple noticed we were examining locals sweets but that we had no idea what they were. The woman let us sample hers - it is made from fig that has been mashed into a pulp, along with other additives such as coconut as well as a fruit - they make several varieties. Its the best childrens treat because its sweet, made with fruit, is stretchy like taffy but without the sticky mess....yummy! So we purchased 2 types - we have only managed to finish

off one so far.

The following day, we rented a motorbike to set out on a great day of sightseeing and sampling local fare....which included fish, of course. It was very tasty. I am learning to eat fish in a way I never thought I would simply by watching and learning from John ;)

So after 2 days, we hop the bus yet again and head further south to Chumphon to catch a ferry to Koh Tao island......

Angkor Wat

This is an almost magical world of dozens of old abandoned temples spread out over miles and miles. It almost seems like a magic wonderland it's so other worldly. Ever succeeding rulers between 900 and 1300 AD seemed to need to make his own and make it bigger. Angkor Wat is the largest and the tag line says it's the largest religious building in the world. Now I believe!

It turns out that over the last decades a lot of restoration work has occurred both in putting tumbled down walls and moats back together as well as clearing away 800 years of jungle growth. One particular temple they left in its original found state with the most enormous trees growing out of the walls etc. It was a great idea to do that as that place in particular has a most out of this world atmosphere. I won't say too much else as it is a place mostly for pictures.

As for the town of Siem Riep a few km away...well, I don't think a boomtown in a gold rush would have compared to this. Hotels and guesthouses going up everywhere, new concrete buildings nestled among old shacks in many places, and the center of town such a tourist mecca that you wonder if you aren't in some kind of disneyland. You certainly don't know that you are in Cambodia!. Western everything at western prices. Come here for the temples but not for the town! You are left with a feeling again like someone is making a lot of money somewhere, meanwhile a lot of other people are making slave wages and one has a little bit of an uneasy feeling about being a participant in the whole process.

We have another day or two here to get ourselves all 'templed out' and then the plan is to get ourselves back into Thailand and head for some ocean. All we have to do now is figure out how to do that!