Tropical Paradise (as close as it gets)

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.

The Turtle Island

The day started out nicely by a rendezvous with Tilmann at Koh San Road. How weird it feels to see a familiar face so far away from home. Together with his travel companion, Devin, we had some good Thai lunch at which we chatted about life in Hongkong, and travels through Thailand, which involved a long bamboo bong and a neck-ring wearing refugee tribe from Burma. While I had some plans for the afternoon (4 of the main sights), everything was closed when I was done setting up this blog. I ended up finding a useful map of Bangkok, though, so I am prepared for my return. I realized that Bangkok is too big of a city to be really manageable without some concrete ideas of what to do and without a good plan to carry out.

So I decided to head straight to Koh Tao where I have the very concrete plan of doing a diving course. Unfortunately the train I meant to take was fully booked (as were all those going to Chumpuh, the place where the ferry leaves), so I ended up taking a bus.

The Bus ride was as comfortable as you can expect a 8 hour bus ride to be that starts at 7 and ends at 3 in the morning. I didn’t get any sleep, partly due to the exquisite selection of films that I was allowed to watch (both starred Sylvester Stallone – ‘nough said?). The time between 3 and 7 when our ferry left I spend with some French people playing card games. In the end I was rewarded with million-dollar shots (although money certainly cannot valuate them) of the sun-rise over some islands off the coast.

Once I got to the island immediately rented a scooter, which is pretty much the only reliable transportation on Koh Tao. Two French girls recommended me a superb hostel in a cute little bay, which is not only much more private but also much cheaper than the rest of the island. Given these facts I might actually be able to afford the diving course that I have planned for tomorrow.

In the afternoon I went around the island visiting countless bays. After a few my camera’s battery died I ended up exploring the hidden parts of the island. My favorite spot remained unrecorded and consisted of a deserted bungalow complex which I arrived by a totally overgrown path through the woods. Constantly expecting the owner to show up I managed to sit down and read a book in a fantastic atmosphere (the surf breaking on the rocks below and the crickets chirping like an orchestra). One of those rare moments when you feel like you had an infinite amount of time to do anything you want.

However to give you an idea of the beauties that I encountered, here are some photographs I took on the way.

One night in Bangkok

The flight from Bahrain to Bangkok was overshadowed by the pain that I got from an infection that settled into my right ear. I have not the slightest clue where it came from but I am sure that flying and too little sleep was certainly not the best way to get rid of it. I basically only could only lie down on the left side of my face. So I was not entirely disclined to accept a ‘sleeping pill’ that I was offered from my German seat neighbor. However, after I read the instructions which stated that this prescription-only ‘muscle relaxant’ could potentially be lethal for people with any kind of bodily dysfunctions, I kindly refused. You should not use drugs (aka ‘poppers’) that you would normally buy at your local street drug dealer to get a good night of sleep.

In Bangkok the weather was surprisingly pleasant with 27 degrees and hardly any humidity. Not exactly what I was used to from my last stopover here during the rainy season. After I got off the plane, I slowly carried out the plan that I had thought out in the air: buying a Thai cell phone card, calling my old Thai friend Victor and meeting him. Unfortunately it turned out that he could not host me after all because his family was visiting him from Chiang Mai. So he took me to Koh San Road (‘the Backpackers’ Street’) where I found a hostel for 8.50 euros a night, excluding space to move, a window, toilet paper, electricity outlets and warm water but including a floor-hard mattress, A/C and… that’s about it.

We spend the night having some delicious Thai food and then strolling down the nightly streets of Bangkok. At 10 o’clock I felt as tired as if I hadn’t slept in two days, which is almost true.

After roughly 15 hours of sleep I woke up in my windowless room wondering what time it might be. Any jet-lag researcher would probably cry now, my day-night schedule is totally messed up. The first thing I will do today is getting rid of that pain in my ear, i.e. go to the hospital. The ear pain is totally messing up my plan to go diving and meeting Tilmann in Koh Tao but first things first.

The hospital I went to was an experience in itself. When I walked into the entrance I had the impression of entering a five-star hotel lobby. Would you expect a sky lobby in a hospital? You got it. A Starbucks? Got it. And lastly: a McDonalds??? Got it! It got me really cracking up to see the ‘healthy living club’ next to McDonalds.

The service was excellent as expected. The doctor diagnosed my ear-pain as ‘a little pimple in my ear’ (yes I know you didn’t want to hear it) and prescribed me a cream. I’ll certainly be fine before the diving class starts.

The rest of the evening I spent setting up my blog (and it’s still not online) and then having some EXPENSIVE Thai food (I didn’t know that existed). We spent around 17 euros in total EACH… However, the conversation we had afterwards was invaluable, reaching from the weather all the way to the violent Red-Shirt protests a few months ago and the luxurious problems of the West (such as democracy).Furthermore I became aware of a two great habits of Thai people: They always put all the food in the middle of the table and share it with everyone. Secondly they always order one additional dish for the case that another person shows up. In this case, however, nobody showed up and we ended up splitting that humongous bill…

Later tonight we both had a ‘fish massage’ in which super-small fish suck the skin under your feet until it is soft. It got both of us cracking up (which victor proved to the camera). 

 

Later he gave me a ride around town before taking my huge duffel bag to his place. As we were driving, the yellow-shirts (the pro-urban/pro-rich/pro-south interest party) held a protest in the city center. Now heading to bed with a headache from too many beers. Tomorrow I want to go out and explore the city.