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Way, way back in early October, the school semester finally came to a close and teacher ryan and I made our escape from Samut Prakarn on a train bound for the southern town of Chumpon.
First, I'll back up a little.. when ryan and i arrived at the train station in Bangkok, we were descended upon by a herd of thais in blinding orange shirts asking us where we were going (I foolishly told them the truth) and then proceeding to insist adamantly, frantically that the trains to Chumpon were full and that we only had 7 minutes to book a private bus or else we'd be stuck "for long, long, long time" in bangkok. Despite their size these little guys were impressive in their ability to herd us away from the ticket counter and over to a corner of the station where i started to believe them and consider buying into their urgent orange shirty scam.. Ryan, luckily, broke free and found out at the ticket counter that trains to Chumpon were not, in fact, full and booked us two seats on the night train leaving an hour later.
Turns out we bought tickets for an "economy" car. this made for a memorable trip...
Hot and sweaty because the one ceiling fan in the car was broken, the two of us were smooshed in seats shared with disgruntled strangers in the back of the train car. The seats themselves were defunct, locked permanently in a severely reclined position, which would have been just fine if it weren't for the fact that all the cleaning supplies for the train were apparently stored directly behind the seats. A sullen man with shaggy twigs of hair obscuring his eyes shuffled over every (what felt like) 5 minutes to retrieve or replace another bucket or mop or bottle or rag, at which point I'd scootch my body up against the seat in front of me as he wrestled with the broken seat back, wriggling and jerking his torso in behind me. every five minutes. Additionally, as the train pulled out of the station there began a clanking noise - a really disturbing, terrible, something-is-breaking sort of sound - emanating from somewhere directly below my feet. The din continued for the entirety of the 7 hour train ride and dissolved any hope I may have had of sleeping that night.
Bleary eyed and in a shitty mood when we arrived in Chumpon, I trudged alongside Ryan out from the station to the waiting bus which carted us out to a waiting ferry which, finally, carried us to our island destination.
Finally in Ko Tao, we booked a bungalow at Blue Wind Resort (cheapest place we could find, at about $5 usd each/night), dumped our backpacks and perused the dive shop options on Hat Sai Ri. Within an hour we settled on Big Blue Divers and were on the next boat out that afternoon. Poor visibility and a big group made for a less than spectacular dive, but it was great to get back in the water again after almost 7 months on land..
the Gulf of Thailand (and a pitiful scrap of the thai flag)
from the diveboat
upper deck where we ate cookies and sunbathed between dives
big boulders on Laem Nam Tok
Laem Nam Tok again
The beach where we stayed on Ko Tao, Hat Sai Ri, is popular with backpackers and other young travelers looking to get scuba certified in what is perhaps the cheapest and most popular place on earth to become an open water diver. This means we found ourselves in the company on 100s of Americans, Europeans, Australians looking for (and finding plenty of) sun, sand and cheap booze. It was fun to eat all the western foods i'd been craving, drink cold beers at beachside bars, meet a few interesting travelers and get some diving in, but we eventually tired of Ko Tao's (more specifically Hat Si Ri's) frat party feel and were ready to move farther south to Ko Lanta.
Way, way back in early October, the school semester finally came to a close and teacher ryan and I made our escape from Samut Prakarn on a train bound for the southern town of Chumpon.
First, I'll back up a little.. when ryan and i arrived at the train station in Bangkok, we were descended upon by a herd of thais in blinding orange shirts asking us where we were going (I foolishly told them the truth) and then proceeding to insist adamantly, frantically that the trains to Chumpon were full and that we only had 7 minutes to book a private bus or else we'd be stuck "for long, long, long time" in bangkok. Despite their size these little guys were impressive in their ability to herd us away from the ticket counter and over to a corner of the station where i started to believe them and consider buying into their urgent orange shirty scam.. Ryan, luckily, broke free and found out at the ticket counter that trains to Chumpon were not, in fact, full and booked us two seats on the night train leaving an hour later.
Turns out we bought tickets for an "economy" car. this made for a memorable trip...
Hot and sweaty because the one ceiling fan in the car was broken, the two of us were smooshed in seats shared with disgruntled strangers in the back of the train car. The seats themselves were defunct, locked permanently in a severely reclined position, which would have been just fine if it weren't for the fact that all the cleaning supplies for the train were apparently stored directly behind the seats. A sullen man with shaggy twigs of hair obscuring his eyes shuffled over every (what felt like) 5 minutes to retrieve or replace another bucket or mop or bottle or rag, at which point I'd scootch my body up against the seat in front of me as he wrestled with the broken seat back, wriggling and jerking his torso in behind me. every five minutes. Additionally, as the train pulled out of the station there began a clanking noise - a really disturbing, terrible, something-is-breaking sort of sound - emanating from somewhere directly below my feet. The din continued for the entirety of the 7 hour train ride and dissolved any hope I may have had of sleeping that night.
Bleary eyed and in a shitty mood when we arrived in Chumpon, I trudged alongside Ryan out from the station to the waiting bus which carted us out to a waiting ferry which, finally, carried us to our island destination.
Finally in Ko Tao, we booked a bungalow at Blue Wind Resort (cheapest place we could find, at about $5 usd each/night), dumped our backpacks and perused the dive shop options on Hat Sai Ri. Within an hour we settled on Big Blue Divers and were on the next boat out that afternoon. Poor visibility and a big group made for a less than spectacular dive, but it was great to get back in the water again after almost 7 months on land..
the Gulf of Thailand (and a pitiful scrap of the thai flag)from the diveboat
upper deck where we ate cookies and sunbathed between dives
big boulders on Laem Nam Tok
Laem Nam Tok againThe beach where we stayed on Ko Tao, Hat Sai Ri, is popular with backpackers and other young travelers looking to get scuba certified in what is perhaps the cheapest and most popular place on earth to become an open water diver. This means we found ourselves in the company on 100s of Americans, Europeans, Australians looking for (and finding plenty of) sun, sand and cheap booze. It was fun to eat all the western foods i'd been craving, drink cold beers at beachside bars, meet a few interesting travelers and get some diving in, but we eventually tired of Ko Tao's (more specifically Hat Si Ri's) frat party feel and were ready to move farther south to Ko Lanta.
the memorable pizza place where I tasted my first bite of cheese since leaving the states...heaven.
greasy, salty, cheesy heaven.
Hat Sai Ri early in the morning beforelast night's partiers emerged
Hat Sai Ri
longtails lined up waiting to take the first round of divers out for the dayKo Lanta post to follow.
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