Writting in the journal seems to be the only way I can keep track of what day it is and I've completely given up on keeping track of time.
We caught our boat to Nang Yuan today and it was absolutely ridiculous. Look for pictures jack put up. Richard & Petra had an underwater camera so hopefully we got some good pics.
There were just soooo many fish and the water was crystal clear. At one point I had 35-40 fish circling around me and they would swim right up to you and nibble on your fingers and toes! NangYuan is really a set of two island connected my a sand bar. we were able to score some chairs and umbrellas so we could escape the sun if need be. It was really incredible to essentially be sitting on two different "coasts" at the same time.
For dinner we went back to Koh Sumai and ate at a German ex-pat's restaurant. The food was amazing, the presentation excellent and it was cheap! We had all bounced around the idea of taking cooking classes and decided that we should see if this place would teach us. The German and his wife have wanted to set up cooking classes, but unfortunately they are understaffed right now so they had to pass.
jack really wanted to play pool so we played a few racks before retiring to the bungalows for conversations and some Rum & cokes!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Turtle Island (Koh Tao)
We had to catch the early boat to Koh Tao, but met a very nice French couple onthe shuttle. jack loves to show off his French skills now, but its great we have gotten a lot of good tips on places to stay.
On the ride over we talked with a dive instructor who said that in certain parts you could see the sea floor, 60 feet down! Also that you can have fishermen take you out to all the great spots for 1/3 of the price of the tours.
We got a basic bungalow on "shark bay" right next to these two terrific couples - Gordon & Terry, Richard & Petra.
You have to swim or take a boat to the beach (our bungalow is on the side of the cove) its a good way to keep the riff raff out. We hung out on the beach with Richard & Petra before the 4 of us went to eat at a "makala" dinner - basically and all you can eat grill type place. that was aweomse - its like a thai version of the melting pot.
Jack was able to arrange a "snorkling adventure" with Gordon, Richard, Petra & I. Gordon & Terry have been coming here for years, so we all felt a little better with him guiding us through the shark populated waters.
We can basically just hop into the water straight from our bungalow, just becarefull of the slippy rocks! We saw 100's of fish and at least a dozen black tip sharks, once you see the first one you kind of get over the fear, theyjust cruise along at the bottom and could care less about you. the funny thing is the "Trigger Fish" is more dangerous than the sharks as they are very territorial this time of year. We were even chased by a remora for 15 - 20 minutes, actually pretty comical to watch everyone try and shoo it away.
It seems as if seafood is theonly food i can really stomach (i know, its a tough life) but at leat its just as cheap as chicken and pork.
Tomorrow we head to Nang Yuan - an e\ven more amazing snorkling island north of Koh Tao. that night we all hung out drinking on our balconies just talking about life, the economy even a little personal happiness seminar from Jack.
On the ride over we talked with a dive instructor who said that in certain parts you could see the sea floor, 60 feet down! Also that you can have fishermen take you out to all the great spots for 1/3 of the price of the tours.
We got a basic bungalow on "shark bay" right next to these two terrific couples - Gordon & Terry, Richard & Petra.
You have to swim or take a boat to the beach (our bungalow is on the side of the cove) its a good way to keep the riff raff out. We hung out on the beach with Richard & Petra before the 4 of us went to eat at a "makala" dinner - basically and all you can eat grill type place. that was aweomse - its like a thai version of the melting pot.
Jack was able to arrange a "snorkling adventure" with Gordon, Richard, Petra & I. Gordon & Terry have been coming here for years, so we all felt a little better with him guiding us through the shark populated waters.
We can basically just hop into the water straight from our bungalow, just becarefull of the slippy rocks! We saw 100's of fish and at least a dozen black tip sharks, once you see the first one you kind of get over the fear, theyjust cruise along at the bottom and could care less about you. the funny thing is the "Trigger Fish" is more dangerous than the sharks as they are very territorial this time of year. We were even chased by a remora for 15 - 20 minutes, actually pretty comical to watch everyone try and shoo it away.
It seems as if seafood is theonly food i can really stomach (i know, its a tough life) but at leat its just as cheap as chicken and pork.
Tomorrow we head to Nang Yuan - an e\ven more amazing snorkling island north of Koh Tao. that night we all hung out drinking on our balconies just talking about life, the economy even a little personal happiness seminar from Jack.
Koh Samui Strikes Back
This morning we are going to go see a tiger "show" we were both a little skeptical of its quality, but we still could not pass it it up.
Before the show we found yet ANOTHER amazing beach to set up camp at and then explored some of the beachfront neighborhoods.
As I mentioned earlier our expectations were pretty low for this show and when we walked into the aquarium we didn't feel much better. We did get to feed sea turtles some lettuce - those little buggers were vicious, the guy next to us had lost part of his finger to a turtle!
The Bird show prior to the tigers was actually really really good. Lots of races, aerial tricks and even a bird that was able to guess my age correctly! The actual tiger show was good, pretty much what i expected, lots of jumping, walking tight ropes and such - still very impressive though. The show ended with some otters doing tricks easily the most hysterical thing I've seen on this trip, one of them even rode a zip line! At the end of the show I got to hold the little otter, I think I want one!
Before the show we found yet ANOTHER amazing beach to set up camp at and then explored some of the beachfront neighborhoods.
As I mentioned earlier our expectations were pretty low for this show and when we walked into the aquarium we didn't feel much better. We did get to feed sea turtles some lettuce - those little buggers were vicious, the guy next to us had lost part of his finger to a turtle!
The Bird show prior to the tigers was actually really really good. Lots of races, aerial tricks and even a bird that was able to guess my age correctly! The actual tiger show was good, pretty much what i expected, lots of jumping, walking tight ropes and such - still very impressive though. The show ended with some otters doing tricks easily the most hysterical thing I've seen on this trip, one of them even rode a zip line! At the end of the show I got to hold the little otter, I think I want one!
Operation Koh Sumai
Hahaha yes, I have to first give a shout out to my sister and Fick for picking up on "Operation Koh Sumai" (Meet the Parents). So We awoke Wednesday (18th) with a full day ahead of us. We hopped on our motorbikes and hit the road to go Elephant hunting....just kidding, we were going to be going on a trek with them.
Before setting off we stopped for some lunch and I had the first real solid meal of my trip, the noodle soup with seafood was awesome and I was relieved to actually feel full after finishing a meal for once.
Jack has been designatied the negotiator of the trip thus far so he bargined us onto the elephants for a decent price. I was realy excited to actually be riding in elephant, but the best part was that I got to pilot the elephant back to the "base camp" Bombei was our elephant and she was awesome, I got to feed her some coconut after she crushed it with her foot.
Our guide "Simon" was from North Thailand (chaeng mi) and had been working with elephants for 15 years! He taugh us all about thai elephants and the differences between them and their african cousins.
After the elphants we explored some of the island looking for waterfalls. Jack had a little incident with his bike as he almost rode it off the side of the mountain - he is alive and uninjured so don't fret. We found this semi-private beach where you could hire a longtail boat to take you out to "the five islands" it was pretty incredible and without any other pharangs (tourists/white people) around we really started to realize we were a long way from home. After that we stoped by this ridiculous sand bar that we walked out onto and got some great pictures.
The motorbikes have been invaluable to us, having the freedom to just hop on and go has saved us a lot of money on cabs and such and allowed us to keep exploring the islands.
we swung by our new favorite place for dinner, picked up some singhas for the evening and reflected on the day.
Before setting off we stopped for some lunch and I had the first real solid meal of my trip, the noodle soup with seafood was awesome and I was relieved to actually feel full after finishing a meal for once.
Jack has been designatied the negotiator of the trip thus far so he bargined us onto the elephants for a decent price. I was realy excited to actually be riding in elephant, but the best part was that I got to pilot the elephant back to the "base camp" Bombei was our elephant and she was awesome, I got to feed her some coconut after she crushed it with her foot.
Our guide "Simon" was from North Thailand (chaeng mi) and had been working with elephants for 15 years! He taugh us all about thai elephants and the differences between them and their african cousins.
After the elphants we explored some of the island looking for waterfalls. Jack had a little incident with his bike as he almost rode it off the side of the mountain - he is alive and uninjured so don't fret. We found this semi-private beach where you could hire a longtail boat to take you out to "the five islands" it was pretty incredible and without any other pharangs (tourists/white people) around we really started to realize we were a long way from home. After that we stoped by this ridiculous sand bar that we walked out onto and got some great pictures.
The motorbikes have been invaluable to us, having the freedom to just hop on and go has saved us a lot of money on cabs and such and allowed us to keep exploring the islands.
we swung by our new favorite place for dinner, picked up some singhas for the evening and reflected on the day.
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