Monday 31st March
We checked out of the Charming Charm Beach resort and jumped into our waiting wheels, well “The Banger” as I had duly named it, and took the hair raising trip back to Hat Rin! As we neared the road leading up to our new resort we encountered a rather large digger which seemed to be digging up the road, and when I mean road I mean the road we need to drive along to get to our resort and when I say digging I mean across the road. Oh yes they weren’t digging up the side of the road oh no digging across the road! When we got a little closer we were told it would only be an hour before it was laid back again! Hummm, bit of a tall order! So we parked the jeep and took to the road which unfortunately was a great big hill and with a bloody great rucksack on my back by the time I got to the top of the hill I had decided I wanted t go back to the diggers and give them a piece of my mind but then I had second thoughts coz that would mean going back with the bag still on my back so we carried on to the resort! After dumping our bags we had lunch in the resort and then walked back to the jeep which incidentally was about 3 hours later and the road still wasn’t back – 1 hour my arse! We took the jeep on a little journey to a Marble Buddha which was marked on the map and then drove to see a group of waterfalls, only to find they had no water!!! I can tell you honestly that a water fall without water is… just a pile of rocks! On our way back to drop the banger off we stopped at the supermarket and brought a load of supplies, water, juices, milk etc so we could have some breakfast and some snacks in our room. We got the jeep back in one piece and managed to get all our deposit back which was a relief and had a Thai meal in one of the local restaurants. We soon realised that on Koh Phangan all the restaurants show movies so instead of having to talk to each other we just watched a movie – was such a novelty!! You can even stay longer if you just keep buying drinks and they put on movies till about 1.00am in the morning which is definitely a good idea some nights!
Tuesday 1st April
This day is adeptly titled “The lazy day” (many more to come if I’m honest!) we didn’t get out of bed until about 2.30 in the afternoon then had lunch in the resort, went and had a Thai massage and watched the sunset on the beach. It was a really tough day! IN the evening we had dinner, again in the resort an borrowed a couple of DVD’s from the reception and watched them in bed, laziness itself!
Wednesday 2nd April
We were up reasonably early, about 10.00!! Ha ha, sorry to all those reading this at work I know you are hating me rather a lot at the moment! We had booked an island tour with a company called Munchies, it picked us up at 11.40 and took us in the smallest songathew I have ever been in to Hat Rin Pier. It’s a good thing that the people it picked up weren’t fat coz there was hardly enough room when it picked me and James up, then they added 4 more people and at that point we thought we were going to have to sit on laps but it worked out ok in the end, a couple of people sat on the floor! We got on our little blue boat, about 20 people I would say and headed out around the island, first stop being a waterfall which was about 20 mins from the beach. Made me laugh a huge amount when James started joking about us doing our second jungle trek when one girl said “ I know how much further so you think it is I’m not sure I can go on much further” We had been walking for ten bloody minutes, ten minutes!! Well she wouldn’t last long in a real jungle trek I tell you. I had half a mind to tell her so but then I took a better look at her and thought better of it, she was bigger than me, and I don’t mean in height. If she sat on me I would probably be in a lot of pain and to be honest once I realised that she was horizontally challenged which I believe is the correct term for “really shouldn’t be wearing a small bikini like that coz no one wants to see that much of a bottom that size” I decided I would just carry on to the pretty waterfall! (Man I’m horrible, sorry for that but every now and then I need to vent!) So we got to the top of the waterfall and there was a lovely pool which we jumped into, was a bit worrying though when the guide was so specific about where you could actually jump, I don’t know about you but when I’m given a small circle to jump into I’m not really sure I’m going to be able to be that exact but I escaped without any concussion so I guess I can’t be that bad!
So after our “waterfall jungle trek!!” we got back on the boat and headed to “Bottle Beach” which is a beautiful cove only really accessible from boat or by 4 wheel drive over the hills. I was told it was a very unspoilt beach, but unfortunately another boatload of tourists had got there a few minutes before us so not quite so unspoilt, but lovely all the same! It was here we had lunch, which was lovely chicken fried rice which is one of my favourite Thai dishes cos it is so simple but tastes divine. We had time for a little sunbathe then it was back on the boat for snorkelling. The spot we went to was amazing, as you looked over the side of the boat there were massive shoals of fish just swimming either side of the boat. The water was so clear you could see right through to the bottom. The added bonus of snorkelling in Thailand is that the water is so warm, especially for someone like me who gets cold so easily, it was bliss! We snorkelled for about an hour and then it was back on the boat to head back to Hat Rin Pier. It was such a perfect day, the right amount of activity and lazing about, I don’t think either of us wanted it to end but alas it had to and before we knew it we were back at the pier and getting off the boat. We went back to the resort and after so much fresh air we realised how tired we actually were and decided to be lazy and grab some food in the hotel and watch another DVD. A perfect end to a great day!
Thursday 3rd April
This could probably be entitled “Lazy day 2” as we woke up and went down to the beach to catch some ray’s then tried to swim in the sea but soon realised that were was a lot of seaweed when the tide is out and I am not a lover of sea weed, also the bottom of the sea was almost clay like as there wasn’t much sand in the actual water so everything was slimy underfoot, not the best for swimming so we abandoned that plan and washed ourselves off in the showers and jumped in the pool – much better! We even had a couple of lilo’s to use while we were in there – all I needed was a cocktail and I would have been in heaven!! After a while in the pool we decided to use the hotel’s kayak and have a paddle out over the seaweed to see what we could see, the only problem being that with the water so low we kept hitting rocks and I must admit I wimped out and was probably making quite a lot of fuss over nothing but I didn’t want to carry on incase we tipped over and I fell into the seaweed! Stupid really but hey that’s how I felt! That evening we took a walk into town and I brought a bikini, probably not the best plan to buy a bikini in a shop in Thailand but I know that now. The lady in the shop said I was probably a small so I brought a small and as they were closing I didn’t try it on (I’ll come back to this later!). After buying the bikini we went for dinner at the only busy place we could find, thinking that if it was busy then it must be ok food. Now, never, never, never, never will I think that again! I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and James ordered a burger and you would think they are quite safe foods- not so! They came out my sandwich was burnt and had a nice long Thai hair coming out of it and James burger was questionably meat!! So we decided the coco pops in our room were much more appetising and left the meal uneaten! Not surprising really!
Friday 4th April
Our last morning in Sarikantang, I left James packing the bag’s and had to take the long walk into town… why I hear you ask?? Well a bloody small in Thailand is about the size of a small pea! The bikini I brought was so tiny it barely covered the essentials and as much as I’m sure that is probably the fashion on some beaches I am not prepared to show that much flesh! So I went back to the shop and got a medium, again tough didn’t try it on coz it looked big enough, a lot bigger than the last one and also as we were being picked up shortly for our transfer to the main pier. Anyway turns out I’m not even a medium in Thailand and although it was definitely a lot bigger than the small it was still slightly indecent when I went into the water, I didn’t realise that bikini’s can shrink but they can! I’m sending it home in the post anyway and I shall have to see if any of my smaller friends can fit into it. I just can’t believe I’m actually a large, probably an extra large if I’m honest, devastated! Mind you it made a lot of sense why that girl on the tour had such a small bikini on, I felt her pain!
So the taxi picked us up at 13.30 without too much trouble and transferred us to the main pier where we got on our ferry towards Ko Tao. The night before I had looked through the Rough Thai to Thailand – or the bible as I like to call it and have called around a few dive places to see how much things cost and if they gave any discount on accommodation if you did a dive course and I ended up going back to the first one I phoned, always the way!! Ban’s Diving Resort offered a half price discount if you went on one of their courses and also picked you up from the pier to the resort. I booked a Deluxe Garden View room with air con for a couple of nights so we could see how we got. After doing quite a bit of snorkelling I wasn’t sure how I would get on with the breathing as I really wasn’t good with the snorkel in my mouth, after a while I was fed up of it so we booked onto the Open Water Course and were told if we didn’t get on with it we only paid for the day we had done which sounded perfect. So we got picked up from the pier no problem and checked in, we were then told there was a short session starting at four as part of the open water course, we dropped off our bags in our lovely room and dashed back to the room. Four hours later we finish watching a series of videos and finally get some food, at which point we are both starving with no lunch and no dinner, a short video it was not! But it meant that the following day we would have a go underwater and see if we actually wanted to go ahead. To be honest the videos although terrible had interesting content and some of the chapters in the book were interesting, although I must admit when we got told we had to do some questions as homework I think James and I nearly fell off our chairs! When was the last time we did homework!!! So after the session we grabbed some food and went back to the room to do some homework! Crazy! Not long after we passed out, tired from our long day or mental and physical effort!
Saturday 5th April
We had an early start the next day and had to be down at the resort pool by 8.30am which is a bit of a shock to the system if you have been getting up at 10.00! So we first went and got a load of kit which included wet suits, breathing apparatus, flippers and masks all in correct sizes for each of us then we learnt how to assemble them!! After that we had to do a swim test, if I remember rightly if was five lengths then tread water for 7 mins or something like that, well it’s the most exercise I’ve done throughout my travels and it wore me out!! After that it was time to go under the water with all the kit on and put into practice all the theory we had learned so far. I was really nervous and as we started to put our heads under I panicked, I had to keep telling myself to breathe, one girl stood up and had to be taken to one side for extra tuition and I saw that no one else had a problem so I forced myself to carry on and although it felt alien and I kept wanting to stand up and just breath normally I stopped myself and stayed under. After what felt like an hour we had practised all our skills and it was time for lunch so we surfaced and were told we had been under the water for 2 and a half hours, I couldn’t believe it, it was crazy that we had been under for that long! It was then time to grab a quick lunch before going back into the classroom for some more theory and to go through the homework!! So weird to be back in the classroom but amazing how much easier it is to learn something when your interested in it. Although most of the theory was interesting I must admit I am not used to sitting still and having some one talk at me for that long and after a couple of hours I was as bored as the rest of them!! Luckily it only went on for another couple of hours and then we finished for the day. We grabbed dinner at the resort restaurant again- not wanting to wander too far as we were very hungry after our busy day!! We then had a walk along the beach and around the local area and called it a day, we had another early start the next day.
Sunday 6th April
We were up at …. Wait for it…..6.30am!!! I haven’t been up that early since my last few weeks at work, and even then I was trying to avoid it! We met at 7.30 checked our diving kit and got a speed boat out to the dive boat. Our first dive site was “Mango Bay” we got there about 8.30am and were in the water by about 9.00am. The water was like a bath at 29 degrees so I opted to dive without a wet suit and we had almost 20 metres visibility, it was amazing to look down with my mask on and see the reef below. I must admit I was peeing my pants about going under the water again and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it but it went without a hitch and once I got closer to the reef I was too busy looking at all the beautiful fish and coral to worry too much! I must admit though standing on the side of the boat with all my gear on I had butterflies and without a bit of peer pressure of people telling me to hurry up I’m not sure I would have jumped in at all!! I suppose it is good sometimes! I did have to remind myself to keep breathing every now and then, just because I would see a fairly large fish and it would make me jump, ha ha! We practiced the skills we had learnt in the pool the previous day, stuff like taking your mask off and putting it back on again (remembering to keep your eyes closed if you wear contacts!!) and clearing your regulator (that’s your breathing apparatus). After we had done that a few times and everyone was proficient it was off for the main part of the dive. We were taken by Ant one of the instructors who is also the Lead dive instructor at Ban’s, he was an excellent teacher, really inspiring, patient and I definitely felt safe with him, he had 12 years experience after all. I would recommend anyone thinking of learning to dive to try with Ban’s because we had such an excellent experience. We did have a good group of people who we were learning with which I think makes a big difference as well. Our other instructor was a guy called Jon who was also great but didn’t have a lot of experience as an instructor, not that that made a difference he was also an amazing teacher and a good laugh, we were really lucky to have such good people around us as we were learning.
We then got back on the boat and went to our second dive site, “Twin Peaks”, the conditions were the same as the first dive site and this time I saw a lot more on the reef. I think this probably had more to do with the fact that I was probably a bit scared on the first dive and was concentrating on what I had learnt so far and not on actually paying attention to what was around me!! One this dive we went and saw Nemo, well maybe not the actual Nemo as he is obviously a fictional Disney character!! But we sae three clown fish who live in an anemone in the middle of a circle of rocks just to the right of the reef, mummy, daddy and baby – very cool! We also saw Christmas Tree Worms which are little organisms which when cast in shadow retreat back into the rock they are on, but when they are out they are really bright colours, red, yellow, greens, really pretty. We also saw a trigger fish who are supposed to be quite aggressive but only if you get really close to them and go into their territory.
After our second dive it was time to go back to the mainland for a quick lunch and then back in the classroom for our final theory – thank god and a test of what we had learnt so far!! We arranged to meet up with all the other divers for dinner and found a place about 10 minutes from our resort with cheap meals so we grabbed some food and then went along to the Lotus bar which is basically the most popular bar for everyone in our area of Ko Tao. They had fire dancers, or I believe the correct name is Poi dancers, either way they were very impressive, I don’t know how they don’t burn themselves more often!! We didn’t stay out that late as we all had another early start the next day, well I say that the youngsters stayed out and us oldies went home!!
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