· Tropical island paradiseKo Tao, Thailand · 27th Dec 2007 · Posted by Annie
Before we left New Zealand, Chris and I spent weeks reading about places to visit, islands to see... it all got a bit confusing basically because there are too many things to see and do in Thailand! One of the set of islands that seems popular with tourists (but not as popular as Phuket) is on the Eastern side of the South of Thailand - "Ko Samui", "Ko Phang-Ngan" and "Ko Tao". The first two are the party islands - Ko Phang-Ngan is where the "full moon parties" are held. We heard that this year the full moon party fell on Christmas Eve and that there were gonna be 50,000+ people attending. OMG.
Anyway, Chris and I were dying to find that tropical island paradise that everyone dreams about - white sand, crystal blue waters... etc etc. We decided to try out Ko Tao since it is the smallest of the group of 3 islands and probably the least busy. Getting there was no easy task. We decided not to take the same route as everyone else - Krabi - Surat Thani - Ko Samui - Ko Phang-Ngan - Ko Tao. Instead we decided to go via Chumphon, a port on the Eastern coast of the South of Thailand. Boats depart from Chumphon for Ko Tao directly, sweet. However, getting to Chumphon was actually quite complicated - we caught a 4:30pm bus from Phang-Nga which got us into Chumphon at approx 11:30pm. There aren't many taxis around at that time! Luckily after some stressing, we found an old guy who chucked me and our bags into the back of his ute and sat Chris in the front next to him and drove us to our hotel. We stayed at the "Paradorn Inn" - a fairly flashy looking hotel for only 360 baht a night! Sweet.
Up at 5:30am the next morning for a 5:45am pick up, bus, boat and we finally arrived in Ko Tao with a million other tourists at around 9:30am. We had no reservations made yet so we looked at some maps and eventually tried out a place called "Sunset Buri Resort" in Sawaii Beach. Really very nice - with a pool and it's own little stretch of beach out front, we got a bungalow for 700 baht with fan, tv, fridge and bathroom. The only down-fall - cold water only in the bathroom. However, it would have cost us almost an extra 2000 baht to have a room with hot water so we figured we could just deal with it. It's really hot here anwyay so who needs hot water :P
We've spent 5 nights here and it's been great. This was just the right place to have a few days of doing pretty mcuh nothing. Most days we got up at around 10am, wandered down to the pool / beach, sat around, read our books (mum: just read "Private Dancer" by Stephen Leather - very good! I recommend it!), ate, blogged. On our first day here we rented a quad-bike and tried out several 'roads' that were marked on our little map. Umm... roads is such an overstatement. Some of these 'roads' are more like dirt tracks, with pot-holes and huge rocks in the way. Scary. Chris attempted a couple of rather steep looking 'roads' but mostly we turned around after I complained about it being scary. It was! I had to hold on so tight so that I wouldn't fall off the end!
Another day, we hired a scooter (200 baht for 24 hours) and some snorkels, masks and fins and drove down to the south of the island. We'd been told to stop near a big mango tree and follow a path down to the beach where there would be good snorkelling. Sweet, only problem being that neither Chris nor I actually know what a mango tree looks like. We found a parking lot of scooters and followed some people carrying towels down a wee track labelled as 'private'. Eventually we hit a beautiful beach, again, white sands, crystal blue waters, the works. There was a little hut selling beers and ice creams and a few people lying around in the sun. It didn't look like you could get to this beach any other way than down the little path or by boat, so there really weren't many people there. We went snorkelling and saw lots more fish, but I freaked out a bit when we heard some other tourists say that they'd seen a shark. No surprise really as this beach was called "Shark Bay" - but according to the locals they are harmless, don't bite humans. Uhhh, I still don't like the sound of that. I personally didn't see any sharks though, and I'm quite happy with that.
We tried sun-bathing for a while but even at 3pm, the sun beams down like you're under a grill in the oven. We couldn't stand it for long so had an ice cream and went for a walk. Found a small resort at one end of the beach called "Rocky Resort" that had super basic bungalows for 600 baht but the cool thing was that they were little wooden rooms on stilts, with a small balcony facing out towards the sea and a window at the foot of the bed also facing out towards the sea. The wood panelling was really rough, with gaps everywhere, so there was a mosquito net over the bed. And that's about it. We thought it would be really cool to sit in bed and have the window open, looking out across the ocean, but unfortunately don't have time to go back. Next time!
Other than that, we've had a few great Thai meals and a couple of Italian, just to mix it up. One evening we had a lovely Italian meal and ended up talking to this old Italian guy about Italy and travel and all sorts of other things. He invited Chris and I to have a shot of 'grappa', very strong stuff. Burnt my throat. I made Chris finish it while our friend wasn't looking. We also had some drinks at a "beach lounge" called "Fizz" right on the beach... while sitting on some very trendy lime green bean bags.
The water at the beach outside our resort was incredibly warm and very shallow. Chris and I bought a frisbee and threw it around while in the water, lots of fun.
So far Thailand has exceeded all my expectations of a cool travel destination. There are lots of hippy looking backpackers around, lots of very tanned people walking around in swim suits. But there aren't too many people, if you know what I mean. And you can always go and find yourself a stretch of beach that has fewer people on it if that's your thing. Thai meals here in Ko Tao cost about 60 baht each (that's like NZD$2) and drinks about 120 baht. There are Internet cafes, cafes serving western style food (and coffees!), a bar much like the grumpy mole. We even found a shop that sells music, movies and tv shows to put on your ipod - all you have to do is take your ipod along, make your choice and pay your money and thru the magic of iTunes, music and movies are copied onto your ipod just like that. There are shops that sell clothes, swimsuits, diving shops, tours, etc etc... basically everything you need but not in a big air-conditioned mall. But mostly what makes the place are the people - the locals I mean - they are all so lovely. Everyone smiles. I like catching people's eyes because then I can smile at them and get a smile back. For some reason that seems really rewarding.
One thing I have been pondering, however, is how people who like to travel in 'style' manage here. For one thing, getting to the islands doesn't seem like your average airplane, taxi, resort sort of thing. I'll give you an example - when you board a boat, someone takes your backpack / suitcase and chucks it into a massive pile out on the deck. It's then your responsibility to try and find it under the thousands of heavy backpacks and suitcases when you want to get off. This is very hard to do when there are dozens of other people all trying to do the same thing and the boat is rocking around all over the place. Then, once you get your backpack on your shoulders, you're told to get off the boat 'over there'. You wonder what they mean because as far as you're concerned, you're actually parked next to another boat, which is parked next to another boat, and another, and another and THEN there's the pier. So with your 15kg backpack on your shoulders or suitcase in hand, and a helping hand from one of the boat staff, you have to take a leap of faith and jump onto another boat which is also rocking around. Not so easy. Then again and again until you finally hit dry land. Once you're on dry land, it's not over because that's when you're confronted by dozens of people offering you a place to stay. That's when you notice everyone else getting into mini-vans or into the back of utes. You wonder how everyone else seems to know what's going on except for you, so you just follow blindly. Scrambling to get into the back of a converted ute, you let someone swing your backpack onto the roof of the vehicle (not tied down of course) and off you go, in some direction. Anyway, I'm not complaining about all this - it's all part of the experience and it sure is exciting. However, I can't help but wonder how people who like to travel 'in style' would have done the same trip. Are there private boats that take you places, where a taxi is waiting for you? If someone knows the answer to this, please let me know so I can tell my parents and they can visit Thailand too! I just really can't see my mum jumping from boat to boat then into the back of a ute!
Anyway, enough of a rant. We love Thailand and would really like to come back here some time and see more of the islands.
This afternoon we're on a boat and overnight bus to Bangkok, a bit of a change of scenery for us!
Anyway, Chris and I were dying to find that tropical island paradise that everyone dreams about - white sand, crystal blue waters... etc etc. We decided to try out Ko Tao since it is the smallest of the group of 3 islands and probably the least busy. Getting there was no easy task. We decided not to take the same route as everyone else - Krabi - Surat Thani - Ko Samui - Ko Phang-Ngan - Ko Tao. Instead we decided to go via Chumphon, a port on the Eastern coast of the South of Thailand. Boats depart from Chumphon for Ko Tao directly, sweet. However, getting to Chumphon was actually quite complicated - we caught a 4:30pm bus from Phang-Nga which got us into Chumphon at approx 11:30pm. There aren't many taxis around at that time! Luckily after some stressing, we found an old guy who chucked me and our bags into the back of his ute and sat Chris in the front next to him and drove us to our hotel. We stayed at the "Paradorn Inn" - a fairly flashy looking hotel for only 360 baht a night! Sweet.
Up at 5:30am the next morning for a 5:45am pick up, bus, boat and we finally arrived in Ko Tao with a million other tourists at around 9:30am. We had no reservations made yet so we looked at some maps and eventually tried out a place called "Sunset Buri Resort" in Sawaii Beach. Really very nice - with a pool and it's own little stretch of beach out front, we got a bungalow for 700 baht with fan, tv, fridge and bathroom. The only down-fall - cold water only in the bathroom. However, it would have cost us almost an extra 2000 baht to have a room with hot water so we figured we could just deal with it. It's really hot here anwyay so who needs hot water :P
We've spent 5 nights here and it's been great. This was just the right place to have a few days of doing pretty mcuh nothing. Most days we got up at around 10am, wandered down to the pool / beach, sat around, read our books (mum: just read "Private Dancer" by Stephen Leather - very good! I recommend it!), ate, blogged. On our first day here we rented a quad-bike and tried out several 'roads' that were marked on our little map. Umm... roads is such an overstatement. Some of these 'roads' are more like dirt tracks, with pot-holes and huge rocks in the way. Scary. Chris attempted a couple of rather steep looking 'roads' but mostly we turned around after I complained about it being scary. It was! I had to hold on so tight so that I wouldn't fall off the end!
Another day, we hired a scooter (200 baht for 24 hours) and some snorkels, masks and fins and drove down to the south of the island. We'd been told to stop near a big mango tree and follow a path down to the beach where there would be good snorkelling. Sweet, only problem being that neither Chris nor I actually know what a mango tree looks like. We found a parking lot of scooters and followed some people carrying towels down a wee track labelled as 'private'. Eventually we hit a beautiful beach, again, white sands, crystal blue waters, the works. There was a little hut selling beers and ice creams and a few people lying around in the sun. It didn't look like you could get to this beach any other way than down the little path or by boat, so there really weren't many people there. We went snorkelling and saw lots more fish, but I freaked out a bit when we heard some other tourists say that they'd seen a shark. No surprise really as this beach was called "Shark Bay" - but according to the locals they are harmless, don't bite humans. Uhhh, I still don't like the sound of that. I personally didn't see any sharks though, and I'm quite happy with that.
We tried sun-bathing for a while but even at 3pm, the sun beams down like you're under a grill in the oven. We couldn't stand it for long so had an ice cream and went for a walk. Found a small resort at one end of the beach called "Rocky Resort" that had super basic bungalows for 600 baht but the cool thing was that they were little wooden rooms on stilts, with a small balcony facing out towards the sea and a window at the foot of the bed also facing out towards the sea. The wood panelling was really rough, with gaps everywhere, so there was a mosquito net over the bed. And that's about it. We thought it would be really cool to sit in bed and have the window open, looking out across the ocean, but unfortunately don't have time to go back. Next time!
Other than that, we've had a few great Thai meals and a couple of Italian, just to mix it up. One evening we had a lovely Italian meal and ended up talking to this old Italian guy about Italy and travel and all sorts of other things. He invited Chris and I to have a shot of 'grappa', very strong stuff. Burnt my throat. I made Chris finish it while our friend wasn't looking. We also had some drinks at a "beach lounge" called "Fizz" right on the beach... while sitting on some very trendy lime green bean bags.
The water at the beach outside our resort was incredibly warm and very shallow. Chris and I bought a frisbee and threw it around while in the water, lots of fun.
So far Thailand has exceeded all my expectations of a cool travel destination. There are lots of hippy looking backpackers around, lots of very tanned people walking around in swim suits. But there aren't too many people, if you know what I mean. And you can always go and find yourself a stretch of beach that has fewer people on it if that's your thing. Thai meals here in Ko Tao cost about 60 baht each (that's like NZD$2) and drinks about 120 baht. There are Internet cafes, cafes serving western style food (and coffees!), a bar much like the grumpy mole. We even found a shop that sells music, movies and tv shows to put on your ipod - all you have to do is take your ipod along, make your choice and pay your money and thru the magic of iTunes, music and movies are copied onto your ipod just like that. There are shops that sell clothes, swimsuits, diving shops, tours, etc etc... basically everything you need but not in a big air-conditioned mall. But mostly what makes the place are the people - the locals I mean - they are all so lovely. Everyone smiles. I like catching people's eyes because then I can smile at them and get a smile back. For some reason that seems really rewarding.
One thing I have been pondering, however, is how people who like to travel in 'style' manage here. For one thing, getting to the islands doesn't seem like your average airplane, taxi, resort sort of thing. I'll give you an example - when you board a boat, someone takes your backpack / suitcase and chucks it into a massive pile out on the deck. It's then your responsibility to try and find it under the thousands of heavy backpacks and suitcases when you want to get off. This is very hard to do when there are dozens of other people all trying to do the same thing and the boat is rocking around all over the place. Then, once you get your backpack on your shoulders, you're told to get off the boat 'over there'. You wonder what they mean because as far as you're concerned, you're actually parked next to another boat, which is parked next to another boat, and another, and another and THEN there's the pier. So with your 15kg backpack on your shoulders or suitcase in hand, and a helping hand from one of the boat staff, you have to take a leap of faith and jump onto another boat which is also rocking around. Not so easy. Then again and again until you finally hit dry land. Once you're on dry land, it's not over because that's when you're confronted by dozens of people offering you a place to stay. That's when you notice everyone else getting into mini-vans or into the back of utes. You wonder how everyone else seems to know what's going on except for you, so you just follow blindly. Scrambling to get into the back of a converted ute, you let someone swing your backpack onto the roof of the vehicle (not tied down of course) and off you go, in some direction. Anyway, I'm not complaining about all this - it's all part of the experience and it sure is exciting. However, I can't help but wonder how people who like to travel 'in style' would have done the same trip. Are there private boats that take you places, where a taxi is waiting for you? If someone knows the answer to this, please let me know so I can tell my parents and they can visit Thailand too! I just really can't see my mum jumping from boat to boat then into the back of a ute!
Anyway, enough of a rant. We love Thailand and would really like to come back here some time and see more of the islands.
This afternoon we're on a boat and overnight bus to Bangkok, a bit of a change of scenery for us!
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