The Thailands: Koh Tao

Koh Tao – Turtle Island

Just a mere 22 square kilometers, the serene and tranquil island of Koh Tao means as much to me as the coveted “Arkenstone” meant to Thorin in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Lying off the east coast of Thailand’s isthmus - above Koh Phangan and Koh Samui – Koh Tao is an ideal place for a relaxing, yet adventurous getaway.

Shark Bay

 

Being that it was our first “Thaiiiiiiisland” (get it??), we had no idea what to expect. You hear so many different opinions from guidebooks, locals, friends, ex-travelers, etc, that it is hard not to stereotype a place before you experience it for yourself. With that said, we heard that a majority of the islands on the east side were very touristy and frankly a slight disappointment.

From the moment we were approaching Turtle Paradise by ferry, I realized that all the hearsay was nothing but a huge stinky pile of bologna! Koh Tao is paradise! Granted, the port is a bit seedy because everyone is hanging out there yelling at you to come to their dive school, but once you hop in the back of a pick-up truck and high-tail it out of there, it is nothing but crystal clear water, blue sky, and scuba tanks.

As Emily explained in the previous post, it took a while to get there. We flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok (2 hours); then took a night train from Bangkok to Chumpon (9 hours); arrived at 5am, waited an hour, then took a bus to the ferry from 6-7; waited another hour for the ferry, then took the ferry from 8-11 to Turtle City (I understand I have referred to Koh Tao by many different names and this post has only just begun, but just go with it).

We stayed at Carabao Dive Resort. Originally, we were going to be there for 3 days to get our Open Water Dive Certifications, but the place was that amazing that we extended our stay for 2 more days. So, let’s start from the beginning (queue the flashback music…)

We arrived at our dive school just before noon by a very unique form of tuk-tuk that is indigenous to Koh Tao and I’m sure many of the smaller, under-developed islands in Thailand – basically, it is a pick-up truck. We cruise on about 7 minutes east of the port and we arrive at our Dive School. Koh Tao is known for scuba diving. Many of their hostels are converted into dive schools, where you pay a set price for your diving certification, dive trips, etc, and that includes your accommodations as well. This is a very cool concept, being that everybody staying at your resort - regardless of their age, shape, or color, is most likely diving. This leads to great conversation and cool stories galore.   

While we were waiting for our room to get cleaned up from the previous divers, Emily and I decided to swim around for a while and get a little island sun. As we were snorkeling around, who do you think decides to show up? None other than Aui and Dani, our German travel buddies. They had trouble deciding which dive school to go with, so we convinced them to hang at Carabao with us!

We learned shortly thereafter that we wouldn’t be in the same scuba group with them, but it was all good – the classes were small groups of 4 and it was cool to meet new people anyway. Day one consisted of a 2-hour scuba movie, so we met up with our class (The Swedish duo known as Nilse and Tom), and the German’s class (Aui, Dani, and two other German girls by the name of Karen and Isabelle). The movie was kind of in the same category as those cheesy public service announcement videos you watch in health class in high school; you know, the ones that are about 15 years out of date, half the class sleeps through, and the other half sort of just watches because they are intrigued and slightly bored at the same time. Needless to say the video was the mellowest portion of the class, but there were better things to come in the near future.

Falling asleep early became quite habitual on this leg of the trip, and the first night was no exception. We were in bed early and up early for our first day of scuba. Here is how the schedule went for our Open Water Diving Certification:

Day 1: Two-hour video

Days 2 & 3:  Class- 9am-11am

                      Diving- 12pm-5pm

Day 4: Diving- 7am-12:30pm

*An Open-Water Certification consists of 5 open water dives, with at least one of those dives taking you to your Maximum Depth of 18 meters (to all of us Americans, that is just about 60 feet).

The person responsible for helping us adventure in the underwater world is Sabrina Si Sadi. Born and raised in Belgium, fluent in 4 languages, and a master of the scuba dive arts, Sabrina is one of the coolest women on the planet. Standing at about 5 foot 6, covered in wild tattoos, with gauges in her ears, and bright blonde curly hair with dreadlocks, Sabrina turned me and Emily into a Merman and a Merlady. Through a series of classroom and underwater exercises and techniques, we were taught to relax. Scuba diving seems complicated, but when all is said and done, breathing as if you were on land in a relaxed state will get you where you need to go.

There are just a few SUPER important parts of diving:

   1) Never hold your breath, especially when you go deeper. The deeper you go, the more pressure there is on your body.

   2)      Chill out; you can breath. Although it is weird at first to be breathing out of a tank under water, you can still breath. Take normal breaths and have some fun – you’re under water and basically have superpowers you gilly little human you!

We started off just a few meters under water doing basic breathing exercises:

-Remove your regulator (the thing you breath out of), let it float away, and then retrieve it with a rainbow-like hand motion.

Luce 

-Remove your regulator (if you do not know what this is, you clearly did not read exercise one), and locate it by finding the hose closest to your back on your tank.

-FILL YOUR GOGGLES WITH WATER and figure out how to get the water out. This exercise is kind of funny because your instincts tell you that breathing is no longer an option. Little do you know, if you can’t see, you can still breathe. Don’t fret my little scuba noob, just press down right between the eyes and exhale through the nose. The water will go exit the goggles and you can continue diving (and breathing if it was your first time…. Noob).

-Remove your tank and remove your weight belt while under water. I’m not describing how you do this, but I bet it is comical to watch because balance becomes an issue.

Sabrina was making sure none of us would freak out when we were on a deeper dive. Since you can’t talk under water, one of the most important parts of diving is communication. The previous exercises and the following signals were essential for our transition to little mermaids and mermen. There are basic signals (I’m okay, I’m have a problem, breath out, breath in, stay on my level, go up, go down, check your pressure gauge….) that you need to learn in order to have a successful dive. We learned them :)

These exercises were followed by a bunch of awesome dives. The underwater world, to me, is basically outer space; there are species of coral and creatures that one would not see unless under water. The fact that you are in a scuba suit, making Darth-Vader noises and moving at a robotically suave rate, makes it feel like you are an alien. From Blue Spotted Sting Rays, Christmas Tree Fish, Wrasse, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, SEA TURTLES, Barrel Sponges, Chevron Barracudas, Groupers, Trigger Fish, Crabs, and Eels, to crazy amounts of tropical fish, we saw a fair amount of sea creatures.

Sea Urc

Blue Spotted Ray

ROCK OYSTER!

After the fourth day, we were supposed to leave and go to Koh Samui, but unfortunately, Emily was feeling a bit under the weather after our last day of the Open Water Course. The ironic thing was, I had a fever as well… a fever that could only be prescribed with more scuba diving. The scuba doctor convinced me to take the advanced course, which consisted of just two more days of diving – a total of 5 more dives. How could I say no? (I regret to say that Emily could not accompany me on this session of scuba, but she will reach her 30 meters in due time, of course).

So, the Swedes, Sabrina and I were out for some more dives. Here is the advanced syllabus:

Deep Dive: For all of you “Beerfest Fans,” the new maximum depth is 30 METERRRRS. Honestly, it doesn’t feel that much deeper, but the whole idea of Nitrogen Narcosis comes into play. This basically means when you get to a certain depth, you can start feeling goofy; when you start feeling goofy, you can start doing funny things; when you start doing funny things, you can regret some of those things. When you have nitrogen narcosis 100 feet under sea level, you don’t want to make a bad decision (Sabrina told us a story of a man who decided to remove his tank and all of his gear because he was feeling so great, he thought he really was a merman). Nitrogen Narcosis has been said to make you feel intoxicated and guess what the solution is: Go up! When you begin to feel funny down deep, ascending is the best solution.

James Bond Entry...

Luckily, none of us had any issues. We had to take a test before we went under and then again at 30 meters. The test went as follows: Sabrina made a boxed chart, numbered 1 through 20. The numbers were out of order and we had to touch our nose, then the numbers in order. We were timed and the time was recorded. We then had to repeat this test at 30 meters (there is a white board that works under water – I thought that was very cool and still do not understand how it works). If the results were drastic, we had Nitrogen Narcosis and hypothetically would be forced to ascend so we would not harm ourselves or anyone else on the dive. Again, nobody had the disease, and to our surprise, my Swedish companion Tom and myself scored 2 seconds faster at 30 meters.

While swimming at this depth, it helps to wear a dive computer and compass. The dive computer is a little watch that gives you all types of fun facts (Current depth, maximum depth, no-decompression limit). A no-decompression limit is basically the time that you are allowed to stay at a certain depth. It has a lot to do with nitrogen levels in the body, but it’s cool to know because all you have to do is ascend a bit and you have more time under water. I guess when in doubt, just go up! Be careful about going up too fast though: too fast = lung overexpansion. That’s another big no-no. So, just add a safety stop to deep dives and your good. At about 5 meters down, you hang out for 3 minutes and when those 3 minutes are up, then you go to the surface. The dive is complete, and everybody still has their lungs. Wooooo hooo!

Check out the School O' Barra

Wreck Dive: We explored a shipwreck for this dive. It was incredibly invigorating, scary, and challenging at the same time. First off, I hadn’t had a dive with worse visibility than this one yet; I couldn’t see more than 5 feet in front of me. With visibility this bad, it’s kind of like someone spinning you around in a chair with a blindfold on, then throwing you in the water; it’s very hard to navigate, let alone focus on the cool things around you.

After the chaotic descent, we made it to the ship. There were sea urchins all over the outside walls, cranky boxer shrimp and hermit crabs hanging out in “punk packs” as I call them (picture a bunch of punk high school kids trying to look intimidating outside a 7-11 when in reality, they are just loitering and secretly wishing they were cooler).

I was so invigorated by the cool sights around me that I actually got lost! I looked to my left, then to my right, then behind me. One member of the crew was behind me, but my instructor, as well as the Swedes, were gone. So, just like you are trained, you wait for one minute at the spot you get lost at, then start your emergency ascent. We were in no way in an emergency; we had plenty of air and we probably could have dove for longer and just met up with them later, but it is always good practice to head to the surface to reconvene as soon as possible.

We met up right away at the surface and laughed about the whole thing. When all was said and done, it was great practice to get lost. I just wish I got more time to dive on that one!

Night Dive: Night diving is wild. Have you ever seen the episode of Planet Earth where those giant fish with the flashlights on their heads are dancing around and there are so many lights it kind of looks like there is an underwater rave going on? My night dive was nowhere near that insane, but it was still incredibly cool and life-changing. The one obvious thing about diving you can often forget about is the fact that it is a lot of time to be in your own head. Yes, you are with a group of people who you can make signals to and share memories with, but a lot of the time underwater is spent making decisions and exploring on your own. In a night dive, it’s that, but you can only see what your light is showing you. Everything else is lights out – pitch black.

We did the descent at sunset, which was surreal. You go over a whole new set of signs to do with your flashlights (I’m okay, I need help, etc.) and then you jump in the water and continue your dive just like you would any other. As the sun fully sets, you begin to witness the sea at night – a vast abyss of swaying corals and a few species of fish staying up way past their bedtime. Every crack or crevasse you look in, there is some kind of crab, shrimp, or in some cases, the boisterous and suave Blue Spotted Stingray holding down their turf. As for the floor and craggy rocks below you – be careful a spiky sea urchin doesn’t find his or her way into getting a poke at you.

All you have is the tunnel-vision of your flashlight. This means you bump into a lot of things, you can easily get lost if you lose sight of your crew for too long, and you can freak yourself out if you don’t relax and understand that it’s just dark. We did one really cool thing where we all met at the bottom and stood in a circle. With a slow rotation to the left, all of our flashlights shut off and there was nothing but the Darth Vader sounds and darkness. With quick jerks and slow, jellyfish like movements; we all proceeded to move our limbs and fingertips in groovy, yet awkward motions, creating a bioluminescent light show for our underwater audience. Then, after we were all boogied out, a quick rotation to the right turned our lights back on and we ascended back to the surface.

Navigation Dive: This dive was a good learning experience for me. I was responsible for leading a dive from start to finish. I took the French Divemaster mentor, Luce, with me on a dive around Shark Island. Unfortunately, we saw no sharks, but we did see some other great marine life. Using my compass, I had to take note of the starting coordinates and lead a 40-minute dive. Luckily, I didn’t mess it up and we actually had a little fun along the way. We took our flippers off and did running flips, we found this underwater grave (spooky, but cool), and we weaved through some reefs. Overall, it was a great dive and boosted my navigation confidence a bit.

After all was said and done....Em and I are now certified Scuba Divers! Hipppppity Hooo Higgity Ha!

Upside Down Man

Scuba Diving is the coolest! I'm Certified!

Certified...

Although we spent a majority of our time diving on Koh Tao, I STRONGLY recommend any traveler heading to Southeast Asia to visit this place. The scenery is beautiful, the people are beyond friendly, and the island is not overrun with tourism. Yes, diving makes up a huge part of their economy, and there are bars and hotels on the island, but the island has a lot to offer. We became great friends with a family who owns a little restaurant there; they cooked us awesome meals for 4 nights (best food on Koh Tao) and their little daughter not only sat and played with us while we ate, but decided to paint my nails once. They had good food, great service, and nail painting; what more could we ask for?

The island is primarily dirt roads, hilly, and I think the road traffic is made up of something like 95% motorbikes. So, when you get there here is a quick itinerary:

Check in at Carabou Dive Resort and request Sabrina Si Sadi as your guide. Get certified to Scuba Dive, or if you already are, go on a fun dive! When you’re done diving, grab a bowl of Fruit Muesli and an iced coffee at the hammock store right past 7-11 (every time we went there, the lady walked down the street to buy fresh fruit to make our breakfast with).

Hammock/Yogurt/Coffee Shop

Then, rent a motorbike and cruise around the island (you can get from one end to the other in about 15-20 minutes). There are great cliffs to overlook and hidden beaches to explore. Finally, take an hour to relax and then head over to “High Bar” with some friends or by yourself for an ice cold Chang. They are being very literal when they call it high bar – it is a 10-minute walk up a giant hill to get there. When you get in, the tree-house vibe will have you relaxed and making new friends in no time.

Overall, Koh Tao is a must see in Thailand and I definitely hope to go back!

Chai yoh!

-Bob

Here is a link to extra Koh Tao Pictures! If you don't have a Snapfish Account....get one to view them! Copy and paste the link into your browser if it is not clickable.

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=18550434010/a=162659602_162659602/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/