Independence and Underwater

After my mates all left for back home I was pretty depressed - no idea when I am going to see them again.
The best way that I could think of to combat that problem was to go on a new adventure, on my own, to Koh Tao.

Now if you ask anyone that has ever travelled alone they will tell you that you are never really alone.

I had lunch with Fitzey at our usual for the last time. It was kinda cute - the guy the served us almost every day saw that we had our big packs with us and asked where we were headed and said goodbye and wished us well. The benefit of repeat customers I suppose!

I told Fitzey I wanted to do my own thing for a little while and head up to Koh Tao to check out diving. He was fine with it so within half an hour I had booked a hostel, taxi to the pier and a ferry up to Koh Tao.

I arrived mid afternoon to the hostel, had a shower, some food and sat outside for a little while. Before too long I noticed two girls walk in - a couple German girls that Chris and Fitzey had met at the Full Moon Party a few nights earlier whom I met through them. Like I said, never alone.

I spent the night with them, a Canadian dude they knew, a Scottish guy and a few others I'm not sure on the nationality of.

===

The next day I was tossing up whether or not to hire a scooter and check out more of the island. The dive shop I had been recommended to go to was about 2.5km from my hostel and the heat was a bit of a killer.

I did some research and decided against it, so I walked.

I got to Mojo Divers and booked my course that day - 9000 baht with four nights accommodation. The course consisted of a couple hours of instructional videos, a confined water dive in ~2m water, more videos and an exam, finishing off with two dives on the third day and two more dives on the final day.

I borrowed a snorkel from the hostel and swam around Sairee Beach - the most popular beach on Koh Tao.

I sat on the beach, read my book and worked on my tan for a little before heading back to the hostel and getting ready for that night's diving course. 

===

The next morning I had to get up bright an early for a 9am start to go over the coursework for the diving (we had homework.. and here I thought I was on holiday), followed by the confined water skills tests.

The coursework was easy; read a book and do a reading comprehension style questionnaire. 

At midday we headed out to the boat, had our briefing and set up our own gear under supervision of our instructor. Mojo run maximum four people to an instructor so it was very hands on and easy to learn the skills. 

Dive equipment is all pretty well refined these days and everything plugs in and tightens where it is meant to go without any difficulty at all. 

We suited up, swam out to the dive site and began the skills test.

After submerging for the first time, my mask started filling up with water - before I had learnt the mask clearing skills. I managed to breath water in through my nose and freaked out, ripping my mask off, spitting my regulator (breather) out and surfacing - probably the worst possible things I could have done.

I managed to regain my composure and finish the rest of the skills without too much difficulty at all - it helped that the instructor lent me his mask which didnt leak as badly as the shop one I had to begin with!

The skills consisted of;

regulator recovery - taking the breather out underwater, clearing it and continue breathing

mask clearing - taking off your mask underwater, putting back on and blowing out through your nose to clear it

out of air - turning off the tank and breathing from a buddy's regulator (each suit has two regs)

buoyancy control - learning how to float with the buoyancy vest

BCV removal - taking off the buoyancy compensator vest (BCV) underwater and on the surface

weight belt removal - taking off and replacing the weight belt underwater and on the surface

and a few other less interesting things.

Above is the dive site, taken from the boat.

===

The next morning I had an even earlier start - 8am. This day started off with more instructional videos - yay. 

This was followed up with the exam. 50 multiple choice questions. The instructor said "we promote teamwork here at Mojo's .. but dont cheat ... but you can talk", and left the room. After comparing answers everyone scored very highly, only one or two wrong. Easy stuff.

Then it was on to the dive. We returned to the same dive site as the previous day but this time actually ventured out into the depths. 

The first dive was somewhat scary. The four of us with the instructor descended along a rope from a buoy to a depth of around 10m. I had a lot of trouble trying to equalise my ears and had a bit of pain, but once reaching the bottom it seemed to subside... or I got used to it, not sure which.

Unfortunately they don't allow the use of GoPro camera's or similar on the Open Water course due to the fact that people may not concentrate on diving and instead chase fish. Very disappointing. 

It was great fun trying to swim around underwater, playing with buoyancy in the vest and swimming. I didnt really see all that much as I was more concentrating on swimming and breathing that anything else. 

When it was time to surface my instructor pointed out that I had a blood nose - I was concerned. He said it was nothing to worry about and that it happens with new divers and may have been a result of my resurfacing too quickly.

Time really flies when you are under water. When we got back to the boat the instructor asked how long he thought we were under - I was thinking it was only 10-15 minutes. 27 minutes. Crazy.

The next dive of the day was a lot more fun. We descended again down a rope to 12 meters and saw a tonne of fish. I had problems with my ears once more but tried to forget about it and enjoy the dive. It really is a very peaceful activity; its relatively effortless as all you have to do is gently kick and the weight belt and buoyancy vest take care of the rest. 

Once more, when I surfaced, I had a blood nose. Now I was starting to grow concerned. I later read that it is caused by insufficient equalising while diving - something I had a lot of trouble doing. 

For the rest of the day I had a "water in the ear" feeling and couldnt hear well out of my right ear in particular. I have had problems with ear wax in the past so thought that it might have been that blocking my ear canal. I bought some ear drops to try to clear it up.

===

The next morning I woke up at 5:45am ready for my 6am morning dive. My ears were not much better than they were previously. I explained my situation to the guys at the dive shop and they said that I couldnt dive until my ears were sorted. 

I saw a doctor and was prescribed anti-inflammatory pills to fix the problem.

===

Today I had to decided to hire a scooter from my hostel. 200 baht (~$8) per day, it seemed like a good way to see the island.

Paul, a pom from my hostel, said he'd tag along with me to check out a couple view points around the island. I decided to go for a quick ride to get used to the scooter before taking a pillion - my first time riding one after all.

I rode up the hill from my hostel which quickly turned into a dirt road and I dropped it coming around a corner at a relatively low speed on a dirt road - great. Prior to hiring, all of the existing damage was pointed out to me and I was shown the cost's associated with damage. I scraped up one of the mirrors pretty bad but the rest was all where existing damage had occurred - we will see how much I have to pay when I return it...

After getting more used to the scooter, Paul jumped on and we headed up - the same hill - to the Mango Viewpoint.

The road was rather treacherous - dirt with a tonne of pot holes everywhere, but I made it up without stacking it (again). At the top I noticed all the other scooters that were up there had nobbly tires and mine had slicks, probably explains my difficulty!

We then cruised back down the hill - very slowly - and headed to the south of the island to Freedom Beach. The road here was much easier, paved most of the way with only a few potholes to negotiate. 

The beach was rather beautiful. Had a quick swim to cool off before heading back to the hostel once more.

Tonight there is a big pub crawl hosted by one of the pubs on the island that I plan on attending - its been forever since I've had a drink!

I have three more nights booked on Koh Tao, hopefully my ears clear up soon enough and I will be able to finish my dive course! 

Ko Pha Ngan

Our first night on Ko Phangan (the 3rd of March) we checked into a little bungalow-style guesthouse in Haad Rin with two rooms for the five of us. At around 420 baht per night it was rather nice.

We were all pretty wrecked from an entire day of busses and ferries, so just had a couple quiet drinks and acclimatised to the area a little.

===

The next morning the group of us went to check into our next accommodation - Drop in Club Resort.

Now there is a bit of a story behind this place. I initially found the property on booking.com late last year; it had a rating of around 7.5 from only a handful of reviews and looked really ritzy in the photos. The plan was to get a villa for us to hang out in and a three bed family room for the rest of us.

After booking the place I started doing more research into where it actually was - Google Maps didnt seem to provide the right answer as to where the actual place was. I then came across the resort on Trip Advisor. Wow. On Trip Advisor they had a couple hundred reviews and the average score was around 2/10, with a rank 89 of 92 properties on Ko Phangan. Great. The reviews said things like dirty bedding, rude staff, non-functioning utilities..

Most bookings on booking.com have free cancellation - not this place; half the cost of the room must be paid to cancel. Might as well see what it was like I figured.

We rocked up at reception and the bloke behind the counter had no idea we were coming. He sort of looked at me like "you booked this how?", not actually knowing the property was still even listed on booking.com. I showed him the receipt and he must have seen the price we were willing to pay because after that he changed his tone.

We ended up with two villas, one of which was the biggest on the whole resort - the master villa so to speak. It had a huge bathroom complete with (broken) jacuzzi, big shower and two toilets.

This place is just crazy. Never would it fly back home. The balcony handrails are all eaten out by termites and barely standing; most things dont work (such as the elevator); the villa pool is dirty and probably not worth swimming in; there are abandoned bars and restaurants scattered around...

It is just derelict. From what I can tell the property has been around since the late 90's, and in its prime it would have been an incredible place to stay. But now...
I have heard from the American hostel owners at Bodega that Thai workmanship is not exactly up to scratch. Thai's build things to work, not to last. It is easy to see that with no maintenance and a poor base this place just got totally run down and kept deteriorating. Its pretty well FUBAR.

After all this writing about how shoddy Drop in Club is, it has actually been a great place to stay. We haven't been cramped up in a little dorm for four nights - we have had serious space to move around. The master villa we have has a balcony area covering more than any accommodation I have stayed in to date. In the time we've spent here I have only seen four other people staying.

It also has character. Walking around you can see how pimp it would have been to stay here, but at the same time, you can be amazed at how fucked it is now.

Chris also bought a pack of firecrackers that we have been throwing into a little pond in one of the rooms, or at least trying to..

See the video here... by Adam Nikolavcic.

Any other place we have stayed would have kicked us out for the amount of noise we have made with these crackers, but here we have pretty well free reign - its crazy!

The five of us found a little Thai restaurant a few minutes away from us and a few minutes from the beach; it was one of the cheapest with all Thai dishes costing around the $4 mark or less. We proceeded to eat almost every meal at this place. The staff began to know what drinks we were going to order.

We spent the night checking out the beach and hanging out at "Mellow Mountain", the bar situated up the mountain at the end of Haad Rin beach. It had a hell of a view of the beach and we knew by the next day it was going to turn into total chaos.

===

Thursday, 5th of March, full moon day.

We woke up late, after midday some time. Everyone wanted to take things pretty easy in preparation for a big night ahead.

The party officially starts at sundown and officially finishes at sunup, but people start and finish much earlier and later than that!

We ate, we had a few drinks starting in the late afternoon and we walked down to check out the scene at around 8.30pm. Still pretty quiet.

A bunch of people were wearing UV paint, so we thought why not give it a go and buy some. We spent the next two hours in the room painting each other with crazy designs and just general stupid stuff. The UV painting was half of the fun of actually going out!

We head down as a group around 11pm and by now the party has really started to pick up. The alcohol buzz from earlier was beginning to wear off but we all just wanted to go nuts and dance.

Walking along the crowded beach to the north, every 15m of so is a different hotel playing different music. We settled on a place called Tommy Resort playing harder electronic dance and stayed there for while. I was really starting to feel the heat from the crowd and all the movement; it was totally packed out.

Adam and I went out to grab some water and a beer - the last drink of the night. The enormous energy from the tens of thousands of people packed onto this crazy beach in Thailand was enough to keep the spirits up to dance well into the night. I danced until around 4am completely sober.

I stayed up until sunrise, watching it from the rooftop bar at our resort before heading to bed.

===

Once again, we didn't do a whole lot the day following the full moon party. No one in our group was hungover, just completely exhausted from so much movement and energy.

I ended up meeting up with Nathan, the Canadian I met in Osaka a few weeks earlier. I knew he was going to be around for the party so it was good to catch up and share stories about where our travels have taken us since we last met.

He had spent time in Myanmar (Burma) since leaving Japan and was following pretty much a reverse route of where I had been - Phangan, Phi Phi, Phuket, Bangkok. We have decided to try to meet up on the 14th of March for his birthday in Bangkok and travel up north to Chiang Mai together. It's not much time for either of us so we'll see how that ends up!

===

Yesterday was my last full day with my mates from back home.

Adam, Chris and Errica went off to organise their ferry and bus back to Bangkok while I laid by the pool and read The Hobbit on my ebook reader. 7:30am they had to leave - 1.5 hours ago as I'm writing this.

We had an early last dinner together at a new restaurant. I splurged and had a burger - Western food is generally much more expensive than Thai food over here.

Adam, Chris, Fitzey and I had been toying with the idea of getting matching tattoos for the trip since before we left Australia. Ideas were thrown around such as full moons, owls, traditional Thai writing...

"I dont want no Asian shit on me" -Chris

Adam, Fitzey and I checked out a tattoo parlour not far from the beach. We were quoted 500 baht for the traditional Thai writing to be done with a bamboo stick. Sweet we thought, what a bargain - only $20.

We went back to the room and started thinking; we wanted something more unique and meaningful than Thai writing that none of us could read or understand. Then we had the idea to put English writing in a Thai style.

We sketched out a design and gave it to the shop. Adam had the idea to make it cursive to make it harder to read and look like Thai from a distance. The white guy running the shop quoted us 1500 baht for the four of us - buy three, get one free, he said. 375 each, even better!

After fiddling with fonts on the computer and getting it perfect we got it under way. Chris was first up - who, like me, had never had a tattoo. Chris was nervous about getting it done; he didn't like the idea of being constantly stabbed with a sharp stick.

I wasn't so nervous myself - I've donated blood and had immunizations, they generally aren't too bad. After they started on Chris I was happy to hear that it wasn't as painful as he thought it was going to be, and by my turn it really wasnt.

We didn't finish until around 3am. Fitzey went up first to hand over the cash, a 500 baht note. The dude just looked at him like "uhh, where is the rest". Now I dont know if it was some kind of break down in communication, a slip of the tongue on his behalf, or a flat out scam, but we all heard all night was five-hundred and fifteen-hundred thrown around, but apparently it was five-thousand each or fifteen-thousand for us all. 3,750 baht, around $140AUD each. Ouch.

I had to run to the ATM to grab extra cash by this point - I don't carry more than 1,500 on me ever, and I barely had enough stashed back at the room.

Even with paying 10x more than I expected, I am still happy with it. It has a great story behind it and I'll always remember the crazy party in Thailand with my closest mates.

It reads "Full Moon Party, 5 March Koh Phangan, Thailand 2015".

===

This morning I had to say goodbye to Chris, Adam and Errica. Very few words were spoken between us, just big hugs and a few tears. I love you guys for coming out and experiencing this part of the country with me. I don't know when I will get to see you guys again but whenever it is it already cant come soon enough.

Man, goodbyes suck.

From City to Island

It's both getting harder to find time to write and harder to find decent enough internet to post! As a result, I might jump around a bit with where I am and what I'm doing...

===

The last skytrain is around midnight. Chris and Adam were keen to head out as they landed and I hadnt had a night on Khaosan Road yet.

I got to their hostel around 11pm after hanging at a bar that had free billiards with Fitzey.. And I waited.

Their flight got in just before 1am; by 2am we were in a cab to Khaosan.

Somewhat to my displeasure, everything had closed by this time - not really that surprising! The street was still filled with drunken people and various street vendors, but no where near the bustling area it is earlier in the evening.

Immediately after getting to the road, Chris spotted a street vendor selling various bugs. He asked to try a fried cricket and got one for free ... Then decided to buy a plate. I have to admit, these were actually quite tasty. A little crunch as you bite into them but after it is really juicy. They are obviously marinated to hell because all you really taste is a nice barbecue flavour.

We finished the night walking around, having a drink at a bar and cabbing home. Taxi's are surprisingly cheap at night when there is no traffic - catching one through Bangkok at peak hour is less fun.

===

Thursday, Chris and Adam went off to stay with Adam's uncle, a few hours north west of Bangkok. Fitzey and I moved into the private 3 bed room we had booked at the same In a Box Hostel we stayed at earlier.

I dont really have much else to write about here. By this stage I had spent around five nights in Bangkok and was just over it. The beauty of Thailand is its nature, not an overcrowded somewhat dirty city - I was keen to get out.

Friday we checked into a guesthouse style hostel about 10 minutes walk from Khaosan Road. After doing so, we caught a taxi down to the Chinatown area, checked out a temple and walked the markets. Once more - a little more of the same.

One thing worth writing about here is the Pad Thai that I ate on Khaosan Road. Wow. For a mere 50 baht I had egg and shrimp pad thai from a little street vendor (with a huge line so you know know its good), and it was the best pad thai I have had and probably will have while here.

===

Saturday we reunited with Chris and Adam at the airport and the five of us jumped on a plane to Phuket. At the airport we managed to organise all of our ferries and transfers between the islands - thank goodness because I was a little worried having no idea how to get from one place to the next!  I dont mind when its just me and Fitzey, but being responsible for a bigger group is more stressful...

I didnt realise until I got to the hotel, but I accidently managed to book two different places for the same night in Phuket. One I booked well in advance before I left, and the other a hostel a few days earlier. We had to pay for both, about $42 all up. Luckily the hotel was really nice - two rooms between us and a pool in a good area.

The hotel was in Patong, once more a known seedy nightlife area. The four of us boys got lead into a club with a unique type of performances. Let's just say it involved table tennis balls, darts, razor blades and even a bird being removed from certain parts of the female anatomy. #Thailand.

===

7am the next morning we were picked up by a minibus and delivered to Phuket Town and its ferry station. An hour and a half on the ferry and we arrived on Phi Phi Don island. This place is just unbelievable. I am writing this sitting in the "common room" at the hostel, looking out into the most perfect beach I have ever seen. Beautiful blue waters, white sands and just cliffs and mountains surrounding it. Incredible.

During the day I begrudgingly spent a bit of time checking out the "Ibiza Pool Party" - DJ's were playing, people were standing around drinking in the pool and moving to the music. I hated it. Who comes to an exotic island with beautiful natural beaches to dance and drink in an enclosed pool area? Douchebags, that's who.

That night we head out from our hostel into the various beach parties. Partying at night? That's ok in my books! A bunch of the hostels/bars/clubs had fire shows out the front - very cool stuff. Some very talented Thai men twirling and throwing fire staffs was a hell of a sight. One guy even got onto a tight rope and started twirling... Practise makes perfect I guess!

===

The next day (yesterday, the 2nd) I organised for the four of us to go on a tour - and it was well worth it. We were taken by boat to the next island over from where we were staying - Phi Phi Le.

First stop was Monkey Beach - unsurprisingly based on the name, it had a bunch of monkeys hanging out.

From here was one of the main attractions for me - a cliff jump. We were taken to a rock face just off of one of the main formations and told to climb and wait at the top. The cliff had various levels of heights to jump off, the biggest being some 15m from the water. It was fucking scary. Standing rather safely in the middle of the rock and looking over, my legs were shaking almost uncontrollably.

Chris wasnt waiting around for us any longer and jumped off first. Adam and I look at each other like "ok .. I guess we have to go". I stepped to the edge, looking down at what I was standing on, looking at where I needed to jump, and I froze. I was half tempted to move to the lower platform, which had a much nicer run up than where we were. After hearing cheers from the two circling boats down below I thought "fuck it" and lept off, GoPro in hand.

That falling feeling; I love it. It reminded me of that first few moments when you jump out of a plane - another high adrenaline thing I wish I could do more of. I hit the water hard in what was more or less a pin drop. My contacts were immediately moved around; one had ripped out by the surge of water and the other dislodged on my eyeball somewhere. I swam for the surface for what felt like an eternity. I was out of breath, treading water, waiting for Adam to jump after - I had to film it after all.

I swam back to the boat and climbed aboard. Worth it. Of the eight or so people that jumped, Adam, Chris and I were the only ones to jump from the highest point. #Straya

From here, the next stop was somewhere for a spot of snorkelling - something I had been very excited to do again. I remember snorkelling as a kid up on the Great Barrier Reef and loved it. This time as an adult, I jumped in the water and I panicked. I kept losing my breath and struggling to breathe through the snorkel. It was so foreign, my brain took over and I kept having to take my mask off and tread water to settle myself.

I spent a good fifteen minutes swimming around and begun to relax and breathe better through the tiny tube. You do not need to swim fast, just gently flap around and take in the view - and what a view it was.

I plan to do a scuba diving certification course on Koh Tao in a week or so - mum and dad are paying as my birthday present; thanks guys! After my somewhat of a failure snorkelling I am pretty nervous about diving. It is something I really want to try out so I will persist!

Next stop was Maya Bay - the famous beach from the 1999 film The Beach. It was easily the most picturesque beach I had seen. Perfect in every way.

Unfortunately due to my prior issue with the contacts I could only see clearly out of one eye - I was sure to GoPro a lot of it!

We then jumped back in the boat and headed off to watch the sunset. More beautiful sights.

===

We only had two days on Ko Phi Phi, next stop was Ko Phangan and the Full Moon Party on the 5th of March.

Today was an entire day of travel. The group woke up around 830am, packed our gear, had a bite to eat at a restaurant and jumped on the 10am ferry. The ferry to Krabi took a couple hours, which was followed by a bus to Surat Thani on the northern side of Thailand's mainland, followed by a final two and half hour ferry to Ko Phangan.

Left at 10am, arrived at 8pm. Long day of moving around, but we covered a good distance in that time!

Malls and Art

Yet another relatively late night last night - just before I was about to head upstairs I got talking to a Canadian dude... We ended up hanging out most of the night and hitting up a local pool pub with free pool (score!).

Waking up around 11am, I Googled a few things that we should do today - with cheap being a deciding factor. I managed to find two different art galleries that were both free and a highly regarded shopping mall that turned out to be just around the corner from the hostel. 

First up Fitzey and I headed to the Terminal 21 mall. We wandered around for a while through it, checking out the stores on each of the six floors. 

Much to our delight, the top floor of the mall was a food court ... and it was cheap! Very appetising meals could be had just about anywhere for the around $2 mark!

From here we headed to the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, a free art gallery just off the Skytrain route - very easy to get to from where we were. 

The building is nine stories high with a handful of exhibits dotted around the building. 

My favourite exhibition was a bunch centred around Crow's - some very dark and moody canvasses with great detail and stunning visuals. 

Heading up further were more floors of art of varying appeal to me personally. Some I had to stop dead in my tracks to stare at for a few minutes with others an easy glimpse and keep walking. 

The top floor didn't allow any photography but featured an interesting collection of culturally significant Thai art - some of them were very impressive. 

From here it was off to the next gallery, Hof Art Space. Back on the Skytrain in the complete other direction and a ~$2 trip (almost as expensive as it gets!)

Hof is actually in an area called W District, which is a officially described as an "Art and Lifestyle Neighbourhood" - and it did not disappoint! 

The gallery had some very cool pieces in it - quite a few of women which I wont lie, I do like! Otherwise it comprised of various mosaics, sculptures, paintings and other less traditional forms of art - one example was a small sandpit on a pedastal with words made in the sand using plastic beetles.

The photo directly above is actually of the piece on the left in the middle photo; made up of thousands of little photos as you can see!

After taking these shots I realised there were no photography signs scattered around so I decided not to take any more ... but no point letting them go to waste now right?!*

From here we headed outside into the courtyard area - more sculptures and more street art to peer at over a well priced beer. Not a bad way to spend the late afternoon at all!

After our stomachs started rumbling we jumped back on the Skytrain to Alok station where our hostel is nearby and grabbed a random curry and rice dish from a street vendor. We were told "spicy" by the lady serving, but ordered anyway and were duly rewarded with a great meal for under $2 once more!

Adam, Chris and Errica were due to arrive right now as I'm writing this, but their Jetstar flight got delayed three hours in Melbourne prior to leaving for Singapore - should have flown Air Asia! As such they missed their transfer to Bangkok and wont be in until around midnight. 

Our night will now be spent checking in at their hostel for them (reception closes at 10pm) and waiting around somewhere close until they arrive!

* If anyone requests these photos to be taken down I will happily do so.