Dallon's Blog: Koh Tao

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Koh Tao

The islands keep getting smaller, and I like them more and more. Koh Tao is now my favorite Thai island. I hopped on a ferry to get to this island, and it stopped half way on Kuh Phangan where the full moon party was. The sorry state of those boarding the ferry to get back to their accommodations on Koh Tao only re-affirmed my decision not to go to that thing. As every one of them looked absolutely miserable. Besides being hung over, barely dressed, and dirty, several were sporting bloody wounds. Some party... Anyway, I got to Koh Tao and got a ride in the back of another pick up truck to my hostel. A cozy place. Here I made lots of friends again, this time because two of the three days I was there monsoon season unleashed it's fury. So we all just hung out in the bunk beds most of the day. I did manage to go scuba diving just before the torrent hit. Unfortunately the overcast skies led to poor visibility and i didn't get to swim with a whale shark. No I have an excuse to come back though! The dives I went on were still pretty dang awesome though. However, my camera was a casualty of the day. I guess I just took it too deep too many times. As this was one of several times I have taken it below the recommended depth. It is now suffering from decompression sickness (or whatever the digital camera equivalent is). Thus, the buttons on my camera don't work, there is water in the lens, and when I turn it on, it immediately just starts taking video. Taking pictures ever since has been difficult... So with the storm and an ill camera, I didn't get very many good photos of Koh Tao. But it's pretty small, with no major resort developments. Mostly hostel and beach hut type places. There are scuba shops everywhere and the tourist to local ratio is probably higher here than anywhere else I've been, but I still liked it. Besides scuba diving, a swim around the bay, and a hike through the jungle. I did as little as possible on this island, and it was awesome.