Diving on Koh Tao
3 days ago I moved to the island of Koh Tao which is known for having some of the best scuba diving in Southeast Asia. I am staying at a place called Ban's Dive Resort and so far it's been the nicest and more importantly, the cheapest place I have stayed at. It's only costing me 1.80USD/night (split between 2 guys I met from England). The reason the room is so cheap is because the resort makes all their money on diving packages and from the restaurant. The rooms are suprisingly nice compared to where i've been saying the last 2 1/2 weeks. It's more of a hotel style accomdation however so it's not a bungalow on the beach like before. It also has a really nice pool and a good restaurant.
So far i've only done about 5 dives. 2 afternoon dives and 1 night dive on the 17th and another 2 afternoon dives on the 18th. Today i'm taking a day off from diving to explore the island and rest. The diving here is fanastic compared to what i'm used to in Boston but I still prefer Mexico more based on the reefs that i've dove so far. The big difference here is the marine life. Massive schools of fish on most of the dive sites; much more fish than i've ever seen diving in Mexico. Other than that, nothing really special to report about. The night dive was fairly bland until the end when we starting to see lots of stingrays. On the afternoon dives, I saw a very large and curious sea turtle that seemed to follow our dive party with no fear for about 10-15 minutes. I also saw some other stingrays and a barracuta which are all too common sights in Mexico so perhaps i'm a bit jaded on the quality of the diving here. I would at least rate it on par with Cozumel, Mexico although in my opinion the reefs in Mexico have much more to see with massive swim-thrus and different coral formations. I am going to probably do one or two more days of diving then I am heading to Krabi since I only have 10 days left in Thailand. Going to try to do 5 days in Krabi and spend the rest of my time in Koh Phi Phi before heading to Malaysia.
The other aspect of diving here which I am not really fond of is the size of the dive boats and the number of people diving here. In Mexico, Florida keys, and Boston i'm used to very small dive boats with a maximum of perhaps 8 people. The dive boats here are massive with 60 people on one boat. The divemasters of course will split up the groups into smaller, more managable sizes but it still has a feeling of over crowdedness. Every dive site here is literally filled with divers, way too many. Besides these minor shortcomings, I quite like the diving here and Ban's Diving Resort is fanastic and well run dive operation. Ban's is well more organized than any dive operator i've encountered in Mexico. I am seriously considering coming back here to get my Divemaster certification because Ban's provides you free diving for life is you complete your certification here. I don't think anyone could pass up that offer.
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Still on Ko Phangan…
I haven't updated this in a little while so I figured I would just give everyone a heads ups that I haven't died yet nor do I intend to. About 3 days ago I moved about an hour away to the otherside of the island to a place called Haad Yao Beach (still on Ko Phangan). I am sharing a bungalow with 2 English guys named Chris and Alex that I met at the previous place I was staying. They were sort of doing the same route as me so I figured I would tag alone with them for a bit. The place we are staying at is called Haad Yao Bungalows; It's a small little bungalow about 2 rows off the beach that cost 300 baht/night or approximately 7.80 USD. Split between between 3 people that's about 2.60USD/night. Nothing too special really but not too shabby for less than 3 bucks a night.
The on-site restaurant here is pretty good as well but a bit more expensive than the last place I was staying. "Expensive" is all relative here. You have expensive in terms of the United States (and other Westernized countries) and expensive in terms of Thailand. Once you get used to the prices here you realize things can get expensive. Of course when I say expensive I mean 50 cents to a dollar more which when you think about it is quite irrelevant back home but when you're traveling for 3 months you begin to realize that a dollar here goes a long wa.y
Anyway, since the Full Moon Party I haven't really been doing much except sit on the beach, peel my horribly burned back and go swimming. Today finally intent on actually accomplishing something, the three of us took a long boat ride around the island all day and went to a couple different waterfalls, some really nice beaches and did a few hours of snorkeling as well. It was pretty good to finally see a bit more of the island instead of just the same two places. We also went to this beach called Bottle Beach (It's heavily advertised in the Lonely Planet guide) which was extremely nice. It's claim to fame is that it's only accessable by boat so it obviously wasn't very crowded compared to some of the other beaches here. The rest of the beaches I can't remember their names or if they even had names but rest assured they were all postcard material.
It's getting scary but the longer I stay here the less and less I want to go home. Not to say I don't want to ever go home but I feel like I should do a fair bit more traveling. What was originally supposed to be only a month when I planned this trip 6 months ago turned into 2 months; when I finally got here it turned into 3 months and even then I thought I was seriously stretching it beyond my limits. Now I am having serious thoughts about extending my trip to 6 months to a year. For the past 2 days i've been trying to work out the logistics in my head of me not being in the United States for 6 months. My biggest problems are my car payment, car insurance, and the fact that i've already been on a leave of absence from Salem State College for an entire year working.
The first problem realistically isn't bad. I can always have my mother take over the car insurance and car payments for a while since they're already in desperate need of a reliable car. My leave of absence from school presents a BIG problem. If I remember correctly, the maximum amount of time one can take a leave of absence from Salem State is one year. By September my one year will be up. If I don't enroll in classes by that time i'll be forcibly withdrawn from school which means I would need re-apply all over again and I believe I would start having to pay back my school loans immediately. Not very good. I am going to wait a few weeks and give my advisor a call and see if there is another solution.
From everyone i've spoken to, getting a job seems like the easy part. Teaching English in most places such as Thailand, Cambodia or Korea requires literally no experience or a degree. You get paid wages that are in essence much higher than the local population here because they're so desperately in need of English teachers. The other option I was exploring (the one I would most likely do) is catch a flight over to New Zealand and acquire what's called a Working Holiday Visa which would allow me to legally work in New Zealand for up to a year. Unfortunately, the United States is pretty much fucked over in regards to Working Holiday Visas but I assume it's because we do the same thing as well. It's reverse discrimination since it's almost impossible for lots of these countries to get working Visas here. Countries such as Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, and Norway can easily acquire Working Holiday Visas which allow citizens of their respective countries to live and work there legally for up to 6 months to a year. Doing a small amount of research, the only country I could find that will grant a U.S. citizen a Working Holiday Visa is New Zealand. I would have prefered Australia but it would basically mean that I would need to illegaly work under the table.
That's pretty much what's on my mind right now. I have a shit load of pictures I need to post on here but the internet connection on this island is extremely slow and twice as expensive as the last place I went. I probably won't be uploading any pictures for a while. Tonight, we're heading into the Haad Rin which is the main place where people go on this island for nightlife and the home of the Full Moon Party to watch the English World Cup Match (soccer). Obviously, i'm not the world's greatest soccer/football fan if you know me but i've been trying to watch most of the games here because there is really nothing else to watch. So far they've been pretty entertaining to watch.
Photos of Ko Phangan
Here are some more photos. Most of them are Ko Phangan but the first 5 are from Ko Samui. Nothing to special just some sunsets taken from the ferry boat. Pictures of the bungalow I am staying at and more beaches.
Full Moon Party
Holy shit. So many people. I woke up this morning at 7AM; I passed out on the beach and slept there. All I remember is sitting down for a little while because I couldn't find any people in the group I was with. When I got up all I saw was empty buckets and bottles everywhere with hundreds of people passed out face down in the sand. I didn't really take anything with me so I wasn't worried about anything getting stolen. I left anything important back in my bungalow and just carried a small amount of cash that I would need for that night. When I woke up I still had all my money in my pocket and I still had my backpack.
The common drink is literally a bucket. It cost 150 baht (3.90 USD) or cheaper if you buy it off the beach and it gives a small bottle of sang som (thai) whiskey, a can of coke and a redbull with ice poured in a small bucket and served with multiple straws. Drink 2 of them and you'll be completely wasted. Hell, just one will do the trick for most people. Hell, you can even buy them pre-packaged at the 7-11 on the beach.
The best way I could describe the Full Moon Party is that it's like springbreak in Cancun but ten times crazier. The beach has mats everywhere where you can sit and drink but most people are dancing. The entire beach is one large dance floor on the sand. In the midst of all this madness there are also fire dancers performing everywhere. Lots of people also get their face or body painted. You see hundreds of people walking around with their countries' flag painted on them so you can tell where you're from. It's pretty wild. Biggest party i've been to. You can easily find girls. Lots of drunk people swimming. Even if you're not a party person it's definitely a must see if you visit Thailand. It happens every month on the full moon but there are also half moon and black moon parties. Since it's started to become really popular, pretty much any phase or alignment of the moon is used as an excuse to have a party. After everything is over, the entire small island of Ko Phangan turns to a ghost town and reverts back to a fishing village. The majority of the people don't even stay on the island too. They hop on one of the many ferries from Ko Samui (2 hours I think) and take the next ferry back in the morning.
Each bar/club on the beach plays different music. If you don't like rap walk in any other direction you'll be immersed in music from another bar completely oblivious to what's going on 50ft away from you. Rock, Reggie, Rap, Trace, House. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, you can walk out into the water and swim out to one of the many boats that also serve alcohol.
They also had these massive projection screens on the beach that were being used to broadcast the World Cup. Apparently this Full Moon Party was pretty large due to the world cup.
Also, you need to be careful of broken bottles and burning cigarettes. Luckily, me nor any of my friends had any problems but you hear horror stories of people cutting their feet open on broken glass. You will almost certainly lose your sandals and step on at least 5 people passed out so don't bring any expensive clothing. It will either be lost or covered in paint and sand.
Overall, I had a pretty good time. I am still trying to get all the sand out of my hair though. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to bring my camera however some of my friends took plenty. Once they email them to me I will post them.
