TaNNNOOOO!!te Bay

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Brooke

Koh Tao has been criticized for becoming an overly-commercialized backpackers paradise, and rightfully so. Tao’s Sairee Beach has exploded in the past ten years into a place that totters on overdone. The entire beach is set up for tourism – internet cafes, laundry services, scuba centers, restaurants advertising “Western and Thai Food” on their signs. We travel for the moments where you feel like you’re really getting a taste of somewhere, where you visit rather than tour. So when the last dive was done, we blazed a trail across the mountains, a far cry from Sairee, to Tanote Bay.

Tanote Bay Treehouse

Our first attempted trip to Tanote Bay wasn’t what I’d call a smashing success. Knowing our deal on the accommodations would expire soon, we had rented a motorbike to scope out other parts of the island. Turns out, it’s not that easy. We’d been banking on something being in place, an infrastructure of sorts, made up of… oh, I dunno… roads?

With the sun setting and a mere 4.5 kilometers (not quite three miles) to go, I felt sure we could scope out potential new digs. Heading off the main road, Michael steered onto the dirt path. No big deal, I thought, this bike has spiky tires. Spiky tires will keep us safe. Then the pitch of the mountain changed a bit, and it became rockier. He struggled to keep the bike upright with me on the back of it, but pressed on. Michael is a determined man, and I am a reasonable woman. This is why we began to differ in opinions on whether we should continue on this sandy, rocky path. After two or five times abandoning ship when we slipped uphill, I became firmer in my convictions and started trying to talk some sense into my fiancee. “We are NOT taking this bike any farther!” With my faith in the spiky tires diminishing, I managed to talk Michael down from the bike just before we hit a downhill patch of impassable boulders. We ditched the bike and walked the rest of the way, hopeful we were on our way to an island paradise.

Shortly thereafter, we saw some lights down below and hoped we’d made it to Tanote Bay. Stopping by the first place we found, we hoofed it down an impossibly steep driveway with an amazing view of the ocean. It was called Poseidon, and not surprisingly they offered to accommodate us. We gratefully accepted. This part of the island was unbelievable! Relatively unpopulated, this was exactly the escape we were looking for. How did they manage to build anything here? I can only imagine the materials arrived by boat.

Tanote Bay Bungalow

For the next two days, I sweated how were were going to get back there. We’d seen a pickup truck spinning and struggling to get to town on our way back to Sairee Beach. We certainly couldn’t get there on a rented motorbike, as we’d proven last time, especially with our packs. The people at the dive shop weren’t keen on waiting around until after our night dive to take us, but they did have a four-wheel drive truck. Michael managed to arrange this and I braced myself for a death-defying trip across the mountain.

Just another Tanote Bay boulder

It came time to leave Sairee following our night dive, and I was sweating bullets. Our driver walked us to his truck, which I was relieved to see was a jacked up 4×4, just like the ones back home. (Oh, sweet West Virginia hills! Where there is no danger of plunging into the Gulf of Thailand!) This truck would navigate the sandy mountain rocks, no problem, I thought. What I hadn’t accounted for, was the speed with which the driver would attempt to doso!

Holding on for dear life, we blew past the traffic of the town and hurtled into the mountainside. I gripped the rails so hard I thought they would rip right off. Fortunately the road became more difficult for this driver and he was forced to slow down. We crept up the steep part, he gave it some gas to get over a rock, and didn’t quite make it. We rocked back, he spun the tires again, and again were unsuccessful. The driver did nothing for what seemed like the longest time, before he gathered up the courage to try it again. Over the rocks we leapt! Across the bend in the road, and down the boulder field. The boulders looked much smaller from the relative safety of the truck bed. Michael told me the driver had been changing the truck into four-wheel drive during the time I thought he was praying. Why not have it in four-wheel drive before this time, driver?!

Albeit no easy feat to get there, Tanote Bay was quite a spectacle. Isolated and remote, this was just what we’d been trying to find. Finally! We could catch up on our journaling, do some reading for pleasure, and enjoy delicious island fruits in the shade. We checked into a bungalow on the hillside, and guess who was waiting for us when we got there?

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Scuba Dubba Doo!

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Brooke

Our view on Sairee Beach. Where's the Corona ad?

Michael and I spent the better part of our week on Koh Tao around Sairee Beach, a haven for divers and lizards alike. Following a combined total of 19 dives, three certifications, and more Baht (Thai money) than we’d care to divulge, Michael and I have been deemed “advanced divers”. This is pretty amusing to me, largely because I consider myself a novice diver who forked over the cash for the five additional dives. But this doesn’t fit as nicely on our certification cards, so “advanced diver” it is.

After our night dive

Since I spent several years begging for scuba lessons as a kid I was pleasantly surprised that I took to it like, well, like a fish to water. (Sorry.) Michael worried that I might want to move in under the sea, my air consumption was so excellent. Now, before you become too proud of me, it’s well known that divers who are in the best shape have the worst air consumption. Michael is an incredibly fit person who runs like the wind but uses mass quantities of air on every dive. They say the more diving you do, though, the better your air consumption gets. My great air consumption is baffling, and I can only assume it’s due to my time playing the French Horn and years of yoga. *Shrug* Sometimes dorky habits have a way of paying off!

The first few dives were no walk in the park. As scary as it is, being 15 or more meters underwater, you develop a respect for the equipment and the processes that work to keep you safe underwater. As a diver, you must test and re-test your air supply before jumping in, perform a buddy check on your partner’s gear, and never come off the boat without one hand on your mask and regulator and the other on your weight belt. These are the important rules. I learned some not-so-important ones, too: don’t call them “flippers” (they’re fins) and it’s a mask, not goggles.  When I made these mistakes my instructor told me everytime I called them incorrectly I had to buy him one beer. Damned if I’ll fork over any more cash than I have to, these were not mistakes I would care to repeat.

Of our dives, my favorites were the deep water and underwater naturalist training. The deep dive took us under 29 meters (around 95 feet) of water to explore a world that is as much foreign as it is awe-inspiring. For our underwater naturalist, we identified various fish and coral, my favorite being the shrimp and goby. This is an example of symbiosis, as the shrimp is blind and therefore in danger of, well, nearly everything. The shrimp digs a little hole in the ocean floor and hires out the goby to warn him if predators are approaching. When the goby swims into the hole, the shrimp knows to stay put until the threat of danger has passed. In return, the goby gets a safe ocean home and a nice place to lay eggs.

Following several days of diving, we looked forward to some uninterrupted beach time. We came here for a vacation, right? So why have I been spending all my time studying and taking tests? When our night dive was finished, we packed our bags and made the trek to Tanote Bay.

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We’re Off to See the Lizard…

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Brooke

There’s something everyone loves about Thailand… It’s something you can’t quite name, though. It’s as if this place is a bit magical; as if nearly anything can happen.

And pretty much anything CAN happen, I firmly believe. And will. You may know this as “Murphy’s Law”. We’ve bumped into our friend Murphy while arranging accommodations here in Koh Tao, a beautiful island off Southern Thailand where we’ve been diving and playing in the water for several days.

Our first bungalow, suffice it to say, left a lot to be desired. When we arrived around 5:45 on Tuesday morning, fresh off the midnight boat, we were pretty punchy. We knew our scuba center, Scuba Junction, would be opening shortly for their morning dive, and made our way there. Because we were training and diving with this company, they cut us a deal on a bungalow. And what a deal it was!! For a mere 150 Baht per night (fewer than five US dollars), we made ourselves at home.

After a night, we started to realize this bungalow wasn’t exactly in tip-top shape. I don’t consider myself high-maintenance by any stretch (we did just sleep on the floor of a boat getting here), but our first bungalow didn’t pass muster. So we asked for a different one. Not an upgrade, just a different one bunglaow of the same variety, perhaps the tiniest bit better kept. Without moss sprouting from the bathroom’s water spigot, please. Scuba Junction gladly accommodated our request.

Our new bungalow was perfect! Tidy, tiny, and just ideal for us. However, I soon realized that there were more of “us” than I thought. After a full day of scuba training, we came back and crashed. I made my way to the bathroom, raised the lid, and got annoyed with Michael for not flushing. (Note: flushing here is a bit different. There’s a bucket of water next to the toilet, from which you scoop a few liters in. The waste goes away just like magic. This “flushes” the toilet just like ours, minus the handle.)

I move to flush the toilet. The thing in the toilet moves too. I scream. It’s a lizard!!! There’s a lizard living in our toilet!

My first calculated move, after the scream, was to slam down the toilet lid as fast as I can. Then I put my fist in my mouth so as not to cry like a little girl. There is a lizard. In our toilet. For Heavens’ sake. What do I do? I run (two or three steps) to where Michael is, lounging, all stretched out, and tell him there’s a lizard in our toilet. He laughs. “It’s a gecko.”

“It’s not a gecko. It’s a lizard! And it’s in our toilet.” Michael asks how big it is, and I respond that it’s approximately as big as I can stretch my arms out. For some reason, he doesn’t believe me. So he asks, in true Michael fashion, a few more questions, just to get a feel for the situation. “Are you sure it’s a lizard?” “Yes, I’m sure it’s a lizard!” Then he asks what it looks like. My not-so-patient response: “A @^&$ LIZARD, MICHAEL! It looks exactly like a lizard! Can you stop asking questions and help me get rid of it!?”

This is the part where the knight in shining armour saves the poor helpless damsel in distress. I was, and continue to be, pretty freaked out by the lizard. After inspecting said lizard, though, Michael was rather calm. He dumped bucket after bucket into the toilet, flushing the lizard back down. We were saved. No more lizard. He’s gone. For now.

And he did come back (this toilet is his home, after all). That first night I kept the bucket of water on top of the toilet’s lid, just to make sure our friend didn’t make his way out of the toilet and into our living quarters. Three’s a crowd, lizard! It has been somewhat disruptive to our bathroom habits, this checking for lizards prior to using the facilities, but we’ve come up with some new euphemisms for going to the bathroom.  But remember, this is Thailand! Anything can (and will) happen!

Now that our advanced scuba certification is finishing, the deal on our bungalow ends. And in case you’re wondering, we are relocating. To a remote stretch of beach accessible only by foot or four-wheel drive. Hopefully the lizards there are nice.

To be continued…

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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Songthaews, Buses, and Cargo Ferry Boats) in 24 hours

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Michael

Leaving Luang Prabang, we booked a flight to begin our journey to eventually carry us to sunny Koh Tao, Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand. Arriving at the Laos airport in a torrential downpour at 6 a.m. (the rain: hardest I have ever seen it and enough to scare Brooke from sleeping), we eventually board our flight to Bangkok.

We arrive in Bangkok, hop on a bus to transport ourselves to the railway station. We bypass several blocked off ‘red’ areas. The ‘reds,’ United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) are protesting now in Bangkok and around asking for elections. 27 have been killed and 1,000 injured since the protests begain in mid-March. Needless to say, I did not notify the parents of our passage through Bangkok.

To the railway station, we board our non A/C (“air-con” is the lingo) train for an 8 hour journey. We roast. I feel like stripping naked. Brooke is the hottest she has even been. Meanwhile, the Thais treat it like another New England autumn day–jeans, fleeces, sweats, etc.

Brooke so hot (and not that happy) on the train

On the train looking towards Myanmar

We arrive in Chumphon at 10 p.m. Of course, the companies try to shuffle us to their songthaew and boat. Thinking we can get a better deal, we stop at the night market, telling ourselves we will find our own taxi. But then we notice that there are no taxis. And we worry. We need to get the midnight boat and not sure how to get to the dock. Alas, a songthaew arrives and takes us along our way.

I tell him the ‘midnight’ boat. He drops us off at the one dock. I do not want this one, I want the cargo ferry. He exclaims, “It is more comfortable, you get your own sleeping bunk. It is only 100 baht more (300 baht fare = 10 USD).” I respond, “No, we want the cargo ferry for 200 baht ($6.50 USD).”

“You sleep on the floor.”

“That’s fine, take us to that dock.”

And so we board our midnight ferry at 11 p.m. And we, along with all of Koh Tao’s  bottled waters, well pumps, rice, fans, and the three workers that unload the boat, descend on our six hour slow journey through the full moon night to Koh Tao. The stars are magnificient. the sea is shining and calm. We slept on the floor. For six hours. And saved 100 baht. But have a great experience to tell.

And after a non-stop 24 hours of traveling, we land on Koh Tao. Off to do some scuba diving!

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Eleg(ph)ant time in Luang Prabang, Laos

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Michael

A small city tucked in northern central Laos, the city of Luang Prabang instantly gave off a European feel and romantically beautiful. In the mid 1990s, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, a distinction that seeks to preserve cultural and natural heritage considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

We took to the streets, enjoyed the cafes, hit the hiking trails, and stared at the amazing and natural beauty. We hiked atop Mount Phousi for a circular view of the entire city to witness an incredible sunset. Sunsets never get old; never.

Sunset behind the Mekong River

Sunset's glow on Brooke and the temple

And nor do sunrises. But this one was not for the sunrise, but to see the monks receiving the alms. From what we are told, monks eat once a day before noon, and each morning, a community member from each household sits along the road with some sort of giving. Many have bowls of rice, others had what seemed like granola bar. As the monks stroll by, persons give them what them a portion of what they have. It was peaceful and quiet, yet uncomfortable to see this practice, as we felt like gazing, intrusive tourists (and we unfortunately are).

Monks receiving the alms

Towards the end of our trip in Laos, we took a trek/tour to a elephant village and local tribal village. The Elephant Village works to save ex-logging elephants, freeing them of abusive work, and provide the local community with jobs. We observed the massive animals and took them for a walk. Brooke’s new calling might be a mahout–she was a dandy.  Pulling Brooke away from the work, we trekked about 2 hours to a remote village of 79 families (380 people) off the Nam Khan River.

Brooke's second calling

Our guide, Lor, provided us the details of village life, as he came from one that was about a 3 hour walk/boat ride to a bigger city. While he enjoyed his life in Luang Prabang, he would want to go back to his small village. Thatch huts, little electricity, community bathrooms, but a real sense of community lure them to stay.

Entrance to remote village

Unlike American culture, the man is responsible for the wedding celebration, costing him about 5-6 million kip (about $700-$800: that is many, many months of work.)–for this reason, amongst many others, the man better make the right decision, Lor stated.

Traveling back to camp via boat and then to Luang Prabang through gorgeous countryside, we could see the distinction of its classification. From its city life, to its architecture, to its landscape, Luang Prabang is a great value to humanity–keep this place untouched!

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