Bonjour-Mundo!

That’s right folks, it’s said you’re supposed to do something everyday that scares you, so for a day in Ko Tao, I did exactly that. Swam with the sharks!

As I said in the previous post, Ko Tao is known for having some of the best diving in all south east asia, and Em and I decided to experience what it had to offer. Since neither of us have our PADI certification, we were only able to snorkle, but it was well worth it. (PS, if you ever want to get certified, and have a few days, I’d recommend Ko Tao. The island has mountains upon moutains of scuba certification schools, apparently dirt cheap compared to what they are in the states. If we had had more time, I might have done it.)

We booked ourselves for a day long snorkle trip through a store around the block from our hostel. It picked us up in the morning and we didn’t get back until late afternoon. In the trip we got to see all around the island, and were dropped off to snorkel in about 6 or 7 different bays, it was awesome. The fish and the coral were absolutely breathtaking. So many millions of colors, shapes and sized. The water was crystal clear, it was almost as if you were floating on top of an aquarium…which I suppose in a way you really are. You could reach out and almost touch them. Bright yellow, electric neon colors, some that one girl described as rainbow sherbert, all sorts of different colors mixed together. Big ones, small ones, thousands of little ones in a school forming all sorts of shapes as they moved, I swear it looked to be right out of a movie like Finding Nemo. Little shiny ones that looked like a downpour of silver confettii. I was endlessly impressed. At the end of the day we also visited a little collection of three islets, now used primarily as a dive resort. Also really stunning.

And, yes, in one of the bays, black tip reef sharks! I was pretty scared to jump in, but once I actually saw one, I found myself wanting to follow it all through the reef. The bay the sharks were in was quite deep, the sharks swimming down on the bottom and snorkelers floating on the top. The sharks didn’t even pay us any notice. Oh, and just so you all don’t think I’m really super brave…they were little ones, of the three I saw, the biggest might have been about 3 feet, but hey, they’re still sharks!

Sorry it’s been quite awhile since I’ve checked in to update the blog…but now that internet is free, I’ve got a bit of a chance to catch things up. Oh, and for some reason this hostel has macs, and it won’t let me update the maps, so I’ll get to that as soon as I get a pc.

Anyhow, our time in the south of Thailand is fantastic. We had contemplated not even heading to the islands as we had it heard the weather would be bad, but we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies for our entire week, it was awesome. The only day it was semi cloudy we were snorkeling, so it was probably for the best that we didn’t get completely baked.

After our week on two different islands, I’ve one piece of advice for anyone planning a trip to Hawaii, spend the extra few hundred on airfare and book your trip to thailand! What you spend extra on the plane you will make up in amazing beaches that you will have almost entirely to yourself and beachside private bungalows for around 4-8 dollars a night. Your toilet may not be of the flushing variety and your bungalow might come with mosquito net and there likely won’t be a hot shower…but do you need one when it’s a million degrees outside and you’re sunburned?

Em and I first made our way to Ko Phan-Ngan, the middle of the three islands on the Gulf Coast. Yes, it is the infamous island that hosts full moon parties, but we were far, far on the opposite side of the island from Hat Rin, where those parties are. (And there was no full moon when we were there.) Our beach, on of a couple of twin beaches, was called Thong Nai Pan Yai. It was gorgeous. It required an hour long bumpy ride through dirt roads in the back of a pickup to get there, but it was well worth it. Very secluded and undeveloped…no high rise concrete here, (in fact there was no high rise beach resorts anywhere on either island we were on, thank goodness), it was just beachside bungalows, a few hamocs, and white sand beach. We were probably about two out of 20-30 or so that were staying there. During the afternoon just a handful of people were out. The beaches go back into green hillsides covered in palm trees. Rocky outcropping jut into the sea. It was beautiful. The only downfall was our beach faced neither sunrise or sunset.

Thong Nai Pan beaches (Yai and Noi) are both located in little bays, so the water was completely still, just a small tide rolling in. It was wonderful for swimming, but lacked the sound of crashing sea that I love about the ocean. It was also great to run along in the evening once the heat broke.

The second part of our beach trip brought us to the island of Ko Tao, the smallest island of the trio, farthest north. Again, the weather held out and was great. Ko Tao has a few better roads then Phan-Ngan, so it made it easier for Em and I to walk around. We stayed on a beach that was a bit busier, but a 10 minute walk up the road led to a beautiful secluded beach called Ao Thian. A little odd to get to as the sign in front says private property (we first got there by mistake going up the road to far then climbing over a bunch of rocks to get back), but then as you turn the corner there is another sign that says private, directly behind which is a sign that says vistors welcome! this way to the beach. Hmm, ok. So we went, as we didn’t discover it was private until we had climbed over the rocks anyhow. The beach was full of gorgeous white sand, lots of swaying palm trees, bushes for shade, and crystal clear blue water. Still in a bay, so calm like the other beach, but coral formations fairly close to the shore kept us from doing much swimming. Ko Tao is known as one of South East Asia’s best dive sites, so in the next entry, I’ll tell you all about our experiences with that. But when we weren’t diving, lots of relaxing, reading, and just enjoying the amazing scenary were our agenda for the day.

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