Island Hopping

Friday, April 1, 10:00 am

For the last two weeks or so we have been adventuring around southern Thailand. It has been a blur of different islands, beaches, viewpoints, and pools. We have had so much fun down south.

Koh Tao

The first island we visited was Koh Tao. In order to get there, we took a short flight from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani. By the time we landed and got through the airport to catch a taxi it was 3:00 pm. We were told that the last ferry for Koh Tao left at 4:00 pm and the peer we needed to get to was over 100 kilometers away. I asked our taxi driver if we could make it in time, he just smiled and nodded as we got into the car. This was by far the most exciting cab ride of my life. The driver went as fast as he could go while not being too reckless. At one point our speed eclipsed 200 kilometers per hour, which is a little over 120 mph. He turned what should have been an hour trip into one that took less than 40 minutes. I was astonished by the way other drivers on the road reacted to his driving. Instead of honking, impeding his progress, and thinking that he was a maniac like people would in the states, the reaction from other drivers seemed to be something along the lines of “oh he is driving fast, he must be in a hurry, let’s make room to let him through”.

Our first day on Koh Tao we took a longtail boat to a nearby island called Koh Nangyuan. It was stunningly beautiful. The small island is two rocky mountains connected by a narrow white sand beach. The entire island is surrounded by a coral reef, which made for some excellent snorkeling. Molly, Grace, and I had a blast observing lots of brightly colored parrotfish, yellow snapper, trumpet fish, and an overall abundance of tropical sea life. However, once we were about 100 yards off of the shore I felt something hit my foot, hard. I whirled around to see a large fish, around 3 feet in length, sizing me up. Molly and Grace had seen it dart up from the depths to ram me and immediately retreated toward the shore. I knew I couldn’t outswim it so I kicked it and got my back to the shore. This allowed me to keep my feet out in front of me so I could kick towards the shore while defending myself from the fish. Once I was out of its territory it stopped coming after me. I later learned that this was a titan triggerfish, a species that is known to be aggressive in the Gulf of Thailand. The experience was a little scary but I was back in the water within an hour or two. Koh Nangyuan also has an amazing viewpoint from which you can see the entire island.

Viewpoint at Koh Nangyuan

Longboat taxi

Longboats at Koh Nangy

The next morning, I went on a diving trip to Sail Rock, the premier dive site in the bay. I saw groupers, schools of barracuda, queenfish, trevally, puffer fish, and, of course, titan triggers. That afternoon we went to Freedom Beach and the adjacent viewpoint which provided a great view of Koh Tao.

Freedom Beach viewpoint

Koh Samui

Next we travelled to Koh Samui where we met up with all of our friends from Tak. We split an Airbnb between ten of us. The days on Koh Samui were relaxing: filled with reading on the beach, and relaxing in our private pool. The biggest adventure from this part of the trip was heading to the full moon party on Koh Phangan. It is a massive party held once a month on the full moon. After reading lots of blog posts about how hard it is to stay on Koh Samui for the party, it turned out to be very easy. We all pregamed a bit at our place near Chaweng beach, caught a ferry from Big Buddha Pier at 9:00 pm, enjoyed the party until around 3:00 am, then took a longtail boat all the way back to Samui. It was an awesome night. My one tip for anyone staying on Samui for the party is to not book the speedboats through a tour company. They overbook, overcharge, and leave you with long wait times to get to and from Phangan.

Chaweng Beach

Chilling at our pool

On the ferry

Phuket

Next Molly, Willy, Grace and I headed down to Patong beach on Phuket. This area was pretty built up and the beach wasn’t quite as nice as the one we were staying on in Samui. The first night there we tried stingray for dinner, and it was surprisingly delicious. The next day we spent at Patong beach and went on a banana boat ride. After our first day Grace left to go back home. It was so fun having her here with us on our travels. It was great to share a bit of what Thailand is like with her and I think she really enjoyed Island hopping with us. The next day in Phuket we headed down to a much quieter place, Kata Noi beach. After spending the day on the beach we explored some viewpoints and even ventured to the southern tip of the island.

The southern tip of Phuket

Scuba Trip

After our brief stay in Patong, Molly and Willy headed out to Koh Lanta, while I headed north to Khao Lak for a four day, live aboard, scuba trip to the Surin and Similan Islands. We left from Khao Lak on Wednesday and returned on Sunday. There were a little over twenty guests aboard the boat, along with the dive masters, and crew. The daily wake up time was at 6 am and each day was packed with diving. Basically we would dive all day, eat in between dives, then have a few drinks and hang out at night. One of the other divers in my group, Michelle, was also from Ohio! We had a lot of fun talking about OSU football and even showed sang some fight songs for a few other people. I met lots of awesome people: Ryan, my guide from the bay area, Matt, another English teacher from Ontario, Beth, a lawyer from New Jersey, and Sam and Tom from the U.K. just to name a few. We saw some awesome wildlife and beautiful reefs. The top sightings included sea turtles, a massive school of barracuda, leopard sharks, sea snakes, an octopus and even a guitar shark! Guitar sharks are extremely rare and look like a hybrid between a shark and a stingray. We even saw flying fish, dolphins, and a marlin from the boat. I had a blast on the trip despite not seeing the two big ticket items: a whale shark or manta ray. I have another dive trip planned in Bali where I have a good chance of seeing some Mantas. I had such a blast on my trip and Molly loved Koh Lanta.

Our boat: The Dolphin Queen

My cabin

Hanging out on Matt's sundeck with Sam, Tom, Beth and Michelle

Buckeye fans, and Chang fans

The guitar shark with some blue fusiliers

Michelle and I with Ryan, our dive instructor 

We also visited a deserted beach:

Up next is Laos and Cambodia. I am so looking forward to exploring these new countries with Molly. We have had such a great time in Thailand and feel like we have truly made the most of our time here. We have seen much of the country from top to bottom. I have loved my time here but I am ready for something new. Laos here we come!