After returning to loud, dirty, chaotic Bangkok I am writing these lines in retrospect. Koh Tao really is one of those tropical dream islands that you would find in a vacation catalogue. Long white beaches, palm tree forests and a never-ending summer. It reminded me of the starting scene of one of Ernest Hemingway’s novels where he talks about the never-ending summer of the Caribbean. I absolutely remember reading this at home in the basement-dark month of December and how I was carried away by the thought of enjoying good weather and long days all the time. However, I realized one thing (and I don’t want to spoil anyone’s dreams here): when you dream of this, you don’t really want to be on a hugely remote island forever. It would feel like a prison, since you will keep meeting the same people over and over. In the end I realized that when I sit at home dreaming of this remote island, what I really want are all the things that I associate with it such as the lack of stress, good weather and the feeling that I have all the time and muse to do what I please. In the end what I miss are my friends and family, which no good weather can replace.
Sorry for being so melancholic but I guess I have had a sudden rush of homesickness. Let me tell something about the wonderful days I had on this little isle. After one day of exploring the island on my own by scooter, Tilmann came over from Koh Samoui and we signed up for a diving course. Well and the next three days consisted of diving, lying at the beach, reading good books and writing some postcards (only extremely few – don’t be mad if you didn’t get one). And by the way: the hostel that I stayed at turned out to be in the picturesque bay that is on every postcard – it can’t get any better than that!
Koh Tao is the place which issues the most diving certificates in the whole world. That expresses itself in two ways: the dive sites were great in my lay opinion and there are tons of divers diving on every day. I quickly learned to ignore the second part and to enjoy the first one. It was amazing to be able to breath and see underwater and it was even greater to have fish surrounding you and nibble on your hands and feet. I had the impression that the images that I saw on Discovery Channel (or ARD that is) were suddenly in 3-D and interacting with me. Obviously I didn’t take my camera under water but on the way to and from the dive sites we had some beautiful views.
Here some pics with short description (too tiresome to implement them into text):
The bay at night.
Yummy fruit shakes.
Room mate. How did he get into our bathroom??
Tilmann.
Our ‘beach’.
Fish out to dry.
The typical palm tree picture.
Another palm tree. Background: the beach that’s on every other postcard.
My two French travel companions (Chou and Chou).
Rocks before our bay.
Tilmann jumping rocks.
Wheels on the beach (who put them this way?).
Koh Tao from the diving boat.
More palm trees.
Dream beach with beautiful sunset views.
Me on the beach.
Sunset on that beach (warning: I like sunsets!).
Sunset.
Sunset.
Fire show at Sairee Beach.
Bengal lights.
Spectacular clouds and sun on the ferry to Chumpon (train station for train to Bangkok).
Sleeper train.
Thai soldiers in the train station (heading north?).
Well – now I am in Bangkok with fast internet again (it felt like my hostel had a 56k connection) and will check my finances before I decide what my next steps will be (stay here or go to Chiang Mai). I am curious how the saber rattling between Thailand and Cambodia will turn out (http://www.smh.com.au/world/temple-conflict-sparks-border-battles-20110205-1ahnu.html). Cambodia’s big neighbor seems to be a little too over-ambitious as it seems. Even my Thai friend Victor admits that the temples that Thailand claims for itself are most certainly a piece of Khmer heritage.
Note: I copied that picture from the Sydney Morning Herald.
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