Thai Islands

Written: Apr 29, 2003
Location: Ko Pha Ngan, Krabi, Thailand

Hi All,

This entry describes my time in Ko Pha Ngan and Krabi in Thailand.

I crossed back into Thailand from Malaysia by bus. At the border all the officials wore face masks and everyone had to undergo a test for the SARS virus. Apart from that it was a straight forward crossing.

From Surat Thani I took the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan which took about four hours. I paid an extra 40 baht to sit in an air con seat as it was so hot. Some 24 hours after setting off from Malaysia I arrived on the Island. My journey was not over however as I still had to get a share taxi and then a boat to bottle beach where I was staying. On the boat there were nice views of the Island as the sun set. It was dark when I arrived at the beach. I walked to the resort at the far end and took a bungalow on the beach.

I woke spontaneously at 7am. The beach was deserted, the sun just creeping onto the far side of the beach at the other end of the bay. I was too early for breakfast as it didn't start until 8am. A hammock was an essential necessity so I bought one and after several attempts tying the knots, I put it up. It stayed up pretty well and I spent a fair amount of time in it reading and chilling out. The balcony of my bungalow was in the shade so I was able to stay out of the sun during the day.

The view from my hammock was perfect: The beach, palm trees, the green waters of the bay and the forested hills. It was very quiet, the occasional birdsong and cicada breaking the silence.

As the sun dropped toward the hills I went for a long swim across the bay. Walk back along the beach light and spring like. Sit on the beach in the moonlight watching the stars.

Next day I went for an early morning swim at 7 am. After breakfast I climbed the steep hill behind the beach. A steep climb through palm trees and forest, I sweated profusely. The summit consisted of huge granite boulders, the top of which formed a knife edge. It felt quite exposed on the top. The slightest stumble and I would have fallen many feet onto the trees below. See Bottle beach picture for view. I cooled off in the sea when I got down.

There are only three resorts on the beach so it’s quite quiet. It is mainly backpackers staying there and quite a few Brits. After a few days in the hammock I decided to move on and check out Hat Yao, a beach on the west coast of the Island.

Hat Yao is reachable by road so it’s a bit more developed than Bottle beach. There was a TV at the resort I stayed at. I couldn't understand how people would come all the way to Thailand and then spend most of their time watching television. The beach is fairly empty, a lot of people staying away because of the war and SARS.

Hat Yao has good snorkelling and next day I went out and had a look around. Saw some pretty big chunks of brain coral. Some fish but not as brightly coloured as at Ko Pi Pi or the Perhentian islands. In the shallows the water was like being in a hot bath. The sunset was incredible. I had to rush in to the bungalow to get my camera. See sunset picture above.

I spent more time in my hammock reading. It was too hot during the day to venture out.

Next day I hired a motorbike to explore the Island. There are only a few roads and those are in bad condition, but this has prevented the Island from becoming too developed. I visited Paradise falls which must have been impressive in the rainy season but there was little water flowing. It was a peaceful place though. I stopped and had an ice tea at the fishing village of Chalok Lam and watched the boats.

I continued to the Phaeng waterfalls at the Ko Pha Ngan national park. The falls pass through a boulder strewn gorge that zig-zagged upwards through the trees for perhaps 400 metres. I followed the nature trail up through secondary forest which becomes primary rainforest (forest untouched by man) higher up. I had not expected to see such forest on Ko Pha Ngan as most of the trees on the Island are coconut palms. Some of the trees were huge. A lot of the larger ones had been cut to collect the sap for boat building. A sign indicated that this practice had now been discontinued. I saw several different kinds of butterfly and also an orange mottled snake about a foot and a half in length. It regarded me from the pathway; I did not linger to long. There was a good viewpoint near the top amongst some rocks. Some monks had walked to the park and a few of them were sitting at the top.

After a couple of days I decided to move on again, as I didn't feel I really fitted in with the holiday makers and backpackers at Hat Yao. I took a songthaew (share taxi) to Haad Rin, the site of the infamous Full Moon Parties. I saw little of it as I boarded a boat to Haad Thien, a quiet beach on the east coast of the island. I had intended to stay at the Sanctuary, a new age place, but it was expensive, so I took a place on the beach for 150 baht. See Bungalow picture above.

I soon discovered food and drink prices were very expensive at Haad Thien, presumably because they have to bring everything by boat. A cup of tea was 38 baht when it’s usually only 20!

Slowly I unpacked everything, set up my hammock and felt good with everything in its place. After travelling a while it’s really great to stay in one place for a bit.

Om the manager of the place was really nice. She invited me to a music show that evening performed by a visiting American and the resident Japanese musician. The Californian guy was singing acoustic songs, with a couple of backing singers and the Japanese guy on electric guitar and bongos. Some of the lyrics were a bit new age cringe, 'Freedom! Freedom!', but it was still good.

I had intended to do yoga every day at 8am but I never made it up in time. To get up with the sea and the sunlight pouring through my bedroom window, to walk onto the veranda and feel the soft warm breeze in the morning was really great. The only thing I didn't like was the cockroaches that used to gather in my bathroom in the evening. I spent most of the next couple of days reading, drawing and writing.

It was the night of the full moon. I hadn't intended to go to the party. I had a couple of beers and watched Sam (Japanese musician) playing for a bit but then everyone piled into a longtail boat at 12 to go to the party. On the spur of the moment I rushed back to pick up some money and danced over the coral into the boat like a firewalker on speed.

There were quite big waves on the boat ride to Haad Rin. A Thai guy stood on the stern holding a rope and surfing the waves, shaking his hand in the air as we went over a big one.

We started walking into town and there weren't that many people. It was quite relaxed, the quiet before the storm. As we approached the beach however we met a wall of people. The beach was absolutely packed with people dancing. I wondered what to drink, and then noticed that many people were carrying buckets of ice and drinking through straws. I thought I'd better get into the spirit of the thing so I bought one of these buckets. It was filled with a lethal concoction of Vodka, red bull and lemonade.

The atmosphere was very good. A lot better than some of the stories I had heard. It reminded me a bit of Glastonbury. I was soon standing on the balcony of one of the bars, looking out over the thousands of people, larging it with the best of them. They played red Hot Chilli Peppers which was great to sing along to as I have the CD. A guy had some face paint and I couldn't resist getting a few stripes. The next thing I remember is being woken up on the beach about 6am, by a group of girls saying; get up its time to get up, the suns rising. It was a great sunrise orange and pink but I was feeling somewhat fuzzy. There was still a fair few people on the beach. The party carried on until mid morning. The hardcore retreated to the bars for more dancing. I couldn't take any more and had a hot and sweaty hour and a half walk back through the forest to Haad Thien.

I spent a few more days in Haad Thien recovering and relaxing before I felt it was time to move on again. There's only so much time you can spend in a hammock. I decided to go to Krabi to do some diving.

The journey by boat and bus to Krabi was fairly uneventful. There was a lot of lightning near Krabi. I thought it was some kind of light show at first. I stayed one night in a cheap room in Krabi town before getting a songthaew the next day to Ao Nang beach. It seemed quite expensive compared to Ko Pha Ngan. My room cost 300 baht bargained down from 400. All the restaurants were geared to tourists with prices to match.

I was quite under whelmed by the beach. A bit muddy and not as nice as on the Islands but then I guess I've been spoiled. Ao Nang is popular with holidaymakers. It was quite strange to walk past some posh restaurants where honeymooners and families were eating. People save up for two weeks here and I'm travelling through on a year’s trip. It’s toward the end of the season and fairly quiet.

I had a vague idea about doing a diving course and talked to one of the many operators here. At the next place I met Michelle, a young English girl from Norwich, sitting outside waiting for the proprietors to return. We got chatting and she was interested in finding out about a course as well. After listening to the course overview it was a case of 'shall we do it then?' So we both signed up for the Open Water PADI course starting the following day. It was the push I needed to take the plunge, as I suspected I had a challenge ahead. Michelle was really nice and we got on well and were able to help each other.

In the evening I started reading the first two chapters of the course book. There was loads of it and it took me all evening to get through it. It felt good to be starting the course.

The first day of the course was a full day of theory, the most boring day of the four. We had to watch five videos and answer quizzes on each one. Our instructor was a young lanky bean pole called Ian, originally from Leeds. He had worked as an instructor in Thailand for 18 months and before that in Turkey and Africa. He was really friendly and a great instructor.

The quizzes were fairly easy but I was suffering from information overload by the end of the day. That evening we had more reading to do in preparation for the next days confined water dives. These would be done in a swimming pool at a nearby resort. I was a bit apprehensive. Would I be able to perform the skills? I felt that if I could succeed it would give me a lot of confidence to take on other challenges.

The following day was tough. The pool was fairly small and had three steps giving three different levels, shallow, medium and deep water. It was a very hot day and we had to assemble the equipment at the side of the pool. Then we were in and breathing underwater. I found it difficult to stop breathing through my nose. This was not a problem normally as my mask would just fill slightly with air as I breathed, however when I had to do the mask clearing skill I breathed some of the water from the mask up through my nose. This entered my mouth and choked me. I swallowed some water and this knocked my confidence a bit. Michelle did really well and was confident in the water.

I was knackered when we finished. I was really worried about the open water dives we were doing the next day. What would happen if I choked on water 10 metres down? I couldn't just shoot up to the surface. I had to calm myself that evening to stop my mind racing.

The following morning we went out on a longtail boat to Ko Yawasan. A dive site near one of the rock towers that Krabi is famous for. The journey took about forty minutes and I was pretty nervous. Michelle was too but more about being seasick than the diving itself. I was especially nervous about having to perform the mask clearing skill.

On the first dive we only did a few skills. After descending a few feet I had to pop up again as I thought my mask was moving. After composing myself I descended to meet Ian and Michelle, 5 metres down on the sandy bottom. After practising buoyancy control we went off on an underwater exploration. I had a few problems with buoyancy scraping along the bottom but enjoyed the dive. It was awesome to scuba dive for the first time. I saw Ian and Michelle swimming ahead of me; it was like watching a scuba film. I was relieved to go up however. I was nervous over lunch as I knew we had a lot of skills to do in the next dive.

On the second dive we practised: Controlled emergency ascent, inflating the BCD (jacket that fills with air to adjust buoyancy) underwater and on the surface, Loss and recovery of regulator (the mouthpiece you breathe through) and breathing from an alternate air source.
All these skills I did no problem but then I got nervous as I had to do the mask clearing skill. It’s not much fun shaking five metres underwater. I just went for it and the body automatically took over from the mind and did its job.

On the way back I felt a lot better, it was great to get through the dives. We decided to take the exam straightaway rather than leave it until the last day. The exam questions were a bit more difficult than the quizzes but we both passed with some to spare. Pretty tired afterwards though, both mentally and physically.

I was a lot more confident on the last day. We went out on a big dive boat to Bida Nok near Ko Pi Pi. There were about eight divers of various levels plus half a dozen instructors on board. Everyone was really friendly and it was a really pleasant two hour ride out to the first site. The boat pitched quite a bit and as we were sat on the top deck it affected us more. Both Michelle and I had to take seasickness pills.

It was exciting kitting up at the back of the boat with all the other divers. To enter the water we took a giant stride off a platform at the back of the boat, a new experience. We descended holding onto a rope. I had difficulty equalising my ears. If the pressure is not released the ears become painful. Equalising is done by holding the nose and blowing softly. I just about managed to equalise but it took me quite a while to get down.

We dived to 18 metres. On the dive we saw spectacular vertical rock walls, deep drop off and canyons. Everything looked quite green at 18 metres as most of the red light is filtered out by the water. There were fish about but I was concentrating more on navigating my way than looking at the fish.

When we came up my ears felt a bit sore and I had a slight nose bleed but I just felt great to have done the dive.

The second dive of the day was in Maya Bay. The bay used for the filming of the 'The Beach'. I felt much more confident before the second dive even though we had to do a few skills including taking the mask of and replacing it underwater. I enjoyed this dive the most and was starting to get the hang of buoyancy and navigation by the end. I was so tired when I got out. I could hardly talk on the way back, all my energy had gone concentrating on the dive. Everyone on the boat gave us a big cheer for completing the course which was nice. We had a brief celebratory drink on dry land then sloped off exhausted. When I got back I went straight to bed and slept for twelve hours. It was a bit of an anti climax now that the challenge had ended. What next? I definitely want to do at least a couple more dives before I leave Thailand.

Best Wishes

Simon