I have never been a big fan of snorkeling. I’ve never seen anything cool, my mask always fogs up, and salt water always gets in my mouth. So scuba diving didn’t seem like it would be much more enjoyable. But everyone raves about it, and getting certified (or at least seeing if we could survive it) was on Brooke’s must do list, so it was happening. We had heard that Ko Tao was the cheapest place to get certified, and that a travel friend had done her certification with the dive school Roctopus and had had a great experience. Off to Ko Tao we went.
We were both concerned that when underwater our brains might panic and decide breathing underwater in the dark was not for us. But no such freak out happened. Roctopus was great, everyone was really friendly and welcoming, and the course went really smoothly, introducing everything really slowly.
First, there’s classroom time where you learn about how air compresses/expands in the water the deeper/ shallower you go, how much more nitrogen is going into your blood stream deep underwater because you are breathing so much more air in total, and how both of these can kill you. Second, you learn about all the gear, test it out, try it on. Third, you jump in a pool and practice basics, like breathing underwater, how to take your mask off to clean it, and what to do if your mouth-breathing piece gets pulled out of your mouth. Then you do 4 dives in the actual ocean, lasting about 30 minutes each, practicing how to use the equipment and how to maintain your buoyancy underwater.
It must be so hard for instructors teaching beginners to keep a straight face. How deep you are and stay underwater depends on your breathing: the fuller your lungs, you’ll rise, the less air, you’ll sink. But you have to keep breathing all the time. It takes a lot of practice to master rising and sinking smoothly. So the instructor has to watch 4 people floating around willy nilly, like it’s an anti gravity chamber. One person would be floating back up to the surface uncontrollably, while another would be sinking quickly, overcorrect, and shoot back up. The other two might be staying relatively at one depth, but would be waving their arms madly around them, trying to keep straight up in the water. Our instructor would signal the rest of us to stay put while he went up to help bring the “snorkeller” back down to our level. It’s hard to feel like a cool scuba diver when you’re floating and flailing like baby astronauts.
Swimming didn’t go much better. Everyone definitely improved substantially throughout the course, but we were constantly bumping into each other. I think we absorbed the “never lose sight of your scuba buddy” rule too well. To be fair, Brooke and I apply this rule at all times, land or water, so we had a slight advantage to begin with. We started off the dive swimming as close together as possible. Combining that with sometimes forgetting to maintain our buoyancy, avoiding coral or sea urchins, making sure we also never lost sight of our instructor, and getting distracted looking at cool sea things, meant you’d somehow end up directly above or below your “buddy”, trying to come down or up while also manuvering around without hitting them. Or you’d end up trying to avoid getting kicked or kicking someone else. The strongly encouraged, superman-like, swimming position maaaybe made up us look a little cooler…but it was a smidge forced. Scuba diving certification: check. Being graceful underwater: not so check.
Our instructor Munro, was a great teacher, and clearly loved diving. Although he may have enjoyed messing with his students more:
Munro: to do a front flip from the boat into the water, the best advice I can give you is don’t hesitate. *does perfect front flip into the water* *unnamed student follows and does a massive belly flop*
Munro: HAHAHAHA that was amaaazing! Hahahaaa amazing, that will make great footage for the video. *Unnamed student feels sad*
(Brooke maintains the only reason she also did a belly flop was because the boat boy was holding onto her tank and threw her of balance. Sure Brooke.)
Our hostel was about a 30 minute walk from Roctopus. When we ended the day at the scuba shop, we would wander back to our hostel along the beach, stopping for dinner at one of the many beachside restaurants, and watch the sunset from bean bag chairs on the sand. Occasionally we’d go for evening swim among the fishing boats, wherever we pleased along the beach. The ultimate beach life.
On days when we didnt have to get up insanely early to go diving, we would get banana and Nutella and banana and Reese’s spread crepes for breakfast. Shockingly, this is not a dish native to Ko Tao or Thailand, but oh so good. Hot banana slices and melty chocolatey spread balanced with the saltiness of the butter the crepe was fried in. This was our reward for…
We stayed for two full days after our scuba course ended to explore more of the island. The first day we went to Shark Bay, assured that we would see multitudes of black tipped reef sharks just by snorkeling. Forever trying to save money, we decided to walk instead of taking a scooter or taxi. It ended up not being the clearest of how to get to the actual beach, so when we ended up on an outcropping of rocks with the beach to our left, separated from us by more rocks, we decided to maneuver the rocks as opposed to walking for 30 minutes to get to the actual entrance at the far end of the beach from us. Benefits from this strategy: 1) felt like sneaky pirates about to take over, 2) didn’t have to pay admission to the beach, required of all non resort guests (apparently the beach was inside a resort). Punishments for these benefits: 1) no sharks were spotted, and 2) we both got very very sunburnt.
The next day (our last day on Ko Tao), I was itching to climb up something tall, while Brooke was itching to not (apparently resting to help get rid of a cold is more important – whatever Brooke). We parted ways for the first time, and I climbed and sweated all over the central eastern part of the island, walking along the road to each new hiking path. I climbed to 2 viewpoints in two hours, avoided 1 “pay to see this viewpoint” scam, had 1 medium lizard scurry across a small path in front of me, and saw lovely deep green forest dotted with resorts stretch down to the deep blue ocean. I went down to Tanote Bay to swim, and hopped through water up to my shoulders after a large brightly colored fish. The fish didn’t want to make friends though and eventually ditched me. I hiked back up the insanely steep beach road up to the main road, wondering if I would die on the exposed walk back to town in the heat, when a generous Thai person stopped and offered to take me on the back of their scooter. I was so good at hitchhiking I didn’t even need to try! Solo day for the win.
That night we said goodbye to Ko Tao and took the night ferry to the mainland. The night ferry less resembled the daytime high-speed catamaran we took to Ko Tao, complete with bar and bad music videos, and more so resembled a cargo hold, possibly complete with many illegal substances. On the second floor, in the center of the ship, was the sleeping “container”. There were about 50 bunk beds in rows next to eachother, with zero privacy curtains. I was uber tired from my day of hiking, so this bothered me very little and I passed right. I get the impression though that this bothered Brooke slightly more, and she spent a little more time rocking back and forth and worrying about being locked in the sleeping container, then shipped to China. Oh well, at least after the ferry we only had to wait 3 hours for our 6 hour bus ride! (Lies. It ended up being a 9 hour bus ride).
We had a great time scuba diving (hopefully Brooke also has the opinion since I accidentally reverse psychology-d her into doing more of it). Saw blue spotted stingrays, multitudes of beautiful fish, including parrot fish, angel fish, and a leopard print sweetlips, sea cucmbers, and other critters I don’t know the name of. It was a beautiful island, beautiful sunsets over the ocean, and very green jungle. However, I was really disappointed with how commercial and touristy Ko Tao is. The two main towns on the west side of the island, maehead and sairee, are mostly western food restaurants, hotels and hostels, suba shops for foreigners, and bars, also mainly frequented by foreigners. I would say 90% of people we saw in these two towns were western foreigners, and the other 10% were Thai people that worked in the establishments catering to them. I know tourism is one of the main industries in Thailand, but this didn’t feel like you were in another country. This felt like a hipster resort, with a plethora of tattooed people and trendy cafés, posing as remote beach destination. I was very aware of all the western scuba shops and scuba divers taking advantage of the Ko Tao reefs, while the boat captains and crew were all Thai, working all day, 7 days a week, who very likely had never gone diving. Ko Tao felt more like taking advantage of than really appreciating a different place. While it was really nice having the option of eating a great burger if your stomach was tired of curry and noodles, and it was really good that there were zero waste restaurants and cafés on an island that is struggling a lot with pollution and garbage, it was more like bringing Canada or the US or Europe to Thailand, as opposed to experiencing Thailand, it’s culture and it’s people.
I neither do or don’t recommend visiting Ko Tao. But be aware of the place you’re traveling to, the impact you will have, and what kind of experience you want.
Next destination: Bangkok, Thailand.
Love,
Maggie (and Brooke)
Morocco 2 Mongolia 