Ko Tao

By: Matt

After a disappointing day in Hua Hin, we were off to the island of Ko Tao with better hopes and expectations. Ko Tao ["Turtle Island"] sits in the Gulf of Thailand amongst several other well-known islands including Ko Samui and Ko Phagnan. To get there, we took a bus down to the port town of Chumphon, where we then caught a high-speed catamaran going to Ko Tao. Traveling in Thailand is such a breeze compared to many other places that Emily and I have both travelled, because there are tour companies everywhere you go with the exact same prices and book combination tickets that make transferring easy ('combination' meaning 'bus-boat' or 'train-bus-boat' etc.).

After about 6 hours of traveling, we were on the island and fighting off the touts swarming the pier. We made for a coffee shop called Zest that has the best coffee on the island. After a late lunch there, we caught a taxi up to our hotel called Thipwimarn Resort. There is one major road in Ko Tao that circles the island (the island is only 21 km in area), although in the less-developed east side of Ko Tao the road gets pretty rough. The only taxis available on the island are pick-up trucks where you sit in the truck bed on benches. It was either this, or rent motor scooters – which is a popular option but Emily, already having had a bad scooter experience in Thailand previously, nixed that idea.

Our resort was located up a steep hill and about a 20 minute walk from the beach. We chose this place because it seemed like a good deal, and we wanted to be a little ways away from the main drag. Almost all beaches in Thailand are heavily developed – especially in the Gulf of Thailand – and they can attract lots of young people looking for raucous nightlife. We weren't really into that scene. The resort was very charming and reminded me of the kind of resorts that are in American National Parks – nice, but basic, and with decent, yet overpriced, food. The view from the place was spectacular, so we can't complain too much.

Pictures of our room and little bungalow at Thipwimarn Resort.

The view from our resort.

The next day we hit the main beach – Sairee – and walked amongst the waves, the beach bars, the trinket shops, and dive outfits. Ko Tao is known as one of the best scuba diving spots in the world, and there are many many businesses on the island to support the activity. A long time ago I dived in Mexico and really enjoyed it. Stupidly, I failed to pack any contacts with me on the trip – more excited to use my prescription sunglasses that I got right before I left for Bhutan. Diving with glasses was impossible, and diving without them would have meant a very blurry aquatic experience, so I had to forgo the diving on this trip. Emily got some snorkeling gear, but only used it at the beach.

So basically the day was spent on the beach, eating near the beach, drinking near the beach, and repeat. For dinner we ate at a place near the pier called Whitening. It was good seafood, Thai-style. Ko Tao is probably every bit as touristy as Hua Hin, but the whole scene felt more relaxed and there were better places to get food and drinks. Being a tourist in Thailand is funny coming from Bhutan – as I've alluded to in the Bangkok post – but it's also interesting from an anthropological perspective. There are swarms of Euro-American tourists everywhere in Thailand, and Thailand draws them like moths to flame, but in the places where tourists congregate there isn't much that is culturally "Thai" about it. On an island like Ko Tao, there are coffee shops and bars and Mexican and Italian restaurants. The touristy Thai locations almost try to play down the foreignness of it and make it a cosmopolitan experience. Bhutan is almost completely the opposite, as Bhutan tends to play up its cultural distinctions and differences. The tourists in Bhutan are seeking out that cultural experience of being in a different place, while in Thailand tourists just want a nice beach and a pleasant holiday. Interestingly, the example of Hawaii comes to mind, which tries to do both at the same time. People travel to Hawaii for beaches and good weather, but they also flock to the luaus, watch the hula dancers, and eat the poi, all in the name of a cultural experience that native Hawaiians put on as a form of theater, displaying a culture that they themselves have exaggerated. In anthropology, this is called practice theory (she also: the work of Sherry Ortner on Sherpas in Nepal).

The sunset at Whitening Restaurant.

The next day we thought we would try a more remote beach on the east side of Ko Tao. After a wild taxi ride (remember, we are sitting in the truck bed), we reached Sai Daeng Beach with a great view of Shark Island – a pillar of rock emerging out of the water like a shark fin. The beach itself was less populated, but it was also disappointingly full of trash. I definitely miss the pristine and deserted natural beaches of Vieques! We spent the day there, and it wasn't so bad if you could find a clean spot. There was one dive resort at the beach, and so we used that for lunch and drinks. In the late afternoon it was back to Sairee for coffee. We walked the 20 minutes back to our resort as the sun set, and decided to keep walking down the road for a view of the setting sun at a resort located at the very end of the road.

Shark Island, viewed from Sai Daeng Beach.

I cannot think of a better way to spend an afternoon...

Cool abandoned boat on the shore.

Currently, I write this in the bustling beach town of Ao Nang on the West side of Thailand. This is where Emily and I went after Ko Tao, and have really enjoyed it over here – probably our favorite place in Thailand so far. But, more to come on that in the next entry...

Posted with Blogsy