Chinese New Year Vacation: Part 5, Koh Tao

We rode a ferry for a few hours, and again landed on a picturesque island.


Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Samui, and its inhabitants were much more laid back. It is known as a scuba diving destination, so instead of trying to hawk suits and souvenirs, most of the business revolved around diving and snorkeling expeditions.

We rode in the back of a pickup, and were scared by our first look at the Seashell Resort, where we were to lodge for the next 4 days. I have some advice for the resort's management: If you think its important to have a stagnant green cesspool on your property, you should locate it somewhere out of sight. Please do not put it on the driveway leading from the road to the reception desk.


For some reason, all of the ugliest parts of the resort were right by the entrance. When we got closer to the beach, though, our surroundings were much nicer.

Since my toe was hurt, Christine and I spent our afternoon exploring and relaxing instead of swimming. Longboats were a popular form of transportation on Koh Tao, and they were anchored everywhere along the beach. We were on the west side of the island, so we had a perfect view of the sunset every evening. The falling sun behind the longboats kept us busy with the camera.









We skipped the group dinner, even though they were having what looked and smelled like a delicious BBQ meal. We walked down the beach a little bit and found a restaurant with fresh fish displayed on ice in a small boat. We picked out a white and red snapper, and enjoyed grilled fish on the beach. They served the entire fish, but were helpful enough to cut out some of the guts first. With a baked potato, a small salad, and tasty Thai sauces, this ended up being one of our favorite meals.


After dinner, we met some of our tour mates to watch Mui Thai boxing, Thailand's national sport. There were 7 separate matches, scheduled for 5 rounds each, and they progressed in order of weight class. Each match started with a prayer ritual where the boxers would prostrate themselves in the middle of the ring and then walk in circles, stopping to pray in each corner. Some were more thorough than others.

The smaller guys were not as good at pacing themselves, and the first three matches were over before the third round when one of the two collapsed dramatically from exhaustion.

The bigger guys were slower, but they hit HARD.

There was an announcer speaking English who called the fights. He also acted as a middleman for 50:50 betting. It was easy to tell the favorite during some matches, because all of the bettors would be placing huge amounts of Bahts on one guy.


After the matches, we walked home. On the way we stopped to get "pancakes" from a street vendor. They were crepe like snacks filled with fruits and sauces. We enjoyed this late night snack many times over the course of the vacation.

The second day, we took an around the island snorkeling trip. We ditched our tour group again, even though they were taking the same trip. We opted to go on a small longboat rather than a big party boat. We ended up on a boat with a group of 4 other people, plus our driver. There was a couple from Scotland, who were on the last leg of a 6 month world tour, and a Czech couple, who were on a shorter vacation, like us. Our driver didn't speak much English, so he would just drive us to our spots and talk to us in Thai until we got the point.





I thought snorkeling was the coolest thing we did on the whole trip. The water was crystal clear, and we dove in and around beautiful coral formations. There were schools of curious fish, sea anemone, small shy fish, sea cucumbers, and some elusive Tiger sharks. There were zebra striped fish everywhere that had absolutely no fear. If you sat still for a second, inspecting the sea floor, you would look up to see one of these zebra fish staring you in the face. If you were still enough, they'd even start nibbling on you to see if you were edible.



We snorkeled at 4 different spots, and had lunch on the boat. The tour ended earlier than advertised, but by the time it was over Christine and I were both exhausted.

That night we ate the BBQ kebobs that we had missed out on the previous evening. At dinner, we met a British guy who had been teaching English in Viet Nam. We talked to him about teaching and traveling, and ended up going bar hopping with him after dinner. We were searching for our tour group, since it was Bob's birthday and he had planned on getting "pissed." We ended up running into them, and had a blast watching fire dancers and dancing like idiots on the beach.

Christine, Emma, Sinead, and Tar

We went with the group to a "castle party" that had been advertized on a big sign in the middle of town. It ended up just being a bar in a big house. We basically just arrived, paid cover, decided we were tired and too drunk, and went home.

Unfortunately, at some point during the festivities my camera kicked the bucket. So there might be a shortage of pictures up here until we get it fixed or replace it. Here is the last picture we were able to get:



We spent the rest of our time on the island just being bums. We did a lot of lounging and a lot of reading. Christine and I both agreed that Koh Tao was our favorite spot on the trip. I think it's the one place we would consider returning to.