Island Life on Koh Tao, Thailand

Well I know it has been a while since I have posted and let everyone know what's been going on. I feel though, that after being here for this long I can give a much better synopsis of the way life is on Koh Tao. I have also found it somewhat hard to convince myself to sit in front of a computer in a tropical paradise typing on a computer. The name Koh Tao means "turtle island" in Thai. There are two explanations for this, one being the shape of the island and the other being the number of turtles that used to lay eggs on its beaches. The island has alot to offer for the average vacationer to Thailand and for those of you who don't know, I haven't ONLY been hanging out on the beach or in the jungle surrounded by exotic fruit trees and tropical birds. I have been exploring the underwater jungle here too. I have finished my divemaster certification here and have a bit more than 100 dives logged. The divemaster level is the first level of professional diving where you basically handle logistics of a diveshop and also guide divers around a dive site. I took my time with it and felt the crunch of it more as I got ready to depart from Thailand. It was amazing how many people I met and all the different places people were from. My fellow divemasters-in-training and also the people getting there first level of certification all became instant friends and people to hang out with, not to mention I now have places all over Europe to stay. The dive sites here are real close to the main land, thus making diving here substantially cheaper than other places. The turtles, whale sharks (largest fish in the world), schools in the milllions, lack of currents, visibility to 120 feet, and lifestyle help to pull people here as well. There are several dive sites all around the island, which is only 12 mi^2, that offer ideal places to relax weightlessly in the water while watching fish curiously approach you. We do night dives frequently as well. During a night dive you go out at sunset and descend watching the colors streak across the sky. A flashlight helps you to see the true color of the coral that is lost with depth. Many new creatures come out at night as well including, stingrays, shrimp, crabs, and preying fish, my favorite being the barracuda. It is always a barrel of monkeys when you see a barracuda because they use your light to hunt. If you shine it on a smaller fish, the barracuda sees it and will sometimes chomp a fish in half, right before your eyes. The best way to finish the dive is ascending to a sky littered with stars. Being on a tiny island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand does not put much light in the sky, making stars come out of everywhere. It is quite an amazing experience. I spend my time out of the water relaxing on the beach. We sometimes get together games of football, frisbee, and even the occasional mini golf that is on the island. I only saw rain once in the two and a half months I was there, that is until about a week or two ago. The rainy season is just starting up and it rained for 14 out of 15 days near the end of my time. Thank God I got a couple of sunny days in the end though. It was also nice to have it cool down a bit. The days were getting hotter and hotter. I never wore a shirt as doing so would just make it sweaty and dirty, not to mention I was always working on my tan. Nights there are something else. There are two main beaches on the island, Mae Haad and Sairee. Mae Haad, where I lived in a series of little bungalows, is more the local scene and also where my dive shop was. Sairee is the touristy area, but also home to the night life. The bars are right on the beach. Little padded mats and small tables are laid on the sand facing the ocean. Palm trees jetting out at unbelievable angles are a beautiful foreground to the thousands of stars in the sky. Tiki torches are set up in a ring where firedancers compete and try not to burn themselves. Frequently, people will set off fireworks over the water to everyones surprise. Wish candles are also used on the beach. These are wooden framed, cloth boxes where a candle is lit under it. It fills up with heat and rises above the crowds, drifting off to join the stars. If you have seen the movie The Beach with Leonardo Dicaprio, you might know what I'm talking about. All in all it is a very relaxed atmosphere, as you might be able to imagine. There are hundreds of stray dogs on the island. While I have seen my fair share of stray dogs before, these are different. You barely see any skinny, malnourished, or injured dogs. There is a good veterinarian on the island, but I think that it is mainly due to the farangs (thai for foreigners) feeding them and treating them well. Most people kind of "adopt" a dog when they come to the island for awhile. The dogs here are all happy as well. They don't bite, chase, or growl. They hang out on the beach at night and in the town during the day. It is quite strange, but these dogs are the pickiest dogs ever. I have tried to feed them on several occasions with food that any dog in America would chow down without hesitation, but they don't. The only thing they spend there time on is meat. I have, however, gotten ONE dog to eat a piece of bread, who knows how. I have picked up on a good bit of Thai. I can say almost any number from 1-10,000 and alot of phrases useful for bargaining and ordering food ("Can you lower the price a little?", "I would like...", "How are you?"). The Thai language has five different tones in it that make it extremely hard to learn. One word can have five different meanings depending on how you say it. I expected to pick up more, but when everyone speaks English, it is hard to rely on Thai. I of course can not leave out something on the Thai food. I think I have tried every single Thai dish in Southern Thailand. The tastes are out of this world and leave you wanting more and more. I only ate Western food about 10 times. My favorites so far have been massaman curry, red thai curry, tom yum, sweet chili basil, pananeng curry, pad thai, fried yellow noodles, and pretty much anything. I generally have to ask for it "pet pet" (meaning spicy, spicy) because they tend to dull the dishes down for the farangs. I have built up quite a spicy threshold to say the least. These dishes are almost always served with rice and eaten with a spoon, not a fork. This is a reminder that if you go to a Thai restaurant, eat with the spoon and use the fork as we use the knife, shoveling food on to your spoon. People mainly get around by walking, but quite a few people have motorbikes. They are more like scooters actually. It is quite a dangerous activity though because the roads are so bad. Sand and potholes plague the road, waiting for farangs on vacation to shoot past. Anytime you see someone with a bandage or wound, you know exactly what happened. I can't lie though, I was in a little one. While all I got was a scratch on my foot, getting into the water everyday did not allow it to heal quickly. Going down to 30 meters with 4 atms of pressure on me proved disastrous for waterproof bandages so it took quite a while to heal. I learned my lesson though and barely rode on them after. I could keep going on and on for ages about the wonderful island of Koh Tao, but what would we talk about when I get home? Thus, this will have to do for now. In case you are wondering where I am now, I am currently headed to Laos for a couple of weeks with a guy I did my divemaster with. He is a very energetic guy from Bristol, England who I get along great with. I had to change my flight out of Bangkok so my itinerary I put up is not accurate right now. I will be leaving out of Bangkok on the 28th of May and will hopefully have some more updates for you by then. Till that time...