Fear & Loathing in Koh Tao
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2007
1
54
102
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Ko Tao, Ko Tao, Thailand
Saturday, April 26, 2008
the ferry from surat thani (or thereabouts) to ko samui was chilled and relaxed as was the onwards journey to ko phangan. we were even lucky enough to see some dolphins including 2 white ones in the harbour on the mainland before we met. met a cool girl called kasia (pronounced cawsha) from canada on the boat and we're sharing a room here now. then we steamed on into ko phnagan where the full extent of the post-FM exodus came into view.
stretching down the pier as far as the eye could see were gringos. gringos with guitars and gringos with trilbys. gringos in hoodies and gringos wearing the same clothes theyd possibly been wearing since arriving. girls with enormously large sunglasses, BMI's under 10, green eyeliner, peaches geldolf-esque back-combed hair and pumps. all under the age of 23, all looking like theyd never seen the light of day, some drunk, some loud, some hungover, some so off their faces they had no clue what was actually going on. and so they packed these beautiful waifs onto the boat until it was fit to burst. im no sailor but i know a seroiusly overloaded boat when i see one. they were sitting on the roof, on the front on the back, below deck, on each other. and so we set off and the ipods came out (more on ipods later) and they dozed their way through the journey, only pausing to fitfully sweep stray strands of bouffant hair from their faces or to open another singha. the diving touts moved up and the aisles trying to out-cool each other and gain more custom. some were polite, others used the full-on approach, some even lame comedy - "why do irish men wear 2 condoms? to be sure to be sure". hilarious. (i also heard the 5 condom version before we got there).
it was on the ferry where i first met Casualty. he was travelling with his 2 friends. he was wearing a camoflage green hoodie with the hood up and had hair a bit like greystones hayser back in the day. Casualty didnt really know what was going on, infact i dont think Casualty knew where he was. he claimed he lived on ko phangan half the year (doing exactly what (other than getting wasted) im not sure) but after the full moon each month hed get the ferry to ko tao for afew days and follow the party crowd. Casualty was like that person you meet at a festival in the dance tent on monday morning who hasnt slept for 3 days and is still dancing like its 1999.
the pier in ko tao was your usual cattle mart of touts and taxi drivers and hotel owners all trying to gain our custom. slowly we were all herded into ute/truck things and ferried off to our respective dive centres. crystal dive was our first port of call - wasnt impressed so left. tried big blue but they only had rooms for 3 nights. (if you ever plan on coming here make sure to check the full moon calendar as its almost impossible to get any accommodation the whole week after full moon.) ended up settling for simple life divers on sairee beach and then were lucky enough to find a lovely twin room with aircon and hot water for 1000 baht so that was good.
that night we ran into Casualty again in a local restaurant. his mates were tucking into grub while he sat there focussing on things none of us could see and occasionally stumbling off to the toilet. he asked Kasia if she was American or Canadian then ranted silently for 10 minutes about the Americans. hes not a well man, Casualty.
and so to the diving. its okay here but the weather has been unbelievably arse since we got here - pretty much lashing rain non-stop since we arrived. and seriusly lashings of tropical downpours. did 2 dives over by japanese gardens which were rubbish. max depth of 13m, DM was a child, nothing to see, pretty much no fish (oh my god look its a porcupine fish - thats as exciting as things got). then we came up only for me to look horrifiedly around to see there were at LEAST 17 other dive boats in the bay and the water was literally black and infested with newbie beautiful things doing their confined dives. it was as overcrowded as the boat. post-full moon is defo not the time to come here!
yeterday though we went to chumphon pinnacle and that was awesome. not an OW diver to be seen, amazing visibility and loads and loads of fish. no whale sharks which was a pity (there was one there the day before) but loads of other things. second dive was okay too.
met up with steve from ko lanta which was cool and his mate kelly. and then on thursday my good firiend oli and his mate riaz arrived from the UK so it was brilliant to see him again as its been a few years since we've met up.
and then in one final two fingers from Fate to me i made the devastating and i mean DEVASTATING discovery that my iPod is gone. its always in the front pocket of my bag and its not anymore. and because my ears were so sore id not used or checked it in a week so im not sure where i lost it though im pretty sure it was either on the similans liveaboard or else was stolen in surat thani. words cannot express how gutted i am. ALL my music. all of it. gone (of course backed up at home but im not going home or 7 more months so that doesnt help.) its the worst thing i could have lost (apart obviously from my passport.) looks like ill be investing in a new one in bangkok.
and so thats about it really. im off to file a police report so at least i can claim some rebate for my lost ipod when i get home. so its off to the beautiful people-lined streets of sairee where the bars show premiership footie and serve baked beans and HP sauce with toast, the girls try to out-quiff each other and out big-sunglass each other and the boys try and out-quad bike each other. the vibe is chilled, the age is young.
and somewhere up on the hills Casuaslty is still trying to figure out how he got here and what day it is. i saw him yesterday walking quietly behind his mates down the hill looking a little paler than before and with a little more focus in his eyes and a little bit less of a grin on his face. everyone has to come down sometime.
xx
