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On The Trail Of The Pink Dolphin

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Boats Before The Rain

I’m taking the night boat to Surat Thani.

After almost a week Koh Tao has grown stale on me, not to mention crowded. I miss being the only farang in town, so I’m off to chase marine mammals. In particular, the Lonely Planet mentions a ‘breed’ of pink dolphins that can be watched from the pier of a small town not far from here. They could be Orcaella brevirostis or Susa chinensis, both of which often have pink/albino individuals, but I can’t find out anything more about them. I’ll have to go and see for myself.

Don’t expect daily updates. I may be some time.

Posted in SE Asia, Travel, Whale watching | 2 Comments »

Koh Tao: High And Dizzy

Monday, January 4th, 2010

If you want to get high and dizzy on Koh Tao, go and see Ken from the Flying Trapeze Adventure right next to the Davey Jones’ Locker bar.

Now how cool is that?

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Koh Tao: Watch Your Step!

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Toe Trap

This place is a death trap for toes. Loose planks project from decking and bungalow floors, pointing their lethal tips at your delicate pinky as you step over them. Treacherous mounds of concrete rise from the pavement, threatening to rip off your flip-flops and causing a painful stumble. Away from the roads, the landscape is strewn with boulders which make for great climbing but may have to be scaled by the drunk or inept in their way up to a view point. And on Koh Nangyuang the connecting beach has been covered by a string of blue plastic floats that wobble and grind against each other as people stumble over it, making them stagger as if they had too many ‘big Chang’. The gaps opening and closing between them are just wide enough to macerate your big toe if you don’t watch your step.

And then there are the sea urchins. Barely visible in the stirred sediment at less than an arm’s depth, they await the tender soles of your feet.

Urchin City

Booties are in order!

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Koh Tao: Watch Your Step!

Koh Tao: Snorkel Trip

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Mango Bay Snorkeling
Koh Tao is the world’s dive kindergarten (and university), but for pristine snorkelling stick to the Red Sea.

Mind, you might just come across a whale shark. It happened when John cancelled his first trip so that we could go and buy him a wetsuit. The group spent the entire dive at 5m, tracking a majestic whale shark for over half an hour…

Koh Nanggyuan
All the snorkel boats, some dive boats and even the odd speed ferry from Koh Samui land at Koh Nangyuan, but it isn’t worth it. The place is overrun and in dire need of a clean-up. Snorkellers aren’t allowed to bring their fins, and with the bag in tow I couldn’t get out to look at the Japanese Garden. Everybody who steps ashore pays a 100 baht landing fee—which is steep even by international standards and makes me wonder where the money goes. Not towards cleaning up the drifting fishing nets and plastic bags, that’s for sure.

Mind, the viewpoint is worth the climb (and the queues). And I didn’t need to fork out 50 baht for a shower as the rain lashed down while we were waiting on the pier.
Viewpoint

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Koh Tao: Snorkel Trip

To The Arsehole Who Stole My Shoes:

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Heartfelt Sign At A Koh Tao Roadside Bar

It is extremely rude to leave someone to walk through raw sewage and step around broken glass. Thankfully the streets were swept and I didn’t stub my toes and drew blood or —believe me—I would have cut off yours.

I had my backpack stolen in the past, my sleeping bag, my cash and about everything else. But to steal someone’s flip-flops is beneath even the most common thief.

Of course mistakes happen, especially during the craziness of the New Year celebrations. They did—which is why I stowed my shoes underneath the damn shelf this time. You had to dig for them.

May you feet rot away.

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on To The Arsehole Who Stole My Shoes:

Diving in Koh Tao

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

getting ready to dive!

Now there is a surprise!

I had expected the Koh Samui party crowd, the German package travellers and the Americans doggedly working their way through the various PADI courses once they find that it takes more than an open water certificate to go on a wreck dive (or indeed any dive deeper than 18m).

What I hadn’t expected was all that and a dive scene which would give the likes of Clare and Ken plenty to do. The man who greeted us has trained with the Royal Marines and his buddies aren’t bad either.

Needless to say, John has bagged himself a BSAC instructor (at a neighbouring centre) and is currently involved in a one-to-one, brushing up his theory. Who knows, he may even get a few boxes ticked for his dive-leader training.

Not bad, for a man with over 70 unlogged dives…

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Diving in Koh Tao

Heavenly Coral Spawning

Friday, January 1st, 2010

New Year Lanterns

For the first time in thirty years, the full moon shone on New Year’s Eve. I bet Koh Samui went crazy. We didn’t go there, because there was plenty of excitement to be had right here on Koh Tao, the Turtle Island, where John is at long last getting his diving record set straight (but that is another story).

The soft white sand lay semi-fluorescent in the moonlight. A lantern rose into the sky, as smooth and serene as a passing whaleshark. It was soon followed by another. All along the beach, people were releasing lanterns. It looked like heavenly coral spawning.

We had left the loud music behind. Rap and house and—so help us—cheesy Eighties disco. Will we never live down that decade? But out here it was relatively quiet. We sat and sipped our drinks and didn’t notice when the last of the farang left the bar because we weren’t sitting on the terrace. A few tables had been set up on the beach and now the bar owner’s family were adding more. They all sat down to dinner, the children wide-eyed with wonder as fireworks exploded against the backdrop of the twinkling lanterns.

“We should get out,” I said just as a little boy stared at us, holding his glass of coke in both hands. John grinned and lifted his mango shake and soon we were engaged in a game of cheers, putting the drinks on our heads before sipping. The boy needed a re-fill of coke and his older relatives cheered and wished us a happy new year.

It was just after ten o’clock. Apparently no-one had the patience to wait until midnight as another set of fireworks exploded. When midnight was finally announced (two minutes early), I thought that things couldn’t get any more frantic, but they did. Thai and farang gathered together to light the largest lantern yet—it needed a dozen people to hold it. It floated into the sky: one last gamete, carrying with it the promises of a new decade.

The Biggest One Yet!

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Heavenly Coral Spawning

Aggro Veg

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

The vegetation around here is the most aggressive I have yet experienced. I’m being dive-bombed by giant leaves and hard fruit. OK, the latter may be aided by birds or squirrels, but it’s only a question of time until a coconut falls on my head…

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Aggro Veg

“Tuk-Tuk only 30 baht!”

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

In Bangkok, a lot of people want to talk to you. They may be genuinely interested in where you come from, whether you support Manchester United (or Everton) and what you think about Thailand. They may want to practice their English or are simply proud of their country and want to point out the sights on your map.

Infamous Bangkok Tuktuk

However chances are that the person you are talking to is not a nurse or teacher as they claim, but a scammer.

You can pretty much tell from the moment they start drawing circles on your map, but if they continue to outline the route and make claims such as “Grand Palace close until afternoon” or “white temple open today only. One day, one year. Close at eleven, so hurry!”—all meant to throw you off your track—you’re about to fall for the infamous tuk-tuk scam.

Let’s be clear here: a tuk-tuk ride never costs less than around 50 baht and one tuk-tuk driver who was not actually interested in scamming me (he was waiting outside an upmarket hotel) said that metered taxis are cheaper. There is no government-subsidised scheme for tuk-tuk drivers to show tourists around on the cheap, and government-licenced drivers are in on the scam.

I knew all that, but what I didn’t know is that the operation has expanded considerably and that the tactics have changed. Back on my first visit, it was just the tuk-tuk drivers yelling their ridiculously cheap fares at me. Now it’s the guy who talked to us on the street corner, his friend the English teacher, the nurse from Chiang Mai who invited us inside a temple and talked about her weekend visit to Bangkok, and the tuk-tuk drivers. It’s put me off talking to people.

That’s a real shame because we have met a number of genuinely nice people who really were on a weekend visit to Bangkok or worked at the National Museum and wanted to recommend Thailand’s cultural treasures to us.

Here is what I don’t get. If the person drawing the itinerary onto a fresh copy of my tourist map had said: “hire tuk-tuk half day. Only 300 baht”, I would probably have taken them up on it because 300 baht is just enough for me to think that the offer is genuine. Not only would they get the money, they’d still have an opportunity to scam us at the end!

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We have arrived…

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

…as you can tell from the picture. No sooner did we get here that the heavens opened.
Streetsellers Seeking Shelter
When I’m travelling with John, I don’t write as much (particularly when I’m in a non-smoking internet café with a dodgy keyboard) so expect updates to be a little sparse. If I get less lazy, I’ll compose proper updates on my Asus.

On Monday we’re off to Kho Tao for beaches, bars and bubbles!

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on We have arrived…

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