Nong Kiew

I woke up early in Udomxai and walked through town to the bus stop.  I payed for the bus to Nong Kiew and then discovered it was actually an old Hyundai Van.  We didn’t leave on time and I think it was because they just wanted to shove more people on the van.  When we finally filled every seat, we were off.  I sat next to two orange clad monks and in the seats in front of us was a Laos couple with their young child and chicken.  This combination made for my most interesting ride in Laos especially since the monk sitting beside me could speak decent English.  Not only did he speak decent English, from studying and monk talks, he was going to the States soon.  It was his first time traveling to the States and he asked me a few questions about the States.  In return, I asked him a few things about Laos.  One thing in particular I was curious about was how people in Laos felt about Americans.  Seeing the that the US made Laos the most bombed country in the world (per capita) thanks to the ammunitions dumps we did over Laos after bombing runs in Vietnam during the Vietnam war, I was curious if they had any animosity towards the US.  He told me the that young generations, including himself, held the US in high regard.  Something Laos should aspire too.  I found this interesting considering see that Laos is a communist country.  In his early 30s, he didn’t remember the war since he was so young.  He did say though the older generations were not so positive about the US.  For example, his father could not understand why he wanted to take the trip to the US.  It seemed as any animosity towards Americans in Laos, was beginning to erode as the young generations continue to get older.  He was also interested in my travels and why I decided to come to Laos and if I was enjoying his country.  Of course I had already been enjoying Laos immensely despite only being there a week.  In fact, it was moments like this that were making Laos so enjoyable.  Where else could I find myself in a old Hyundai van having a conversion with a monk with a chicken in the seat in front of me.  Surreal, interesting and unforgettable moment.  Moments like this only occurred to me a few times during my trip and not only will I likely not to forget them soon, I will highly regard them as unique events that most people will never be able to experience.  Moments like this could be seen as more precious than say going to Angkor Wat or Machu Picchu.  Spontaneous, not something you consciously seek out.  Just something that happens if you put yourself in the right place at the right time.

Chicken In The Van

Enough rambling about the merits of traveling like a local though because there are downsides to everything.  About an hour outside of Nong Kiew the monks got dropped off in a small village.  I said goodbye and wished him goodluck in the US and wished me a good time Laos.  30 mins further down the road, the driver pulled over onto the side of the road.  I hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the van, but apparently he had.  He quickly jumped out of the van and went into the nearest house.  He came back with some water and lifted up the driver’s seat where you could apparently refill the coolant in this van.  He he opened the cap, water and steam unexpectedly erupted from. Water sprayed all over the inside of the van and onto the people in the row behind the driver.  We had obviously overheated.  So I got out of the steam filled van and waited for about 20 minutes for the driver fix the problem.  He got it sorted out fairly quickly and we made it off the rest of the way to Nong Kiew.  

Sunset Over Nong Kiew

We arrived at the tiny Nong Kiew Bus Station and there were a few people waiting for the next bus to leave.  I asked one of the tourists waiting to point me in the right direction because I really had no idea where I was and which way to go.  I headed off down the road by myself and it really did not seem like there were any other travelers in the area.  After a 15 min walk though I got to the river and the large bridge crossing the river where I finally saw that the village across the river was where the guesthouses had been built up.  I grabbed the first riverside bungalow I came across and settled in.  There wasn’t much to do in Nong Kiew besides admire the beautiful views of the river and limestone karasts that surround the river.  That was fine with me too.  I figured I could stay a night or two and just relax.  Soak in the beautiful views and get rejuvenated.  And that’s what I did for two days.  Relaxed in my hammock, took a nap or two, and tried catch up on my writing.  Go across the street and grab some food and wifi.  It was a lazy two nights for sure.  

Leaving Nong Kiew

After two nights though, I was running out of Kip and there was not an ATM in sight.  I luckily exchanged some Thai Baht with two French girls that were my neighbors at the guesthouse, but I still needed enough money to get the bus to Luang Prabang.  The morning of the third day in Nong Kiew I headed back to the bus station and waited for the bus to Luang Prabang.  

Udomxai

The local bus ride from Luang Nam Tha to Udomxai was the first of several really interesting local bus rides I would have in Laos.  The ticket cost 40000kip ($5) for the 4 hour journey.  I knew I was in for a rough ride though when they were handing out barf bags when I got on the bus.  The local buses in Laos are these Hyundais that look like they were made in the 70s.  They look like they could fall apart at any moment.  In typical SE Asia fashion, they want to jam as many people into the bus as possible.  More people, more profit I suppose.  The seats filled and the little plastic chairs were brought out for people to sit in the aisles.  Sure enough about 2 hours into the drive on a windy mountainous “road”, if you can even call it that, the little boy beside me was yakking into the bag.  The roads in the north are in a state of disarray.  They’re trying to pave parts of it.  Other parts who knows.  They’ll be paved for 1/4 mile than dirt road for a 1/4 mile.  Back and forth. 

Hiking To Chom Ong Cave With The Khmu Village In The Background

The reason I was going to Udomxai was to see if I could do some caving.  I had just been reading online about Chom Ong Cave, which had not made into the guide books yet (or at least my up to date Lonely Planet).  It had only been open to tourists for about 2 years and wasn’t discovered by anyone not living in the nearby village until 2006.  It was supposedly the largest cave in Northern Laos and one of the largest in SE Asia at 17km long and with ceilings of up to 50m high.  The town of Udomxai itself was not very nice.  Pretty dang ugly as a matter fact.  Not touristy at all either.  The only westerns I saw were the ones that ended up caving with.  Speaking of the caving, I got extremely lucky as a group of 6 had already signed up for the Chom Ong Cave hike, so it was cheaper for me. I would also later find out that only 200-250 tourists had actually done the tour in the two years it had been available, so I was extremely lucky to find a group of 6.

The Group With Our Laos Guide and Khmu Guide

So, before the sun was even up I was headed to the tourist office to meet the group and head off to the cave.  We had an Austrian couple, a british couple, a lone frenchman and a lone German.   Our guide met us there with a old beat up 4x4 pick up truck and we were off on the 2 hour drive to the Khmu village near the cave.  An hour of the drive was back tracking the road I had just travelled on the day before from Luang Nam Tha.  The second hour of the drive was some tough off roading through the Laos countryside and hills.  The off roaring was even worse than what we had to do to get out to the Gibbon Experience.   It was dusty, bumpy and slow going.  These roads weren’t used much by cars, as we only saw a few automobiles in the several villages we drove through.  We also drove past a few motorbikers, but it was mostly villagers walking on foot, carrying goods that our guide told us that they sold in the larger village on the main road.  We were in the middle of nowhere in Laos.

Best Picture I Could Get of Myself In The Cave

We arrived at the Khmu village of Ban Chom Ong and they took us to a hut that they had built for tourists coming to their village.  They cooked us a typical Khmu lunch, which I’m now kicking myself for not taking pictures of. I don’t remember what all lunch or dinner consisted of now.  I remember we had some sticky rice (a given in this part of the world), a tuber I had never seen before, some kind of fish and veggie stew, steamed morning glory, a version of salsa and other things I can’t remember.  Two very interesting meals, but honestly the thing I couldn’t get enough of was their version of salsa.  I hadn’t had mexican food in so long, so I was devouring the stuff.  After lunch our guide gave us head torches and we set off for the cave which was almost an hours hike from the village.  

The Group Climbing Over and Under Rocks

The hike went through the village’s dried up rice paddies and up and through a nearby valley to get the cave.  It was a nice, fairly easy hike that took us past villagers out near the small dried up river running through the valley where they were cooking a meal out in the middle of nowhere.  As with many places in Laos not in a protected area, there were clear signs of slash and burn deforestation throughout this valley.  We reached the upper entrance to the cave (seen in the picture at the top of this post), which was gated and decorated as the Khmu Villagers as they regarded the cave as a sacred place.  The first section of the cave was lit by a few spotlights over about 500m.  That first 500m or so showed off some of the caves incredible 30-50m ceilings.  We ended up hiking about 3-4km deep into the 17km cave.  At two points while in the caving there were 15-20m drops to the lower level of the cave where the Nam Kaang River runs through.  It would take some serious climbing gear and more time than we had, so we were not able to go deeper into the cave.  The cave was not all huge ceilings as we had climb through some precarious areas and prone crawl under some rocks as well.  I loved it though as I am a sucker for climbing around and exploring.  I did find out that taking pictures in a cave, especially where it’s not lit by spotlights is next to impossible to do with a point and shoot camera.  I got a few ok ones, but it’s so dark and dusty my pictures just don’t do justice at all. After exploring the upper cave, we went to the lower entrance where we were hoping we could take a dip in the river, but no such luck.  It was muddy, surprisingly cold and shallow.  So, we hiked back to the village where we ate a really late lunch and drove back to Udomxai with the sun going down.  When we got back to Udomxai we went to a local establishment and had a few Beer Laos to cap off a great day.  With nothing really to do in the dumpy Udomxai I made up my mind that I was leaving for Nong Kiew the next day.

Luang Nam Tha

Only three of the 15 of us leaving from the Gibbon Experience were dropped off at the park entrance aka the middle of nowhere.  We were told that we would be able to flag down a bus going to Luang Nam Tha.  It was the closest thing I had done to hitchhiking on this trip.  We sat at the small roadside store for 45 mins before we saw a bus going our direction.  We waved it down, but it was packed to the gills with people.  Luckily there was a mini bus right behind the local bus that was also going to Luang Nam Tha, so we jumped on that instead.  The road to Luang Nam Tha from the Bokeo Jungle Entrance was a teaser of what to come for the roads in the north of Laos.  Unpredictable roads.

Delicious Pork, Bag O Sticky Rice and a Beer Lao = ~$3.50

Arriving in Luang Nam Tha, I went my separate way from the British couple and found a guesthouse.  I was shocked at how touristy the main section of town was in Luang Nam Tha.  It was a tourist industry built on the ecotours that seemed to be advertised in every other building on this one block.  I came to Luang Nam Tha thinking I’d try to do some hiking or mountain biking.  I was disappointed to find that there weren’t many people doing the tours at the moment and since the prices are based how many people go in a group, I wasn’t about to spend a bunch of money to go by myself or with 1 or 2 people.  So, that first night I just went to the local market and debated whether I should leave the next day or not.  I ordered some amazing BBQ Pork that was pretty much Pork Belly.  Crispy skin, layer of fat and some good meat and only 8000 kip a kg.  While I was sitting there alone, deeply satisfied with the meal, a familiar voice said my name.   It was Jared and Ida.  They didn’t get eaten by a tiger in the Malaysian jungle after all!   Apparently they had made it all the way to the hide that day, stayed one night and then got a boat ride back to town.  They joined me for dinner and we planned on renting motorbikes the next day to explore the area. 

Jared Being Followed By Some Of The Local Girls

I was nervous about getting back on a motorbike.  I had avoided renting one since the accident on Koh Tao.  My confidence and wallet were still hurting from that accident.  I wanted to get back on the bike though.  I want to see the Laos countryside from a motorbike.  So, reluctantly jumped back on the horse.  We first went to a waterfall just outside of town.  The waterfall was pretty disappointing, but that wasn’t the highlight.  The highlight is driving down the dirt paths and through the small villages.  Having the small children running beside for bike yelling Sabaai Dii (Hello in Lao).  These children couldn’t be happier.  They live with very little money in these small villages and they all seem to be so happy.  You cannot help to smile and say Sabaai Dii right back.  The villages themselves are all over the place in Lao.  There are many different tribes in Lao as well such as the Hmong and the Black Tai.  Each of these tribes has there own language too.  So, despite Lao being the national language, for a lot of these tribes it was there second language.  

Dried Up Rice Fields Outside Of Luang Nam Tha

After the waterfall we decided to try to find watering hole that was about 20-30km outside of town.  First we had to get lost though.  It was a nice lost for me though as we drove down the main road back towards Bokeo.  The mountainous road that followed the Namtha river made for a beautiful ride.  But we eventually figured out that we had made a wrong turn and headed back.  We eventually found the turn we were supposed to make and went down a dirt road towards the watering hole.  It was a rough ride and we weren’t able to go that fast.  After 10-15km, Jared and Ida’s bike was running low on fuel and it was taking us way too long to get there, so we headed back.  Again it was a really pleasant ride through the countryside and through the small villages despite it being a rough dirt road.  With our motorbike adventure over, I decided that I was headed to Udomxai the next day.  No point in staying another night if I wasn’t going to do any hiking.  So, I said farewell to Jared and Ida as they were had straight to Luang Prabang the next day.

Chiang Mai - Where I Get Too Comfortable For My Own Good

When the train pulled into the Chiang Mai train station I was happy to be in another place and feeling halfway decent.  Ten days in Bangkok was too much especially for the amount I had done.  Staring at the walls of hostel bedroom wall does not exactly count as sightseeing.   I got off the train and found a tuk tuk to take me A Little Bird Guesthouse, which I had read good things about online.  It ended up being quite possibly my favorite hostel so far on the trip.  At 100 baht a night (just over $3) it was not only better dorm rooms than I had previously for 3x as much, it was also a great place to meet people.   And I did meet some good people there.   I think the view from sitting on the outside patio/social area will be etched into my mind for a long time. 

Chiang Mai At Night From Atop Doi Suthep

Chaing Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, but it’s no where near the size of Bangkok.  It’s a city with a quaint small town feel.   The city can be split into two sections the old city and everything that surrounds the old city.  The old city is large square in the middle of Chaing Mai that is surrounded by a moat and parts of the remain pieces of wall that used to protect the city.  The old city contains most of the famous temples, other touristy sights and guesthouses.  It’s where most tourists spend there time and for good reason as it is a lovely area with beautiful Wats and a ton historical sites.  I had one day were I didn’t nothing but walk around the old city to see all of the wats.  Unfortunately, the old city is also jammed pack with travel agencies and farang restaurants. 

Wat Phra Singh.  One Of The Many Wats In Chaing Mai’s Old City.

Speaking of restaurants, one of the biggest draws of Chiang Mai is the food.  If one sticks to the street food, markets, and open air restaurants you can eat really good food for really cheap.  I ate many 30 baht ($1) delicious noodle dishes from the street vendors.  I also found my new favorite Thai dish. It’s called Khao Soi and its a red curry noodle soup.  It has both rice noodles and crispy noodle, the chicken is served on the bone and pickled cabbage, shallots and lime are served as condiments on the side.  I have never seen this dish in the States and I’ll be surprised if I see it anywhere other than northern Thailand or northern Laos.  Many other items were consumed in my time in Chiang Mai.  Most of the highlights were found in the night markets.  That would include some deep fried insects.  Grubs, Grasshoppers, etc.  I was too much of a wuss to try to the giant cockroaches, afraid what texture might be found inside.  

My Beloved Khao Soy.  Om Nom Nom. 

Finally, the food section of this post would not complete without mentioning the Shake Lady.  The Shake Lady is somewhat of a legend if you’re staying at A Little Bird Guesthouse.  Located in the market across the soi from A Little Bird, the Shake Lady made the best shakes and Fruit, Museli and Yogurt in all of SE Asia and for cheap.  She was always happy to see me show up and always willing to have a conversation with English she had picked up from many tourists customers she has.  Sounds weird to say a little Thai lady that makes fruit shakes was a highlight to my time in Chiang Mai, but that’s just how good she was at what she did.

Lots Of Bugs To Eat At The Night Market

Not only did I eat a ton of food, but I also took a cooking course to learn how to make some Thai food.  Helpless in a kitchen, I figured it’d be useful for me to take one of the hugely popular cooking courses in Chiang Mai.  I had hopes that it show me that cooking is not that hard.  The two years after graduating from NC State I had become extremely lazy with my meals, eating out virtually every meal.  Needless to say, that can get expensive and eating the same things over and over can get very boring.  I needed to learn how to cook.  So, did the cooking course make me a michelin star chef?  No.  However, it did show me that cooking things like Pad Thai is ridiculously fast and easy if you have the right ingredients, a gas stove and a wok.  That’s the catch though.  Some of things we cooked had hard to find ingredients, in the States at least, and I currently don’t have a gas stove.  So, it ended up being encouraging and discouraging for me at the same time.  I was pleased with my Pad Thai, Mango Sticky Rice, Spring Rolls, Hot and Sour Prawn Soup and Penang Curry though.  All of them were damn tasty if I don’t say so myself.  

Penang Curry Made By Yours Truly.  Don’t It Look Tasty?

Trying to keep physical exertion to a minimum since I was still feeling kinda crappy from all of my illnesses in Bangkok, I decided against doing the ever popular and cheap hiking tours or the mountain biking that I was originally hoping to do.  Instead, I kept my activities to things where not much movement was required.  So, one night I went to Wat Sri Suphan to take one of their bi weekly introduction to meditation courses.  Several years ago I had read a couple of books about meditation and buddhism in an attempt to learn how to mediate.  My mind got the better of me the few times I tried though and I got too easily frustrated when I could not seem to control my thoughts.  The mediation course was led a by a young monk that had learned some limited english through the temple’s Monk Chats.  He did a fairly good job explain things and expanding on aspects I had not read.  He then showed us the four poses for mediation (standing, sitting, walking and lying) and some tips to how to focus or better control your mind.  Again, I found it extremely hard to keep focus.  My mind seems to run wild, not stay still.  I know it takes years of practice to actually get good at mediation and it something I would love to  learn, but I’m just not sure if I have dedication and patience to do it.  The other great lazy activity to take in while in Chiang Mai is to get a Thai Massage.  Yeah, you can do this anywhere in Thailand, but in Chaing Mai you can get one for 150 baht/hr ($5).  The islands and Bangkok they’re are at least 300 baht.  Life is hard when you get a massage for $5, followed a plate of Pad Thai from a street vendor for $1, then the best fruit shake ever for $1, then maybe some mango sticky rice for a $1.50, then relax on the Little Bird patio and chat with some new friends.  So hard. That’s why I ended up staying there for a week.  It’s so easy to get in a cheap relaxing groove.  If you want you can throw some cheap hiking or courses.  Tons to do, yet you can still being perfectly happy just chilling out.  That’s what makes Chiang Mai a great place to visit.

At The Bottom Of The 309 Steps Up To Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

What topped off my time in Chiang Mai though was the people I met sitting out on the Little Bird Patio area.  In particular, two British chaps Richard and Dave.  After meeting the guys the second or third night in Chiang Mai we headed out to see some Muay Thai, something that was on my checklist of things to do in Thailand.  The Muay Thai “stadium” in Chiang Mai is down the seediest street in the city.  The street is lined with bars, prostitutes and lady boys.  The “stadium” itself, not really stadium, but a ring surrounded what had to have been about 15 small bars all with a different theme.  As there is not much seating, we payed for the cheap seats and sat three rows from the front.  The fights started with the youngins with a fight between two boys that were probably only 11 or 12 years old.  The second fight ended up being the best though.  I fight between two 13 or 14 year old girls.  They really got into it and the girl that lost ended up getting knocked out by a knee to the face.  They also had a hilarious intermission show, where they put three guys in the ring that same time and blindfolded them.  It was round of blindly throwing huge haymakers, taking out the ref even a couple times.  Now that is halftime entertainment.  Take notes Super Bowl planners.  The last two big matches were actually disappointing, but then they were followed by two staged matches.  WWE style Muay Thai that was so obviously staged, but some of the crazy spinning kicks they did were cool.  Besides the night out to see Muay Thai, Dave, Richard and I plus various other people went out a couple of other nights including my last night out in Chiang Mai where we went out for Richard’s Birthday.  Good times were had by all, especially Richard.  It was the second Birthday I had been a part of on the trip and not the last.  Birthday’s on the road always have a interesting dynamic celebrating with people you’ve know usually for less than a week, but they always seem to be a great time.

Muay Thai!

After seven nights in Chiang Mai I had a deadline to meet as I was booked for the Gibbon Experience in a few days.  I had to make to Huay Xai, a Laos border town where the Gibbon Experience office was and I didn’t want to rush to get there.    

Koh Tao Part 2 - Slow Decent

The third day on Koh Tao I woke up early to get to Scuba Junction for the first day of Scuba Diving.  I was feeling a little under the weather, but I was still really excited to get started. I had opted to get my Open Water Certification through SSI because of the lower price, shorter instructional videos and the fact I didn’t have to buy the books for the course.  SSI divers can swim at PADI diving centers and continue there education with PADI too, so I found no good reason to go with PADI.  Anyway, it was just me and Rudy, a Canadian, in a group for the SSI Open Water.  Our instructor, Kerry, was a very enthusiastic South African girl that had been living and teaching on Koh Tao for not quite a year.  After reviewing homework (gah homework on vacation!) and watching another video we went out on the boat to learn the essential Scuba skills and then do our first dive.   The first diving site we went to was a beautiful island right off the southern tip of Koh Tao called Koh Nangyuan.  Koh Nangyaun (in the pic at the top of the post) has two small peaks with a strip of sand in-between which turns into a beach during low tide.  Trying to breathe through your regulator for the first time is not as easy as you think it would be.  It took me three times dunking my head underwater trying to breathe through regulator before I actually did it.  Your brain just isn’t wired to think you can do that.  The skills that they make you do before include things like taking your regulator out of mouth, taking off your mask, removing your bcd, etc all underwater.  At the time I did not realize how important it was to know how to be comfortable with removing your regulator and clearing your mask, especially when your sick.  

Scuba Junction

After completing the skills we went to another dive site nearby for our first real dive.  We jumped in the water and prepared to do a controlled decent off a buoy line.  That first decent was a struggle for me.  Because of the chest cold I had just started to get the day before, I was having a hell of a time equalizing my ears.  On the first attempt to decent we got to about 5-6m down and couldn’t equalize my ears and I admit I panicked a bit.  I signed to our instructor about my ear problems and made my ascent, probably to rapidly, but I wanted out.  Kerry reassured me that we could just take it slow and make sure I could equalize.  So we tried the decent again and we slowly went down with me struggling to equalize, but eventually getting down the buoy line.  That first dive was a really amazing, but extremely uncomfortable experience.  I don’t remember doing something that was simultaneous so beautiful, yet so unpleasurable at the same time.  That first dive we saw some blue spotted stingray, moray eels, a lot of coral and various fish.  On the ascent my ears were going crazy with a crackling sound and a slightly sharp pain.  When we surfaced, I took off my mask and snot and blood poured out of my nose.  The blood really took me by surprise and I think it took Rudy by surprise too.  Apparently it’s not uncommon for people to have nose bleeds when diving though.  

Sunset from Scuba Junction

After returning to my bungalow for the night, I relaxed and contemplated whether I actually wanted to continue.  Knowing that I had to be Scuba Junction and on the boat at around 8am the next morning was not sounding good to me.  My ears hurt and my cold was getting worse.  I didn’t want to wake up again to something that was making feel so miserable.  I did wake up the next morning though and decided to man up.  I had already paid a deposit that I wasn’t going to get back at this point, so I figured I should just get it done.  The second day was much like the first day expect for the fact that I felt more in control.  That first dive I felt so out of control and uncomfortable that didn’t really feel like doing it again.  I felt like if something went wrong I’d really panic.  After practicing our skills again in 3-4m of water in the morning of the second day I was starting to get a hang of the skills and I felt as comfortable as I could considering the circumstances.  The two dives we did that day I felt much more in control, which made the experience better.  I still was having issue equalizing my ears, making the decent and ascent really unpleasant every time.  While I was underwater I was continually having to clear snot out of mask and very time we reached the surface I had a nose bleed.  If that whole part between the decent and ascent wasn’t so damn nice, I would have given up.  We saw barracuda, pufferfish, and loads of other neat fish the second day.  

Small Beach on the South End of the Island

That night I searched the island’s pharmacies for some decongestants. I think I went to every one of them on the island before I found some meds. A big group from Scuba Junction went out that night for dinner and drinks.  Everyone got the steak special, which happened to be the first decent piece of beef I really had had on this trip.  As I was finding out, it was hard to find decent western food.  I had started getting cravings for certain things back home like a good burger, but when I succumbed to the craving and actually tried to get some western food, it was never satisfying.  It’s really just better to ignore the craving and stick with local food as its cheaper and much better for obvious reasons.  

Day Two Dive Site 

By the third and final day of the Open Water course we had two more dives left and I was determine to finish what I had started.  The last two dives were more of the same struggle.  Our last dive was by far my favorite.  It was at a dive site called White Rock. It gets its name from the two towers of coral and huge white rocks that stand about 100ft apart.  Being our last dive it was also our deepest dive of 18m, the deepest you are allowed to go in the open water course.   This site was great because of the huge rock and coral formations that we swam beside and around.  The sheer amount of fish also made it really nice.  Again I had problems with my ears going down and coming up, but I knew it was my last dive and I’d get my certification if a completed the dive without any issues.  So, when we did complete the final dive I was happy it was over.  It was a great and horrible experience that I would not be trying again until my health was 100%. 

Fire on the Water

The brits, Rudy and I went out that night to celebrate us getting certified, but I felt like crap, so I had one beer and ended up heading to bed.   I was originally planning to leave Koh Tao as soon as finished my diving certification, but since I wasn’t feel like traveling all the way to Bangkok I decided to stay a few extra days. I figured I’d see if a little R&R would get my health back to normal.  Marytn gave me a few TV shows to watch, since I had mentioned that I had watched and enjoyed some British TV.  He gave me Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy and a show that I had been dying to watch but was unable to get in the US, An Idiot Aboard.  He also gave me the HBO show Boardwalk Empire which I quickly got hooked on.  So, for two days I watched some TV shows and relaxed at the beach, but my ears were only getting worse.  Since Koh Tao was such a small island there were only a few clinics, but no real hospital.  I decided I better cut my losses and head to Bangkok just in case I really needed a doctor.  I felt like I probably needed some antibiotics, which was something I wasn’t going to get on Koh Tao.  I said farewell to Marytn, Alex and Rudy, who were all going to stay on Koh Tao likely for another week, and jumped on a speed boat for the mainland. 

Koh Tao Part 1 - Minor Incidents and Illnesses Won’t Get Me Down

The trip from Phuket Town to Koh Tao was to be one of the most grueling travel days I have had so far.  A 5 hour bus ride then a 7 hour boat ride overnight to Koh Tao.  I got picked up from my hostel in Phuket Town by mini bus and immediately met two British guys, Martyn and Alex, that were making the same trek from the west coast islands to the east coast islands.  The bus ride was uneventful, but it was the boat ride I was more weary of anyway.  The bus dropped us off in Suran Thani where we had to wait for 4 hours or so for the night ferry to leave at 11PM.  At the pier we got the first view of the boat we were supposed to spend the night on.  Not bad, not good I thought, though I had truthfully had no idea what to expect beforehand. 

The Night Ferry To Koh Tao

Waiting at the pier, we went and got some food and watched a random guy roaming the streets on a elephant.  I didn’t expect my first elephant sighting to at a pier of a small Thai city, but I guess if guy wants to make a buck by selling peanuts for tourists to feed the elephant then that’s what you do you Thailand.  After a few hours enjoying the company of new friends at the pier, we boarded the ferry and found our tiny spaces to sleep.  The “beds” were really just two long pads that ran the length of the cabin and must have slept 50-60 of us like sardines.  Before leaving dock we spotted a cockroach crawling the wall above our heads.  I grabbed one of my flip flops to try to kill, but just missed.  The cockroach jumped off the wall and underneath a Thai girl that was trying to sleep nearby.  We had to tell the girl to get up and the cockroach scurried across the floor only to be killed by another guy a couple beds down from me.  The commotion had gotten everyone in the boat up and on the look out for roaches though.  I don’t know how many people actually got some sleep, but I sure did.  After sleeping poorly the past week, I was dead tired.  I didn’t care that I had zero personal space and knew that there were cockroaches crawling around. 

The “Beds” On The Night Ferry

We reached the pier at Koh Tao around 6 in the morning.  We grabbed some breakfast near the pier since Scuba Junction, the place where I had accommodation and the Scuba course with, wasn’t even open this early.  After a leisurely breakfast we grabbed a taxi and headed to Sairee Beach which is the largest, most populated section of beach on the small island of Koh Tao.  We got our bungalows and decided to meet up later in the day to rent motorbikes to explore the island.  By this time, I was feeling pretty confident on a motorbike, but Koh Tao is not an easy place to ride a motorbike if you’re new to it.  The roads are full of potholes or just non existant rocky dirt roads.  Koh Tao means Turtle Island in Thai and that’s because of the shape of the island.  Small oval island where unlike the limestone cliffs of the west coast islands, Koh Tao has several large hills that make the middle of island the highest point in elevation like a turtle’s shell.   So, we decided to headed to a small beach at the northern point of the island not sure how bad the roads would be.  The more north we went the more rough and the more steep the roads became.  Finally we reached a paved driveway that was a very steep downhill.  We very shortly debated whether to go down it or not and then set off riding both of the brakes all the way down.  The beach at the bottom was a very nice small quiet beach.  Not too many people and it had a really nice small resort right on the waterfront.  We hung out there for a bit and then decided to head back before the sun went down.  Now we had the daunting task of getting our not so powerful mopeds back up this steep hill.  Well, I had the most powerful bike of the three as we found out. I passed Alex going back up the hill and was making my way back to the top fairly easily.  Alex was behind me when his bike could not go any further.  He got off the bike and started slowly making is way up that way.  My bike was about 50ft from the top when it finally couldn’t go any further.  I jumped off the bike and started to push my way up as well, but I was not as graceful as Alex.  When I jumped off the bike, I accidentally hit the accelerator hard and the bike took off without me I right into a ditch.  Not good.  The bike was upside down in the ditch and I feared the worst.  I was thinking the bike would be really messed up and may not start when we pulled it out.  Luckily there were a few guys walking up the incline at the same time we were. They helped me pull the bike out of the ditch and push it back up the hill.  The bike was in really good shape considering it was just upside down in ditch.  It was scratched up pretty badly and there was a hole in the front fender, but besides that it came out pretty good.  It started up after a few revs thank goodness and we took off back to Sairee beach.  

The Steep Road Down To The Beach

I was rattled by the incident though and worried about what I was going to cough up for the damages.   When we reached Sairee we head straight to Lotus Bar to catch the sunset and happy hour.  Probably the best sunset I had seen on any on island. Enjoying happy hour while lying on the beach at sunset is something I could get use to for sure.  We had a good night out that night, but I was still worried about what I was going pay the next day when I had to return the bike.  

Sunset At The Lotus Bar

The next day I woke up feeling like I had a cold coming on.  Nothing too bad, but I knew I need to take it easy before starting Scuba diving the next day.  Little did I know how long and the extent that my various illnesses would last.  Anyway, in the morning I checked out the bike again and tried to make it look a bit better.  I washed off all the dirt and a few of the scratches, but there were still some major dings and the one obvious hole in the front fender.  It looked a bit better though.  So, I took it down to the shop and awaited the bad news.  And it was bad.  They immediately noticed the hole and then most of the scratches.  So, they took out a sheet a paper to assess the damages.  They had a price for each part of the bike which was damaged and no matter how much damage there was they added the full amount of each part’s value together, which ended up coming out to 8000 baht (around $260 USD).  Well, I didn’t think it was fair that I was getting charged full price for each part when they were that badly damaged.  So, I tried to talk him down as best I could despite the language barrier and got him down to 6000 baht ($200 USD).  Better than 8000, but I still think I was getting ripped off.  There was nothing I could do though, as my passport was being held as collateral.  So, I coughed up the money and got my passport back.  I’m fairly certainly of two things:  1. They make the majority of there money off of idiots like me that damage the bikes. 2.  That they didn’t repair the bike at all and just started renting it out again.   When it’s only 150 baht ($3) to rent a bike for a day, I know they’re not making a killing off renting.  Regardless, this was the roughest day I had on the trip so far.  I was getting sick and I just had to cough up the equivalent of a weeks worth of travel.  I tried my best to stay in good spirits though.  All I had to do is remind myself that I was on a beautiful island in Thailand and that I wasn’t hurt at all on the bike.  That’s really what it comes down too.  No reason to be mad or get down about it. 

Post Wreck Bike Not Looking That Bad

The rest of the day was spent chilling out until 4PM when I had to go over to Scuba Junction to get the course debriefing, gear fitting and first two video lessons out of the way before going out on the boat tomorrow.  Of course the videos warned against diving when you are sick.  I let the instructor know that I was starting to feel a little ill, but she assured me that if I could equalize (or pop) my ears that I’d be fine.  Having a cold can block your sinuses which makes it hard to equalize.  I was going to give it a go either way.