Following the Dream

Christian December 2nd, 2008

     The flight to Ko Samui was great.  Bangkok Airways fed us snacks while we waited for boarding and fed us a meal on our forty minute flight.  It was a breath of fresh air from all of the super budget airlines we have been flying, while still cheap at $50.  As we decended through the dark clouds, our hopes for good weather were slowly dwindling.  On the ground we were told that the cheaper minibus option was not available and that we would have to fork over 500 baht (around $15) for a fifteen minute taxi ride.  In Thailand, that fare is just crazy so we proceeded to try and walk from the airport towards our bungalows and catch a cab on the way. 

Unfortunately, the airport sits back from the main road and it would have been a muddy messy long walk to the main road.  As we were walking out we were approached by another airport cab rep telling us a little cheaper rate, but that it was not negiotable.  We continued to walk, then a third guy got us right before we exited, offering a lower more resonable rate, about half of the original fare.  This was still outrageous, but the roads in the rainy season are typically a mess anywhere so we took the deal.  It was a 15-20 minute ride to the fisherman village of Bo Phut, where we had heard of the Cactus Bungalows.  We decided to give them a try and are glad we did, for 400 baht ($11) we got a private bungalow with a private bath and wifi right on the beach.  The only problem was the weather.  It was raining on and off.  We searched the web for the weather and it did not look positive, the monsoon that was passing through was only to get worse over the next week, with the reports urging small boats to stay docked and large ones to be very careful.  We decided that it was not worth staying long on a rainy island when we would not enjoy ourselves, so we booked the ferry to Ko Tao the next day, so that we could at least go scuba diving.  We walked down the main street of the town and took in some of the views around our place.  We thought to ourselves, that Ko Samui would be a beautiful place to be with the weather on your side.  We enjoyed some dinner at the restaurant, watched some Scrubs on the laptop and packed up hoping for at least a little better weather in Ko Tao, 60 km north of Ko Samui.
    The ferry ride to Ko Tao was pretty rough, with the high speed Lomprayah catarmaran bobbing side to side in the eight foot waves.  There were two workers that were assigned to handing out barf bags to people on the ferry.  Luckily, Casey and I took some seasick medicine, because I estimate there was at least one person in each row was vomiting by the end.  By the time we reached Ko Tao, we were ready to get off the ferry.  We were greeted  by a free pickup truck to Big Blue Diving, the resort that we were planning on staying and diving with.  We got a room for 200 baht ($5.70) a night and signed up for diving the next morning.  Ko Tao had a good vibe to it and the rain had retreated a bit.  We walked around the area we were staying in, Sairee Beach, and even had time to fit in time for an afternoon nap.  The place definitly caters to tourists, with a few western food restaurants, and an insane amount of bungalows/guesthouses.  We had an early night since we had to be getting ready for our dive by 6:30am.
     At 6:30, we met up with the rest of the divers and got all of our gear and headed out for the boat.  Our first dive was scheduled to be Chumporn Pinnacle, the premier dive site of Ko Tao.  However, the waves were big so there was a chance we were not going to be able to make it all the way out to it.  Luckily our one legged captain was up to the challenge.  When we got to the dive site, the six foot waves made the boat sway back and forth as we were trying to assemble our dive gear for the dive.  With the wind gusting and the waves plowing past us, it was a bit nerve racking to leave the security of the boat and jump into the ocean.  Once we were out in the water with our BCDs inflated, it was not all that bad.  It was a short surface swim to the buoy line where we would decend into the depths of the murky water.  By the time we reached the maximum depth of the dive at 90 feet you could only see 15 feet in front of you.  Although the conditions were terrible, we did see a lot on the dive.  We saw four sharks, including a bull shark, tons of aneomes and clownfish, huge tuna, and a few barracuda.  If the conditions were better, it probably would have rated as one of our top dives so far, at least the murky water added a bit of ambiance to the sharks, giving a very creepy vibe.  Getting back on a boat in waves is not very fun.  The slippery metal ladder that you need to climb up goes from submerged to five feet out of the water when the waves pass by.  Wrong timing would equal a metal ladder in the face, which I can’t imagine would be that fun.  Once on the ladder, you have to pull yourself and the 60 pounds or so of equipment onto the boat while it is still moving up and down with the waves.  It was exciting.  We were very dissapointed when they took us to the second dive site that had what seemed every other boat from Ko Tao at it, especially when there was another dive site a minute away.  The Divemaster picked a spot for us to decend 300 feet from where we were anchored to another boat.  The surface swim was not fun, and seemed pointless.  Once down, the water was still murky and there was not much to see.  The site seemed dived out with much of the coral dead.  One of the dive masters in training had to stick to the shop’s tradition and completed his 100th dive completely naked.  He was lucky no fish we feeling especially hungry that day.  The dive lasted 63 minutes and seemed to drag on forever, with not much to be seen.  Once on board we headed back to the island to clean our gear.  Casey and I headed out for lunch and decided to leave the next day as it began to drizzle.  I took a few naps that rainy day.  We did splurge on a good dinner at a pub called Choppers, eating some good chicken dinners and having a few drinks.  Shortly after we got back, the drizzle turned into buckets of rain that did not stop.  We were happy we decided to leave early as the rain continued all through the night.  Going to Ko Samui and Ko Tao during a monsoon definitely dampened our experience there and we are pretty sure it would have been much better without all of the rain.  Both seem very relaxed and maybe someday we will make it back when the sun is shining, but for now it is time to kiss the rain goodbye and head up North for close encounters with some animals.  Update: We are stuck in Bangkok due to protesters shutting down the airport.  It looks like we will be stuck in Thailand until December 8th.

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