October 2007 Archives
In December of 2006 I went to Koh Tao Island in Thailand. Below is an account of my journey.
Koh Tao Island translates out to be "Turtle Island", though most of the turtles in the area were either eaten or left for other waters long ago. Its a small rock of an island which once relied on fishing, but now almost exclusively relies on tourism and diving for its economic stability. While the island is quite out of the way for most travelers this also means that the island still has a rather laid back feel to it. Missing from its white sandy beaches are the crowds of drunk college students on vacations and the sketchy older men in the company of overly young looking girls that plague most tourist beach areas around Thailand. The laid back atmosphere of the island and the wonderful diving makes this place an ideal setting to learn how to dive. Which is exactly what I did.
My friends and I took the usual route to Koh Tao by way of a one hour plane ride from Bangkok and a 2 hour ferry boat from Koh Samui. The seas were unusually rough, which caused a large majority of the passengers to become sick. A rather unpleasant sight. The main drag of Koh Tao consists of several sets paved roads lined with dive shops and cafes. We caught a car ride to the beach area, which consisted of a single paved walkway along the beach lined with dive shops and various lodging. These ranged from $50 USD a night to $5 a night rooms, which were more our style. Lodging was what you paid for, and in our case it was a bed and cold shower. Cold and quick. Koh Tao imports all its fresh water, so we were advised to be as quick as possible.
The main beach on the island was long, sandy, clean, and lined with cafes and small bars. None of which ever seemed too busy. During the day the beaches were host to sun bathers and at night locals twirled fire at unsafe speeds around their bodies. The usual things you'd find on a Thai beach.
The reason that Koh Tao is even on the map for tourism is because of SCUBA Diving. In the early 90's it exploded as a diving location. There are more then a dozen dive operators on the island catering to all languages and levels. While the dive sites are diverse the island is an extremely popular place for people to get their diving license. Which is exactly why I chose it to learn myself. One of the major operators on the island is Ban's Dive Resort, which happened to be right next door to where I was staying.
Ban's Dive Resort is actually quite the large operation consisting of a restaurant, hotel, and dive shop. Prices at all three seemed the norm for the island. The price of my 4 day Open Water Class was $400 USD including equipment and 4 boat dives. The staff consisted of a mix of locals and foreign dive enthusiasts who appeared to know their stuff. Our dive instructor was a Canadian lady who was very helpful and knowledgeable. What gave Ban's an edge over other dive shops on the beach was its pool which always had a constant supply of novice divers inhabiting it. The equipment was used, but not used up, and I could see no reason to doubt its safety.
Ban's owned several boats, the largest being an old fishing boat which could easily handle 20 divers. The dives we did to finish out our class were under done within minutes of the beach. In all honestly, these were my first dives, and I was overly bewildered by it all. In fact the dives were probably more difficult then they should have been. First the dive locations seemed overcrowded with novice divers from several resorts, which was probably to be expected. But what was a crying shame was the visibility which at all times was under 5 meters. Seems the same wind that made our ferry trip so sickly was also playing havoc on the islands underwater visibility, which you can see in the supplied pictures.
According to several guide books, webpages, and local divers the usual visibility is around 20 meters all year. This is why the island is also a draw for more experienced divers who come for the coral, sharks, and the chance of seeing a whale shark. Which are often spotted during certain times of the year. I saw none of these, minus the coral, because of the visibility and the fact I only did 4 dives. The internet is full of photos from Koh Tao island if you're interested in seeing some actual wildlife. Feel free to view my highly unvisable underwater photos if you feel the need to.
Koh Tao is nice if you want to get away form the usual Thai Beach crowd and get some diving in. Even if you get bored diving, or just need to take a day off, the beaches and cafes provide a relaxing atmosphere to waste the day away. Plus these nice side features give your friends something to do while you're having all the fun underwater.
I've become slightly obsessed with diving this past year. So much so that I've decided to launch this separate diving blog to record my various diving adventures and thoughts. the first thing I'll be doing is moving over some old diving blog entries from my regular blog to joshuadives.com, as well as photo albums and video. Hopefully I'll get all this done within the week. After I move all that fun stuff over, and get a better idea of where I'm taking this site, I'll start to mess around with a better layout and design. Until then just enjoy the default Movabletype 4.01 styles you see before you. (I should say, wait until I start relearning html and CSS. It could be a long wait.)
