Ko Tao and beyond

I wrote the rest of my Thailand stories a good while ago on Word, and I've only just remembered to put them up. Whoops!
Also, for a lot more photos than I can be bothered to upload here, have a look at this: http://cowssaymoo.photosite.com/Thailand/
On with the Thailand...

The 29th was a traveling day. First, a flight to Bangkok, then a flight to Surat Thani, where we encountered our first attempted scam. At Surat Thani airport, all the foreigners hopped on the same bus to take us to the pier for ferries to either Ko Samui, Ko Pha-Ngan or Ko Tao. As soon as we set off, a guy in a yellow shirt told us that the weather was very bad, the seas were rough, and that we shouldn’t take any ferries tonight. He suggested we all stay in Surat Thani and get a ferry in the morning. The bus was to drop us off at a hotel, and there we could decided whether we would stay or still take the ferry. When we got to the hotel, some people immediately cancelled their ferry plans and checked in, and guess what - Yellow Shirt works at this hotel. Fancy that. Of course, we stuck with our plan, since the only ferry to Ko Tao was the supposedly dangerous night one. Eventually, after much sitting around and wondering what on earth was happening, we were delivered to the pier, where we had another hour to wait for our ferry. At first glance, I thought the ferry looked like a disaster waiting to happen; it was a big fishing boat, with the upper level divided into two rows of futons. Everyone had an assigned spot on the futon-row, and those spots were about 2 feet by 6 feet. It was certainly cosy, and the seas were a little rough, but I slept a bit, so I consider it a victory (I have a thing about not being able to sleep on transport).
We arrive on Ko Tao, and guess what, it is beautiful. Even more so than I expected. The settlement on the island is restricted to a two-street village around the pier, and a cluster of restaurants, dive shops and bungalows along the main beach, ten minute’s walk north of the pier. Add a few more isolated hotels scattered around the coast, and that’s it. Our bungalow overlooked a rocky bit of coastline between the pier and the beach, and suited us just fine. We spent the first day exploring and swimming at the main beach (Hat Sai Ree). The stroke of planning genius that makes Hat Sai Ree so ideal is that the beachfront is pedestrian-and-bike-only; the actual road is further inland. So there’s a lovely promenade lined mostly with shops, bars, restaurants and all the rest. The beach itself was surprisingly quiet and clean, all things considered. I already decided that even if I didn’t go snorkeling (which is what everyone comes to Ko Tao for), I was glad we’d come here rather than the other two bigger islands, Pha-Ngan and Samui. On the next day, New Year’s Eve, Dawn, Chris, Dave and I hired some snorkel gear and walked to a smaller beach with supposedly good snorkeling on the other side of the island. Distance from one side of the island to the other? Two kilometers. The beach we went to was tiny and pretty, though there was a surprising amount of rubbish there and in the water. At first, we same straight out from the beach on a search for fish and coral, and found nothing, perhaps not surprisingly. Then, we followed the rocks along the shoreline, and, hallelujah, we found fish! And coral! And sea cucumbers that look like lumpy poos! It was fabulous; whenever I thought I’d seen every fish on this reef, another swam past. I don’t know fish like I know birds, but I did recognize butterflyfish, parrotfish, batfish, cleaner fish, and maybe a tiny dogshark. I could’ve stayed out there for hours, but when snorkeling, it’s kind of easy to forget that you’re having to swim the whole time, and wherever you drift, you’re going to have to swim right back. So swimming exhaustion got the better of me and it was back to the beach. That night was New Year’s Eve, and Hat Sai Ree put on a fine show for us, mostly involving fire, and lots of it. There were fire dancers, hundreds of candles, and a couple of man-made palm trees set alight. People were setting off fireworks wherever they pleased, often within a few metres of where people were drinking. Indeed, Dave and I were both burned by stray sparks (though it should be said, I didn’t notice at the time; I woke up the next day with mysterious marks on my arm, and fireworks were the most likely explanation). Many locals were lighting Thai balloons (don’t know the actual name), which are rectangular and made of cloth, and have some sort of flame burning at the bottom, creating a hot-air balloon effect. There were dozens of them, and the coolest thing was that the wind currents tended to carry them all away in the same direction, creating a line of balloons in the sky. We chose a bar with beanbags on the beach, and tucked into the drink of the night; vodka buckets. More specifically, vodka and Red Bull buckets. You might imagine that that combination could get a little messy, and you’d be right. I’ll leave it there. New Year’s Day was the only day on the whole trip in which we did absolutely nothing. It was fab. On the second, I took a day-long snorkeling tour of Ko Tao without the others. My boat had six Koreans, a Swedish couple, a Thai teenager and her grandma, and two Aussies. Naturally, the two Aussies became my single-serve friends (© Fight Club) for the day. We were first taken to Shark Island, hopefully to see sharks. It turned out that ours was only one of three boats doing the same route that day, so the water became quickly packed with snorkellers. With no sharks and poor visibility, Shark Island kind of sucked. Luckily, the next stop was Ao Leuk (the snorkeling beach from two days prior), which was still beautiful, and I was able to enjoy it even more by figuring out how to balance the pressure in my ears and thus diving deeper. I found a semi-giant clam and poked the rock on which it lived, making it snap shut dramatically. Fun! We went to another three bays for snorkeling, each beautiful, each packed with fish, though none any better than Ao Leuk. The final stop for the day was Ko Nangyan, which is a private island taken up by a single resort, and claiming to be one of the world’s ten most beautiful islands. After hiking to the island’s peak, I’d believe it. The island is actually three tiny islands joined together by sandbars; the shape of the sub-islands and the sandbars creates elaborate bays filled with garden-like coral. Really spectacular. Unfortunately, because ferry connections between Ko Tao and elsewhere suck mightily, we had to take the night ferry back to Surat Thani to make our flight back to Bangkok the next day. The boat was fine; what sucked was having to spend 11 hours (4am to 3pm) waiting around in Surat Thani, the suckiest suckhole that ever sucked. It wasn’t a complete loss; Wayne and I found the smelliest and most congested (and therefore best) food market we’d yet seen. In the end, we spent seven hours sitting around Surat Thani airport; it’s a good thing I’d bought ‘Tis by Frank McCourt in Chiang Mai, or I would not have been such pleasant company. Bangkok! Is enormous and overwhelming, and we only saw a tiny portion of it. I’ll have to come back. For our last two nights in Thailand, we splashed out on an actual hotel, meaning hot water, clean towels, air conditioning and breakfast. Lux-u-ry! We stayed at the Royal Hotel, a sort of art deco place neatly positioned between Khao San Road and the monuments of the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Keow and Wat Pho. It’s also where Kevin and Drew stayed, in case anyone saw the first Amazing Race (probably not). On our first evening, we explored the budget traveler haven of Than Khao San. The highlight of this evening was the spectacularly bad band that played whilst we ate dinner. The non-singer of this duo was terrible for a) not being able to maintain a beat on bongos, b) whistling in inappropriate places (The Scientist does not need whistling!!), and c) having an unfortunate fondness for windchimes. Oh dear. On the first of two full days in Bangkok, we hit the big sights. First, Wat Phra Keow, home of the Emerald Buddha, and the most garish, bejeweled thing I’ve ever seen. It was also our first encounter with mass tourism, in the form of busloads of Japanese, Koreans, and various westerners. Dave, Chris and Dawn had to wear rented sarongs and pants (because they’re always such indecent people), which were actually rather snazzy, and worth nicking for the 100 baht deposit. After Wat PK, we popped into Wat Pho, home of the Reclining Buddha. For me, this temple (the Buddha, mostly) was much more beautiful than Wat PK, and yet it was also much quieter. This was also where Nancy and Emily were tragically beaten by Joe & Bill (TAR reference, sorry I’m such a dork), in the put-a-coin-in-every-pot game. The game was there, so we had a go. You buy a bowl of coins, and place one in each of a long line of copper pots along a wall. If you happen to choose a bowl with as many coins as there are pots, you get good fortune. We did not earn good fortune. After Wat P, Dave and Chris returned to the hotel, while Wayne, Dawn and I took a tuk-tuk to Siam Square, home of some pretty spectacular shopping malls. The tuk-tuk driver charged us 500 baht; the taxi driver on the ride back charged us 71 baht. Damn. Tuk-tuks are great fun to ride in, but for the sake of your health, a half-hour ride in one through central Bangkok is not recommended. You may as well smoke a pack of cigarettes.On our final day in Thailand, we took a tour of Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand, except for Dave, who went exploring on his own. Turns out Dave might have made the right choice; we saw some wonderful things that day, but the tour itself was a shambles. First, the good: we saw the summer palace, an enormous white chedi, another reclining Buddha, and fields upon fields of ruins – beautiful stuff. On the downside, our driver was rude, didn’t tell us anything (ie we had little idea what was happening all day), and the guide appeared to be stoned on something strong, as he spent the day mumbling incomprehensibly, regardless of whether anyone cared or not. He also had an annoying habit of saying “nyah” at the end of every phrase, kind of like Singaporeans with their “lah.” All in all, it was a decent trip, and the frustrations of the tour folk ended up being a source of amusement, nyah?We returned to Bangkok, had dinner, got our bags, and headed to the airport. And that was it for our whirlwind tour of Thailand. Bada bing bada boom.