We hadn’t expected to love our time in Chiang Mai as much as we did, so leaving to go back to the bustling streets of Bangkok was a bit of a drag. We aren’t ‘big city people’ (even though Ness works in Westminster), and landing back in a grey metropolis sucked a bit of our soul away. It was worth it though, because three exciting things were about to happen. First, we were to meet Valerie and Mart again, second was that we were waiting for a flight down to the island of Ko Tao, but most of all we were waiting for the arrival of flight BA009 from Heathrow, containing our sister Sammy.

Sammy was due to arrive on Tuesday morning, and we were flying to Ko Tao first thing Wednesday. We had no desire to spend much time in Bangkok, but the cheapest flight there was on Saturday, so we committed to 4 days there. In hindsight, the cheaper accomodation in Chiang Mai would have offset the cost of flying a couple of days later, but we’ll chalk that down to experience. We looked to take some meaning though in returning to Bangkok 2 months after we had first arrived to start our year of travelling. We had landed, fresh faced and nervous as to what this would be like, feeling displaced as we discuss in one of our earliest posts here. After 2 months we had done a loop through Indochina and felt like we had our heads around travelling. We weren’t changed people, but were richer and had learned a lot about ourseslves and the world around us.

The highlight of this symmetry was in seeing Valerie and her husband Mart. You may remember from A Little Bit of Bangkok that Valerie is an old uni friend of Ness’, now living in Bangkok, working for the Red Cross and married to Mart, who is Thai. They had given us a great night on our arrival, and set us up with lots of tips for travelling in the region. They left our pale scared faces, and now we could meet up with them feeling relaxed and covered in freckles (we don’t tan!). Talking about their lives and ours, it is remarkable to see how much can change in 2 months. As before we felt immediately enthralled by their warmth and charisma, an evening with them went far too quickly.

We must confess that we fell into a bit of an emotional rut for a couple of days. We had done the main (and expensive) attractions in Bangkok on our first visit here, so had planned to just hang around and catch up on admin. We felt a bit lifeless for a few days, and then felt bad for feeling that way while travelling around the world, but I suppose you need occasional down days to appreciate the great days. We did some of our admin (not as much as we should have) and killed time until Tuesday morning.

Sammy was due to arrive at 0945 from Heathrow. The date and time were etched into our mind as we had so eagerly awaited the arrival of Ness’ big sister for at least a month. She had always wanted to learn to dive, and to visit Thailand, so while we were in Vietnam she decided to seize the opportunity and come to join us for a leg of our trip. We met her at arrivals and took her back on the train. It was a stark contrast to our first trip on that train 2 months earlier, when we had felt really out of place… now we felt totally at ease.

We spent the day relaxing, introduced Sammy to some Thai street food and Amazon Coffee, then got an early night ready for our flight South.

Our destination was Ko Tao, a tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand, known as one of the best places in the world to learn to scuba dive. Too small for its own airport, we were flying to Chumphon on the mainland, then getting a bus and ferry to Ko Tao. By mid afternoon our ferry was slowing into the bay, a magnificent long beach dotted with wooden shacks and palm trees, lucious green hills behind rounding out the picture perfect image. We hadn’t been prepared for such beauty, it was the epitome of an idyllic tropical island.

Every location has it’s own preferred means of transport, here it was scooters (of course) and pickup trucks. We were loaded into the back of a pickup truck and dropped at our hotel. Sadly on a backpacker budget we weren’t staying in a beach side hut, but in a hotel 20 mins walk from the beach. Wanting to not expose Sammy to the rougher side of travelling, we had gone for a reasonably nice hotel, and so we were pleased to settle in.

We were here to learn to dive, so the we went to work on finding a dive school. The reason this is considered such a good place to learn is that there are so many dive schools in such close proximity, so they compete by lowering costs and raising standards. We went around about 10 different schools (a tiny fraction of those available) to get a feel. Available were big corporate schools, chilled places merging hostel / bar / dive school / social club, and small outfits, often with national affiliations. The social schools were very appealing, make friends and learn to dive, but we decided on this occasion to go with our heads. We signed up with U & I Diving, a French school where the only instructors were a very enthusiastic French man and his Thai partner. First impressions weren’t of a social setup, but of a friendly guy who would deliver outstanding training as just the 3 of us, and give us more than anyone else for our money. I remember my first exchange with David, arriving at the door to his shop beside a French flag, I asked whether they did courses in English…. He replied ‘the books are in English, and underwater it doesn’t matter what language you speak!’ I liked him from the first moment.

The evening was spent studying dive theory, and the next morning we were up and in the classroom for 10. I say classroom, I mean a sofa in the front of David and Yui’s shop. Their small store was situated on the waterfront by the pier, no frills as a commercial outfit, but it’s functional and screams of their passion for diving over a passion for commercialism.

Being a huge geek at heart, I loved the theory, and soon we were in the back of David’s truck heading to Hin Wong Bay for our first dives.

For Ness it was all ‘old hat’… She’d done the first couple of levels of diving qualifications when she was in Australia on her gap year, so she was just joining us for fun and a refresh, but for Sammy and I it was a very new experience. Kit on, we trudged heavily down the beach and into the water and weightlessness. I say weightlessness, of course that is the idea, but until we got the hang of it this was certainly not the case. Inflation and deflation buttons everywhere we ping ponged around until we had the hang of bouyancy. It wasn’t until we left Ko Tao that I was able to really remain weightless and float neutrally for a dive.

Over the course of a couple of dives that afternoon, we did some skills like removing masks and sharing air, and explored the small coral formations in the bay. We were being taught by Yui, a high energy Thai woman with a laugh that rang through a room like the last orders bell in a bar… her enthusiasm was infectious. She was very patient as we bumbled our way through those dives, including when she looked back to see me trying to do a barrel roll in the water, unaware of the delicate coral right beside me!

More studying overnight led to more theory the next day, before our first boat dives. We bundled up our gear and tiptoed precariously along the edges of the boats moored together, to our one at the far end. The U&I RHIB was out of action, so we wouldn’t have the fun and sickness of being bounced across the waves at speed, rather we were guests on the boat of a big school. This did have the perk of free fruit being supplied on board!

The sea wasn’t especially rough, but nor was it very smooth, so by the time we reached our dive site I was keen to jump off the boat and get under water. We were with David today, so were enjoying his wealth of knowledge and experience. Underwater he impressed upon us the need for ‘quiet’….to be slow and still in the water so as to not burn through our air. He led us through the same exercises as before but in deeper water, and then gently guided us around the coral reefs, admiring the beauty of the marine landscape and the wealth of wildlife.

One of the highlights of diving with Ness is seeing Trigger Fish. These fish have teeth (a bit weird) and are very defensive, if they feel threatened then they can bite and cause considerable injury, being generally around a foot long. After seeing someone attacked by one in Australia, she was terrified of them. Whenever we would see one, Ness would visibly freak out….it turns out I can still laugh hysterically while breathing from a regulator.  It turns out that Sammy also does a very good trigger fish impression…sadly she wouldn’t let me take a picture.

As if things weren’t rough enough for Ness and her trigger fish phobia, the next day we were being collected at 6am to go on an early boat to the furthest dive site. After teasing her for struggling so much with the early start, the tables turned as I felt horrendous on the very rough journey to the dive site. We were being launched around as we prepared to go diving, and I must admit to being quite nervous about getting in and out of the boat when it was rising and falling so much. Ness followed Yui in without hesitation, but Sammy and I felt the nerves. Once in the water I felt even sicker, and was desperate to get under the surface where the water would be still. The relief was wonderful as we sank into beautiful still water, towards the Chumphon Pinnacle.

The biggest coral reef in the area was teeming with life as we weaved through it’s spires and caves. The contrast couldn’t have been bigger between the grey chaos of wind and rain on the surface, and the colourful tranquility 10m underneath. This was our ‘deep’ dive, going to the limit of what we would be qualified to do, at 18m. It had been suggested that this would be stressful, but to me it didn’t seem any different really to being at 5m, the water was so clear that it was still very light, I didn’t feel any sort of claustrophobia or really any sense of the depth.

The biggest feeling I continued to experience was one of being a guest. We are here in all of our expensive equipment, so vulnerable to failures, so bulky and clumsy, vision tunneled by a mask; around us flowed elegant creatures in bright colours, effortlessly gliding through the water, interacting symbiotically with each other in a way that surface animals rarely do. There is a symbiosis between creatures underwater that isn’t often seen above water, and the line between plants and animals, so distinct on land, is very vague in the marine world. We were fortunate guests experiencing a few moments in an alien world.

As our air ran lower, we moved towards the surface. At around 3m depth we came back under the curse of the weather. It was a strange experience, with no static reference points you can’t see any movement, yet your body feels like is is being tossed around furiously. I dreaded putting my head above water… as I did it was lashed with wind and rain, the tranquil illusion shattered as I came back to the reality of my world as a human.

Swimming back to the boat and climbing up the ladder was quite an experience. I grabbed onto the ladder and told myself that as a climber I was bloody well not going to let go, and hauled myself up. Ness was behind me and after passing her fins up, she went to pull herself up the ladder… the boat-hand pointed behind her and shouted for her to let go. Confused, she did as told and moved back, then was hit by a huge wave that launched the boat sideways and the ladder skywards. As if the sea was asserting it’s superiority over us, gently demonstrating how we didn’t belong, Ness found that in this sea and without fins, she had no control over where she was going. She found herself being rapidly dragged away from the boat by the battering waves. The boat-hand threw her a ring, which was taken by the wind. Yui and Sammy were quick to the task, Yui got to Ness first and grabbed her, towing her back to the boat.

Back on the boat safe and sound, I was relieved as we moved to the calm waters of a nearby bay to sit out the weather with a more chilled dive. We relaxed into our last dive of the course, and as I surfaced I felt that I’d dived myself out for a few days at least.

We returned to land, just a multiple choice exam left to do before we were signed up as open water divers. Sammy and I had to do it to get our qualification, but David put the exam in front of Ness as well, resulting in an entertaining face as he told her with a cheeky grin ‘you should ace this’. Thankfully there was sucess all around, and we were signed up!

It was Sunday afternoon, and we were here until Thursday morning at least, what to do?

Climbing of course!

The next morning Sammy fancied a chilled day so we abandoned her and made our way to Mek’s Mountain… A hill at the centre of the island with a good handful of climbing routes. We walked for 40 minutes to the base of the hill, then another half an hour up the hill… a small approach by normal standards, but not one we enjoyed in tropical weather. We paid the landowner and found the rock.

The climbing in Ko Tao is on granite, something we haven’t really climbed on. I stood at the bottom and stared up at my first climb, a supposedly easy route, which seemed to lack any holds. Granite is a very rough rock, like thousands of tiny bits of gravel cemented onto the wall… No actual holds, just a rough surface to balance our way up and cling onto small undulations in the face. In itself this sounds fun, except that to fall means sliding our skin down this cheese grater rock for a few metres.

It was a good experience, especially as a lot of the climbing we’ll do next spring in the US will be on granite, but not the most fun until we get good at it. We were too lazy to drag our arses back up the hill in Ko Tao, so we didn’t climb again there.

So, with several days to spend on a beautiful island, what were we to do now? Beach!

Ko Tao is a truly beautiful place, it’s crescent sheltering a long golden sand beach inside, lined with trendy restaurants, cafes and bars, and on its outside countless quiet coves. We had barely set about exploring this aspect of the island, so found ourselves a beautiful bit of beach, a drink, and relaxed. Over the coming few days we worked very hard finding new stretches of beach, new coffee shops and bars on the beach to relax at. It was a really hard task.

Ness and I are not particularly well suited to relaxing on beaches, whether due to brilliant white skin (still just as pale as when we left the UK), or our restless personalities, but Sammy helped us get in the groove. If we were to spend time doing nothing then this was the place, idyllic weather and scenery, and good food.

Sammy had decided that she couldn’t justify the expense of more dive training, but Ness and I reflected on it and decided that doing that training in Ko Tao was a worthwhile investment for the rest of our travels, and life. Sammy booked her boat off the island for Thursday morning in time for her flight, and we booked to start our Advanced Dive training as soon as she had sailed.

Ness and Sammy are incredibly close, as sisters and friends. When they parted ways in June it was hard, even having raised the possibility of her coming to meet us. Now that they were saying goodbye for 9 months, it was heartbreaking. Waving goodbye to Sammy as she walked down the pier to her boat was a very tearful moment, followed by us running down the beach to watch her boat speed away out of the bay and into the expanse. It was especially strange as she wouldn’t be home for a couple of days, with a day of travel back to Bangkok, then another day of travel back to the UK.

With a drink and some composure, we walked back to U&I, ready to start a couple more days of training and then follow Sammy off the island. As we arrived, David pointed out to sea and explained that a few days of bad weather were beginning, which would be ‘good training’ but not so enjoyable as the underwater visibility would be greatly reduced. We had to chose between starting our training now, or spending another week on Ko Tao. At this point we’d enjoyed Ko Tao but wanted to get on with our travels, though also wanted to get the most out of the money we were putting into diving. We had 30 mins to decide before we had to be on the boat if we wanted to get started.

We decided to wait, to stay an extra week, and at the time we were a bit gutted about this. It was one of the best decisions we’ve made while travelling!

We moved from our nice place outside of town to a more backpacker-y hostel in the centre of town, making it easier to walk around. We proceeded to spend the next 5 days doing pretty much nothing, and loving it!

We would get up lazily, make ourselves some breakfast, then bumble for a coffee, then to the beach, and just lay in the sand.

Ko Tao is very glamorous in a backpacker sort of way, lots of beautiful people wandering around town in bikinis or board shorts, cocktails by the water, beach parties at night, dancing on the sand to a live rock band. We are not beautiful, glamorous people (Ness is, I let the side down), but for a few days we had a lot of fun just chilling and being a part of that world.

We were also lucky enough to be invited by David and Yui to share some evenings with them. On one occasion they had bought a table at a charity event on the island. I am not really a drinker, but it turns out I love a few Thai spirits, so we had a great night partying with the locals, eating their food and drinking local rum.

The time then came for us to get back into a wetsuit. We hadn’t dived for a week and were excited to get back to it. Ness had done her ‘advanced adventurer’ 10 years ago, so would come along for fun while I did my next level course. I love to learn, and I really enjoyed learning more skills in managing bouyancy, air and equipment, becoming more efficient in the water.

We did a night dive first, which was a cool experience. Firstly, the boat trip to the dive site was during a stunning sunset, and then we were lucky enough to explore the beautiful underwater environment in a whole new light, torches illuminating the beautiful nocturnal fish.

The next dives focused on bouyancy and navigations skills, learning to become more competent underwater, and then the final dives were wreck and ‘deep’ diving, going down to 30m.

We set out at 6am on a clear, still day. As dawn was breaking I asked David what he loves so much about diving… he had previously lived an adrenaline fuelled life as a high level skier and a professional Moto GP rider until a couple of accidents left him with a lot of titanium plates and not enough bones left. I wondered how the slow motion life of diving gave him so much stimulation and kept him satisfied. He answered that for him it was like yoga.. under the water everything was calm, simple and peaceful. He was in this beautiful other world, moving slowly and gracefully through it, with no concerns for what was above the surface… It gives him focus and flow.

Shortly after the sun had risen, we slid under the surface towards a sunken US Navy warship in the bay. We dropped to 30m and swam, the huge hulk emerging from the gloom in front of us. Circling it, we climbed around the hull then past the turrets and bridge, seeing huge fish lurking in every doorway. We emerged on the surface qualified in some new skills, and having seen new and beautiful things.

That was to be our last day on the island. We were on a night ferry to the mainland, so spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach, then had a final dinner with David, Yui and their friends. They took us to a Korean Barbeque, where you gather round a cooking contraption which strikes a balance between a gas powered George Foreman grill, and a slow cooker. It was a new and tasty experience, then we had to say farewell to David and Yui, who had been so wonderful to us.

We were dropped back at their office, and after saying goodbye we walked across the road to the ferry. We weren’t sure what to expect from the ferry, and as we boarded we saw that it was just an open room, with mats down either side. Westerners on the left, locals on the right, we packed in next to each other.

At 9pm the boat pulled away, and we were off to our next destination, the climbing Mecca of Tonsai beach. I had high hopes, having heard wonderful things about it….little did I know what was about to come!

Read about our next stop in Tonsai here, it’s worth a read if you want to laugh at our suffering!