Back to Ko Tao

Victoria and I left Ko Tao mid afternoon on Monday to make our way back to Ko Phangan. Tuesday we went and checked out a different yoga studio on the island called Pyramid yoga. High up on a hill with a nice walk through the woods to get to, I had heard that the yoga studio was in the shape of a pyramid and quite interesting looking. However, they must have several studios on their property as the studio we had class in was not quite the shape of a pyramid. It was still a very nice studio and it was amusing listening to a bunch of rustling in the roof, constructed of leaves and other natural components from the environment. A moment later a medium sized rat came bursting through onto one of the beams up high, making its way across the room and disappearing back into the roof. Also sitting up high in the beams were a couple of large sized geckos relaxing and perhaps waiting for a meal to come their way.



On Wed, after having packed up my two bags, I was on the road again and back up to Ko Tao. I really enjoyed my time there, and wanted to experience the island a little more and perhaps do the scuba certification. My first day there I returned to Shark Bay to snorkle but didn't have any luck in seeing a black tipped shark. The next day, Thursday, Victoria rejoined me on the island. I was unable to talk her into doing the scuba certification with me, but we still had a great time together for the next 4-5 days. I decided to postpone doing my own scuba cert. as I preferred to spend my time with her while holding off on the cert. The next day we went snorkling on Shark bay together. The coral reefs weren't as stunning on the bay as I had seen in other locations, but it was nice being in a new spot and antipicating what may come up next. We had swam out a distance when Victoria decided she wanted to head back to the beach. I swam out a little further then decided to make my own way back to the beach. Upon arriving back I found Victoria in a shocked state as she had the luck to have one of the black tipped reef sharks swim by her on her swim back. Still a bit shaken and trembling, she commented how it happened so quick as the shark cruised right by her, paying no attention to her whatsever.



While I went back to Shark Bay several times in the next times to press my luck in seeing a shark, I had no such luck as the weather was on and off rainy and windy during the next several days. The visibility was terrible and only in certain spots could one see much of anything. One other beach we visited that was quite nice was Tanote Beach on the eastern coast of the island. While not possessing a huge beach, the snorkeling was supposed to be great with more chances of seeing non-dangerous sharks. However, like Shark Bay, the visibility was not very great due to the weather of the past few days. I would love to go back to the beach on a day of clear visibility as areas of visilibility I did observe were quite nice.



Our last day together was on Monday as Victoria was leaving that afternoon. Waking up that morning I spotted one of the large thai centipedes crawling along the baseboards of the room. About 3 or 4 inches long with sizable legs, they are supposed to pack a nasty bite and be a bit venomous. Thanks goodness it hadn't made its way onto the bed. I snapped a few pics of it and swept it out the door and off the porch, safe distance from the door. We were praying for good weather and lots of sun as the previous days weather had been so erratic. We were blessed with a beautiful day and headed back to our favorite beach, Shark Bay. It appeared as nearly everyone else on the island had the same idea from having been couped up from the foul beach weather in recent days. We arrived at the beach around 10 am and it was still relatively free from people. However, by noon prime beach space became scarce due to the influx of beach goers. I felt like I was on the French Riviera or Miami Beach observing on the beautiful European women sunbathing and swimming topless. I felt very lucky myself to be sitting alongside Victoria, very beautiful herself but a bit modest to be walking around and swimming topless.



Later in the day I had to drive Victoria to the pier to drop her off on her way back to Ko Phangan. She only had about 3 days left in her trip before she had to head back to Munich. I felt very blessed to have met her and have been able to spend about 3 wks with her. I will always remember the times I had with her on Ko Tao and Ko Phangan. She totally made my stay more memorable and worthwhile and I was quite sad to be seeing her leave. We will keep in touch through email and perhaps I will get a chance in the future to visit her in Munich if I get a chance to make it too Germany.

Ko Tao

On Sunday March 2, Victoria and I boarded a boat north to check out the small island of Ko Tao, world renowned for its coral reefs and scuba diving. After having been on Ko Phangan for the most part of two months, I was itching to get moving and visit some new places. Victoria had recently arrived 2 wks ago for yoga at Agama but had Sunday and Monday off from class and wanted to explore with me. We got ourselves a ticket for that morning and arrived on Ko Tao around 10 am, after a boat ride of a little more than 1 hr. Upon arriving at the main dock of the island and working ourselves through the usual melange of in your face and annoying taxi drivers and other associated solicitors, we made ourselves to a little restaurant to get something to eat and rent a motorbike. After inquiring with several scuba outlets about good coral reef and snorkeling spots on the island, they recommended heading to the southern portion of the island to several of the main bays, Chalok Baan Kao Bay and Thiang Og Bay, also referred to as Shark Bay.

Arriving at the beach, we walked around a bit, talking with some of the scuba diving schools and found ourselves a nice place to stay for the night. After settling in to our accomodation, we went out to the beach and had ourselves a nice swim and returned back to land where an awesome thai cuisine and seafood barbeque was starting up. We feasted for a bit and chatted with some others enjoying the BBQ. We decided not to drink too much that evening as we wanted to get up at a quality time the next morning and do some kayaking.

After breakfast the next morning we acquired ourselves a kayak and took off into the ocean on the way to Shark Bay. Within 10 minutes of paddling we managed to capsized the kayak and my snorkel set sank, along with Victoría's sunglasses. I was pretty annoyed as I had spent good money on the set and was planning on using them for a bit more. It was impossible to find the items as it had rained a bit lately and the water visibility was not great, in about 6 ft high water. Making it over to Shark bay around a bit of a peninsula called Ar Mae Rock took about 30 minutes. Shark Bay was beautiful and is known for having black tipped reef sharks swimming along the coasts not too far from the shore. There is also a chance for a rare sighting of sea turtles. As I didn't have my snorkel set I was unable to swim around snorkeling and observe the beautiful marine life under the surface of the ocean. However, shark bay made for good swimming and laying in the tropical sunshine. Having the kayak for about 4 hrs, eventually we had to make our ways back to the pier to catch our boat back to Ko Phangan in the mid afternoon. A very beautiful island with definitely a different feel and scene than Ko Phangan. Not as much of party or yoga scene like Ko Phangan, but essentially all about scuba diving, with dozens of companies promoting different levels of certification. The most basic certification offered is the 4 day Open Water Scuba Certification, going for about 9000 baht, or $300 US dollars. In addition, many of the schools throw in free basic lodging if you sign on with them. After graduating and receiving the certification, one is certified for life and can scuba anywhere in the world. The prices are then quite reasonable on Ko Tao for additional dives, with dives at the various sites around the island and region generally starting around $20-25 per 45 min-1 hr dive. After one completes the Open Water Scuba Certification they are also eligible to go on for more advanced scuba programs, including deeper sea diving, adventure diving, rescue diving, etc on way up to becoming scuba master and scuba instructor.