Early ReTHAIerment

After 24 hours of flying, we arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday, December 7, 2010 That night and the next couple days were spent relaxing, trying to get over jet lag, and getting bus/boat tickets to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, where we planned to start our 11 month adventure.

Our transportation to Ko Tao – a backpacker/dive island in the Gulf of Thailand – was an air-conditioned overnight bus to Chumphon and then a morning ferry to the island.  Having not taken ground transportation in Thailand before, we were actually quite impressed with the bus.  It was a nice relaxing ride and we were actually able to get some sleep until the four of us on the bus who were going to Ko Tao were ushered off of the bus at 3am on a quiet and dusty stop on the side of the road.  The bus drivers – who of course spoke little English – told us to ‘wait here’ and then drove off leaving us standing there wondering what was next.  While we waited, one guy we were with noticed that his zippers on his backpack were in a different position than he left them and further confirmed that its contents had been sorted through.  Sure enough, our bags had been searched as well – even though they were locked with pad locks.  Turns out that all of us had one of those new ‘TSA-approved’ pad locks on our bags.  The idea is that you can lock your bag, then check it at the airport, and the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) can open it to search it if desired, but you are safe-guarded from theives.  Apparently, TSA locks are no match for Thailand’s bus drivers and bag-handlers.  Nice job to whoever invented such a brilliant product – a lock that can be opened by anyone!  Given nothing was taken, and they did a very neat job repacking whatever they took out (Elise’s bag was re-packed better than she could do herself!), we just chalked this up to lesson learned and will no longer be using TSA-approved locks.  Eventually a truck driver arrived, loaded us in the back and transported us to the ferry.  We started the day at 4:30am having a large Chang beer while waiting for the 7am ferry.  

One of the reasons we decided to do this trip is because it never feels like a 2 – 3 week vacation is enough time to get out of the tourist areas and really experience and start to understand a new culture. With 1 – 2 months in each country we plan to visit, it seems like we should be able to make it to some of those out of the way places that aren’t just set up for tourism. We might be a little uncomfortable at the time, ‘roughing it’ so to speak, but those are the times you probably remember the most when you look back on it. However, we decided it might be better to ease into that lifestyle, so our time in Thailand is starting on a couple islands in the Gulf of Thailand, Ko Tao and Ko Phangan .  We’ve been on Ko Tao for about a week now, which is the place you go for beaches, sunsets, and most of all, inexpensive scuba diving. It is designed for tourists – beachside restaurants and bars serving any western cuisine you can imagine and Happy Hour drink specials (a tradition I’m pretty sure the Thais don’t observe on their own), bungalows with A/C and pools, and dive shop upon dive shop ready to certify anyone and everyone for a very inexpensive price. Needless to say, we haven’t exactly been roughing it this week. We’ve been chilling on the beach during the day, having dinner and drinks by the beach at sunset, and relaxing on the balcony of our cliffside bungalow with some books before going to sleep. We also decided to get in some diving before we left the island, and just finished the last of four dives a couple hours ago.  Ko Tao diving isn’t quite as impressive as our dive trip at the Similan islands in 2006 (Adaman Sea side of Thailand), but there were still plenty of colorful coral and fish to see in nice warm water, there were some beautiful dive sites.  Tomorrow we’re off to Ko Phangan, where we’re planning to stay through Christmas.  The tropical climate doesn’t make it feel all that Christmas-like, but there are random Christmas trees that have made appearances in a few guesthouses and restaurants to remind us that ‘tis the season. If we don’t get another blog post up before we leave Ko Phangan, we hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!