Koh Tao is a tiny island, placed like a jewel in the beautiful Gulf of Thailand. Named after the green turtles that nested here, I knew this was the place for me the moment we docked. The built up areas of Mae Haad and Sairee Beach are on the west side of the island, and it's a hell of a trek over to the east side and Tanote Bay, (check my Flickr pics for a view of the so-called road,) where I stayed and dove at Blacktip Diving.
Shameless plug, but they are fantastic: www.blacktipdiving.com
Shalini is part-owner and a friend of a friend, but she immediately took me under her wing, introducing me to her friends, dragging me to all kinds of parties, (kicking and screaming, but more about that later,) and even putting me to work leading dives! Overwhelmed by her hospitality and the non-stop fun with her UK friends Angie-Pangie & Rob, I wound up staying 4 days longer than I planned with absolutely no regrets except that I had to leave at all.
The diving was really good, despite lots of rain in the week before I arrived. Vis was mostly about 50', and the coral looked nice and healthy and there was lots of good life to see. The coolest sites were Chumphon Pinnacles and Sail Rock. On my first dive, I got buddied up with Theresa, a Berliner working in Bangkok and down for her 6th (I think,) visit. Now, most dive operators, when a solo Instructor or other very experienced diver shows up, will pair that poor unfortunate with some newbie or complete underwater fool. But Blacktip did me right as T is a great diver and a fantastic buddy - we shared the same pace, interests, air consumption, and had that instant ESP connection you sometimes luck out and have with another diver. Above water was really great, too as she had all kinds of great insights into Bangkok and Thai life. Even better, the groups they gave me to lead were all advanced - no newbies!! Heaven.
Now not every dive went perfectly, I had a girl panic and try to shoot up from 80' and needed some soothing words and a tow back to the boat. By the time I got back down, the group was long out of sight, so I just hung out by myself next to the mooring with a school of batfishes and eased into their group. By the time the other divers returned, I was in the family. I also spent time getting a manicure at the local cleaning station where fishes go to have the tiny cleaner wrasses pick dead scales and parasites off of them. One wrasse kept trying to get into my ear, making me jump every time it nipped me.
On one dive, we wandered into the territory of the feared Titan Triggerfish. Well, now it's feared, but when we were told about them in the briefing, I thought about the Trigger we have in the Baltimore Aquarium, which mildly defends a 5' area when nesting, and wasn't exactly worried. What a mistake! Titans are ferocious and all of a sudden this BIG fish with BIG teeth is all over me! It seemed poised to take a large, bloody piece out of me so I kept swivelling to keep my fins in between us, and accidently kicked it in the side of the face when it was trying to get at me. That just made things worse. Plus, the radius they claim is so big, I couldn't figure out which way I needed to flee and we went round and round for a good long time. I finally got clear and turned to see Theresa being accosted by TWO! She looked a little freaked with huge clouds of exhaled bubbles swirling upwards and was ascending a bit too fast without realizing it, so I went over and (Bravely? Stupidly? You decide...) waved my bright yellow fins at them to lure them away from her and got into it with them again. Finally got clear and mentally resolved to never, ever go near one again, whew.
Did my 1000th dive as a shore dive with Theresa and her Swiss friend Catherine and it turned into a looooong 1:52 dive, trending up from 58'. Saw tons of reef life, two turtles, a Titan Trigger I kept way away from, (fool me once, umm, don't get bit again?) and just had a long, leisurely beautiful time - a nicely memorable milestone dive!
My last day of diving was a pair of dives at Chumphon Point, one of the premier sites in Koh Tao, known for its sharks. Well the first dive was one of my worst ever - weird vertical thermoclines, horrible vis, changing currents and about a million and a half stinging jellyfish. Picked the perfect dive to skip the wetsuit! Dodged them as long as I could, but they were so thick, I got trapped and stung bunches of times, but getting it across the lips was the worst. (I completely felt like that scene in Finding Nemo - "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...!") Cut the dive at 40 minutes and the group fled to the boat for vinegar baths. At the end of the surface interval, Shan stuck her head in the water, (bravely, I might add,) and we found the currents had blown all the jellies away so we went back in again. Honestly, I had half a mind to skip it, but my fear of missing something good drove me into the water, and Thank God I went - it was one of my best dives ever! It's amazing what a difference an hour can make - water warmer and clearer, currents quieter and no more jellies! Absolutely huge schools of jacks, barracuda, fusiliers and other smaller baitfish were everywhere - my buddy's dive plan: "Let's hang out with the bait!" sure paid off when we saw Blacktips and some really big Bull Sharks. They cruised through every 5 minutes or so along with some really large tuna and I was in Heaven. We were so reluctant to leave, we wound up going into a couple minutes worth of deco just enjoying the view. What a great last dive in Koh Tao.
Above water, Koh Tao is absolutely beautiful, wild and rugged, but with a pretty developed area called Sairee Beach, with lots of cool restaurants and some awesome bars. In Thailand, they serve drinks in buckets and even have a concentrated form of Red Bull, so you know I had some long nights.
Speaking of partying, we took a couple of days and headed over to Koh Phangan for a Black Moon Party... But that's a whole 'nother story so I'll save it for later.
I grudgingly left Koh Tao this morning and am now in Koh Samui, a larger and way more built up island about two hours south. It's not really my kind of place - think Jersy Shore with more speedos and languages, but with way better food. Tomorrow, I'm taking a trip to Ang Thong National Marine Park for some snorkelling, (!) sea kayaking, and hiking. After that, I'm outta here kind of quick and off to the west side of the Thai peninsula, visiting Phuket, Krabi and Koh Phi Phi.
Stay Wet,
Ciao,
Climenze
