20 March at sea from Surat Thani to Koh Phangan
On a fine sunny day I
caught a Grab taxi back to Langkawi Island’s ferry pier, got some breakfast
snacks at 7-11, visited a money changer to convert the remaining Malaysian
ringgits to Thai baht, then got in a long line for immigration. At about 9:30
a.m. the boat motored out on a smooth sea, passing many small jungle-covered
islands on a journey that lasted 75 minutes and cost RM35. Although I had a
window seat, the window was too high and heavily tinted to see out well, and
there’s no outside deck to watch the scenery go by, which misses the scenic
potential of taking boats here.
Thai immigration gave me the hoped-for
30 days, which will take me to April 18th, the day I fly back to the U.S.A.
Travel agency touts tried to rope me into buying minibus tickets from them for
the trip to Surat Thani, but their 800B asking price seemed high, though it soon
dropped to 600B. I decided to arrange things myself and got in the back of a
songtaew (pickup truck) for a 50B ride to Satun’s bus station, where I bought a
120B minibus ticket to Trang, and on arrival there a 160B minibus ticket to
Surat Thani. The minibuses were comfortable enough and I only had to wait about
half an hour for each of them. Rubber tree and palm oil plantations cover much
of the landscape here in Thailand’s far south, just as they do in nearby
Malaysia. Sheer limestone mountains rise here and there, and signs advertise
caves to visit.
In Surat Thani I walked down to the river pier where
night boats hang out, but sadly berths on the boat to Koh Tao had sold out. My
plan had been to arrive at the island in time for an afternoon pair of scuba
dives, but now that looked uncertain. So I got a ticket on the boat to Koh
Phangan (400B)—the island just south of Koh Tao—with plans to catch a boat
onward to Koh Tao in the morning. My night boat didn’t depart until 11 p.m., so
I had plenty of time for dinner and headed across the street to Milano Pizzeria
for a very tasty thin-crust pizza. The wooden night boat has two levels, the
lower for cargo such as bags of vegetables, car tires, and whatever else
islanders need. The upper level contains two long rows of mattresses and
pillows, but no frills such as blankets or air-conditioning. The night air
turned out to be a very comfortable temperature, though, and seas calm.
21 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
My boat pulled in at Koh Phangan about 5:30
a.m., just as the first sign of dawn appeared. The 24-hour 7-11 had breakfast
fixings, then when a restaurant opened, I had time for a greasy omelet followed
by writing and internet surfing. Three companies offer ferry connections among
the islands here, and I like Seatran Discovery the most. The 8:30 a.m. boat to
Koh Tao (400 baht) came in a bit late, but I had a pleasant 1.5-hour ride
sitting on the covered upper deck and enjoying the views.
I’ve been
going underwater with New Way Diving
https://www.newwaydiving.com/ since 2006 when I got recertified with PADI,
and have been back most years since. The diving around Koh Tao is good and
extremely good value. One of the staff kindly picked me up at the pier for the
drive north to Sairee Beach. Luckily I had time for signing the liability
release form and get on the afternoon dives. I also checked into to nearby U&I
Place, reserved through Booking.com for six nights at 790 baht/night (US
$25.50). The room was advertised as with air-conditioning, which I thought a
misprint at this price, but turned out to be true!
By 12:33 I was in the
water for a Red Rock Drop-off. We got off the boat at Red Rock, a barely
submerged pinnacle, swam underwater to the nearby small island of Nang Yuan,
then followed its underwater shore around to Japanese Gardens, a popular
snorkeling spot. It’s one of my favorite dives and includes a cave formed of
giant granite boulders that we swim through. We saw the usual incredible
diversity of colorful life along the way, including a Jenkins whipray, school of
long-faced emperor fish, and the sometimes feisty titan triggerfish. It’s mating
and nesting season now for the titan triggerfish, and they sometimes chase away
and even try to bite divers who come to close. We gave wide berth to the fish
and had no problems. Koh Tao has many corals, most with descriptive names such
as solid table, bushy tale, leather, brain, staghorn, mushroom, boulder, and
funnel. Soft corals hang out too, such as the well-named bubble. Colorful fish
surround us, such as blue-ringed angel fish, longfin banner fish, parrot fish,
squirrel fish, and sergeant major (they’ve got their stripes!) fish. It’s worth
looking for small critters, and we saw a brown-banded pipefish, which looks like
a seahorse and is in the same family, but its body is straight, not curved.
Although small, one cannot miss the colorful Christmas tree worms! These
underwater creatures each have two feather-like spiral structures used for
filter feeding and respiration, but if something comes close, the worm retracts
these in a flash. Why they come in so many colors is a mystery to me. Some are
bright monochrome reds, blues, yellows, or even white, while others have
multi-colored structures.
Water temperature was a comfy 29° C (84.2° F),
though I wore a ‘shorty’ wetsuit for a bit of extra warmth. Visibility was OK at
8-10 meters. We went down 19 meters, then spent much of the 59-minute dive at
shallower depths where the sunshine brought out the many bright colors of sea
life around us.
After the dive we took a break of about an hour and a
half before our next dive, at the underwater pinnacles called ‘Twins.’ We saw
many of the same sea life as on the earlier dive, but also a blue-spotted
ribbontail ray, which lay in a crevice for protection. A blotched porcupine fish
swam slowly and ungainly, protected by spines which protrude when the fish
inflates by swallowing water; and if that’s not enough to deter predators, and
powerful neurotoxin in its body organs will. A toothy white-eyed moray eel hung
about on the bottom. A scribbled filefish motored by, powered not by its tail
but by its undulating fins. In the small-critters-department, we saw a Durban
dancing shrimp, which has a red and white pattern.
Back on land, I
filled out my logbook with help of the divemaster Emma, then I headed to the
Shalimar Indian Restaurant for a good vegetable thali that includes a samosa
along with a mango lassi and small pot masala tea.
22 March Sairee
Beach, Koh Tao
Of the dive sites near Koh Tao, Chumpon Pinnacle has the
reputation for the biggest and most fish, but it can get crowded with divers in
the morning, when most people go. So when New Way Diving offered an afternoon
trip, I jumped at the chance. In the water we saw lots of giant grouper, most
sitting quietly waiting for a meal to swim by. Sleek and silvery trevally, a
predatory fish and member of the jack family, swam about. And we saw a great
variety of other fish including chevron barracuda, queen fish, rainbow runner,
and titan triggerfish. This is one of the deeper dive sites of Koh Tao, and we
went down as far as 25.3 meters with 40 minutes underwater.
A bit more
than an hour later just myself and divemaster Emma followed a buoy line down to
the 28.8-meter bottom near Sattakut Wreck, a 48-meter U.S. Navy landing craft
launched in 1944 that saw action in the Pacific at Iwo Jima and other locations,
receiving three battlestars for service during World War II. Afterward it saw a
long service in the Thai Navy before being purposely sunk here as a dive site in
2011. Unfortunately today the site had a spooky visibility of just two meters,
so not much to see. After swimming past the bow gun, we headed to nearby Hin Pee
Wee, a shallow-water dive site full of life. Besides the usual fish, we saw a
pair of highly camouflaged bearded scorpion fish; they are suction feeders that
lie in wait for an unsuspecting victim to swim near. As their name suggests,
they are neither pretty nor cuddly, having venomous spines. We were in the water
47 minutes. For dinner I went back to Shalimar for a palak paneer, which chefs
there do very well.
23 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
Up early this
morning, I joined divers for a trip out to Sail Rock, a pinnacle that rises high
out of the water between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. It’s considered the best
diving of the area, but takes two hours of motoring in the former fishing
vessels that most dive companies use. Unfortunately our little wooden boat had
to go against big rolling swells, and after nearly two hours of that I became
very seasick despite taking a Dramamine tablet earlier, but the sickness soon
passed. We jumped into the 27° C water at 8 a.m., then descended through a
‘chimney,’ a spacious vertical swim-through, and exited it in deeper waters. At
times big-eye trevally swam overhead in a school so dense that it darkened the
sky. Chevron barracuda also circled about in big schools. Other sizeable fish
included yellow-tail barracuda, queenfish, rainbow runner, batfish, titan
triggerfish, and giant grouper. The underwater vertical rock faces of Sail Rock
provided habitats for many kinds of life, including both hard and soft corals.
Leo from Italy led the dive, which went down as far as 23.8 meters and lasted 48
minutes. A thermocline about 17 meters down divided murky green water below and
the warm water above, which had a 15-meter visibility.
We had anchored
in the lee of Sail Rock, which reduced the waves, and took a 59-minute break
before jumping in again. Nevertheless, another bout of sea sickness attacked
just before the dive, and I waited a few minutes for it to go away. Being
underwater is a relief as the wave action doesn’t go below about two meters. On
the second dive we had similar conditions and fish sightings, though without the
huge school of trevally. Leo thought that an approaching storm had caused many
of the trevally to head off into ‘the blue’ and she thought that the schools of
barracuda appeared nervous. When we came up, a big storm had filled the sky to
the south, so our boat hurried north back to Koh Tao. A light rain swept over
us, but with the wind at our stern the boat easily rode the waves. I devoured a
bunch of watermelon slices, then felt good enough to have my breakfast sandwich.
Having a two-hour rest before the third and final dive of this trip was much
needed!
Normally the third dive would have been at one of the sites just
south of Koh Tao, but with the storm we instead went to White Rock, a popular
and sheltered site west of the island. Lots of colorful life swarmed about the
many corals in 28° C water. Pink anemone fish safely swam among the tentacles of
the abundant anemones. A blue-spotted ribbontail ray rested under an overhang.
Hermit crabs and banded boxer shrimp searched for morsels of food. A blotched
porcupine fish slowly and fearlessly swam by. Lots of the usual fish put in an
appearance, including a titan triggerfish and golden trevally. Although most sea
life is pretty, not so for the crown-of-thorns starfish with its venomous
thorns; it was munching on hard corals. We went down as far as 16.7 meters and
stayed 54 minutes. Visibility was about 12 meters. For dinner I had my left-over
lunch that had been provided on the dive trip, then a thin-crust marinara pizza.
24 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
I planned to dive here on Koh Tao for
seven days, then head across to Thailand’s west coast for a five-day live-aboard
trip around the Similan and Surin islands of the Andaman Sea, considered one of
the world’s best diving locales. I made a reservation for the live-aboard with
Similan Diving Safaris
https://www.similan-diving-safaris.com/index.html and the same company I
went with two years ago. This morning I went to Bon Voyage, a little travel
agency run by a woman who used to work at New Way Diving, and bought a combined
ticket—a night boat to Surat Thani, then a bus over to Khao Lak on the Andaman
Sea. The seven days of diving here on Koh Tao should give me some ‘sea legs’
before going out to sea for an extended period!
After a good rest, I
headed out for a pair of afternoon dives, starting with a Mango Bay Drop-off.
The gentle waters of this large bay on the north shore of Koh Tao provide a
great place for snorkelers and people just learning scuba diving. And there’s a
lot of undersea life. Leo and I jumped in just as the boat neared Mango Bay,
then meandered through the shallows to the central area, reaching a maximum
depth of just 12.3 meters along the way. We had to cover a lot of distance, so
kept a steady pace, making for a good workout on the 55-minute dive. On the way
we saw a blue-spotted ribbontail ray flee across the sandy bottom. Small
creatures included a very pretty dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebris), white
with delicate black markings and exposed gills. (The word ‘nudibranch’ comes
from the Latin nudus ‘naked,’ and the Greek brankhia ‘gills.’) It’s in a group
of marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. I
also watched a small reddish flatworm undulate through the water near a coral.
Leo found a shorthand commensal shrimp, hard to spot as it’s small and
transparent, and usually only active at night. Lots of big and small fish swam
around the corals including titan triggerfish and gold saddle rabbit fish.
Next our boat went to Green Rock, a great jumble of granite boulders on the
northwest side of Koh Nang Yuan. We enjoyed three swim-throughs and seeing lots
of life in the varied habitats. A pair of yellow-margin triggerfish engaged in
what looked like head-butting, perhaps a mating ritual. A huge school of big-eye
trevally swam above, and we saw giant grouper lurking in the depths. A yellow
boxfish swam slowly, protected by poisonous proteins that it can release from
its skin; although juveniles have a bright yellow color, this one’s skin had
dark hues of an adult. We went down to 20.8 meters, but spent most of the time
in the warmer water above a 12-meter-deep thermocline. The dive lasted 47
minutes, then we headed home. I had the vegetable thali and small pot masala tea
at Shalimar.
25 March Sairee Beach, Koh Tao
Although I was tempted to
go on the three-dive ‘Koh Tao Tour’ offered by New Way Diving, I decided to have
a rest day and just do one dive—a night one. For the first time in awhile I had
a big breakfast, digging into the 200-baht buffet at Simple Life Resort. Then I
spent time on the internet, watching the U.S.A.’s political chaos explained on
Washington Week, and doing some journal writing.
In late afternoon the
people on the ‘Koh Tao Tour’ came back and reported that because of the waves
they canceled plans of diving on the far side of the island and dove first at
Shark Island off the southeast corner, then came back to a pair of sheltered
sites on this side. Just three people went on the night dive, led by Canadian
‘Kade’ (named after the Sierra Cascades). Sam, a student diver also from Canada,
was making his first night dive. As the sun headed to bed, we motored the short
distance south to the dive sites of Pottery and Three Rocks. By the time we had
set up our gear and had a briefing, the last light faded from the sky. We hopped
into the inky sea to observe how life adapts to nighttime. We had the advantage
of flashlights, of course, though nocturnal fish had to hunt using the feeble
light of the half moon along with their other senses. Some fish just go to
sleep, and we saw several parrotfish at rest in overhangs; unlike humans, they
don’t eyelids to close. Filter feeders like corals, Christmas tree worms, and
feather stars don’t need vision at all, and probably appreciate that fewer
predators are about at night. Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and starfish were out
grazing in great numbers. We saw lots of crabs—tiny ones hiding in corals and a
couple very large hermit crabs with borrowed shells. Kade found a tiny peacock
sole and a mysterious tube-like creature with spikes. I saw a couple
blue-spotted ribbontail rays, a blotched porcupine fish, and a white-eye moray
eel. When I covered the light and waved my hands in the water I could see tiny
green specks of bioluminescent plankton light up. Perhaps because of the
darkness the clicking sounds of undersea life seemed more noticeable than in the
daytime. This was the shallowest dive so far, only as deep as 8.8 meters, and
used less than half a tank of air because the limitation of night diving is how
long the flashlight batteries will last. We dived 41 minutes, but of course
would have liked to stay down longer! Back on the surface I noticed that the
light attracted tiny red critters that swam very fast. Night life on the reef is
just as fascinating to see as during the day!
26 March Sairee Beach, Koh
Tao
I signed up for another trip out to Sail Rock, with the hope of gentler
seas. The swells turned out to be far smaller this sunny and hazy morning. My
camera came along today for snaps of Koh Tao, the sunrise, dive sites, and life
on the boat. Unfortunately I don’t have an underwater camera housing, so all my
snaps were topside. As we neared Sail Rock one of the staff noted that the sea
‘looked like guacamole.’ Not a good sign, so two staff jumped in at Sail Rock to
see what the diving conditions would be. Not good, as it turned out, with
visibility only a meter and not a fish to be seen.
Just as the fish went
elsewhere to dive, so did we, and the boat turned toward Southwest Pinnacle, and
isolated group of submerged pinnacles well to the southwest of Koh Tao.
Visibility turned out to be 7-8 meters—not great, but OK. We saw a lot of fish,
a shiny tiger cowrie, a pair of banded-boxer shrimp, and other life. The site is
much like Chumphon Pinnacle with limestone rocks rising steeply from sandy
depths and covered with extensive growths of anemones. One diver accidentally
brushed his leg against the anemones and welts formed on his skin. A staff diver
poured vinegar on it and cautioned against touching the welts. We started deep
at 25.6 meters and worked our way up to the tops of the pinnacles during the
40-minute dive.
Our boat turned toward the southeast corner of Koh Tao
and the fin-shaped Shark Rock. Here we saw lots of fish including a large
long-faced emperor fish, golden trevally, rabbit fish, parrot fish, long-fin
batfish, squirrel fish, and soldier fish. We also spotted a blue-spotted
ribbontail ray. Fan corals seemed especially numerous here among the abundant
corals. Visibility was similar here and again we dove 40 minutes, with a maximum
depth of 19.6 meters.
A bit farther north, we pulled into Aow Leuk, a
cove on the southeast side of Koh Tao, that has a beautiful coral garden.
Besides many types of corals, we saw giant clams, hermit crabs, a tiny white
nudibranch with dark patterns (Risbecia tryhoni), a small white-eyed moray. Many
small fish swam about including blue-spotted trout and gold-saddle rabbit fish.
With a maximum depth of only 9.8 meters, we were able to stay down 60 minutes.
27 March at sea on Koh Tao-Surat Thani night boat
After a filling
breakfast buffet at Simple Life Resort, I finished packing up and checked out at
U&I Place, then went to New Way Diving for a pair of afternoon dives. That will
make 15 dives with New Way over seven days. The manager gave me a discount as a
returning diver, so the regular dives cost 650 baht, the night dive 850 baht,
and the Sail Rock trio of dives at 2560 baht/trip. That’s a bargain compared
with most parts of the world, and includes all equipment, boat trips, and guide!
We first went to one of my favorite sites, Chumphon Pinnacle, and saw great
barracuda, yellowtail barracuda, giant grouper, queenfish, harlequin sweetlips,
long-faced emperor fish, rainbow runner, and fusileer. Visibility was OK at 6-7
meters, and I stayed down 50 minutes, reaching a maximum depth of 27.3 meters.
Leo didn’t wish to go deeper as our next dive would also be a relatively deep
one. There were four of us, and Leo paired me up with a German diving instructor
to stay down a bit longer while she headed up with the other diver.
At
the next dive site, Sattukut Wreck, visibility was just 3-4 meters, not great
but an improvement of the visit last week. We went down to 27.9 meters and swam
to the stern gun, then over the decks to the two-story wheelhouse and finally
past the bow gun—all very picturesque and just a bit spooky. I noticed that many
small corals have gotten a start on the steel deck. Small fish like the security
of the interior spaces. We saw some of the same fish as at Chumphon
Pinnacle—great barracuda, giant grouper, and rainbow runner, but in far fewer
numbers. A short underwater swim led to Hin Pee Wee and lots of colorful corals
and fish, helped by increased visibilities of up to 12 meters. Again I stayed
down a little longer with the German diving instructor for a total of 45
minutes.
Back at the New Way Diving office, I cleaned up, packed up my
gear, then wandered around Sairee Beach in search of dinner. Italian appealed,
and I enjoyed a tagliatelle with eggplant sauce and ricotta—heavenly—at Porto
Bella. At 8 p.m. diving staff gave me a ride to the port, where I got on a Ko
Jaroen ferry to Surat Thani. It’s a steel cargo boat with nicer accommodations
than the wooden boats. For 700 baht I had a proper bunk bed with sheet and
blanket. It departed a bit earlier than the scheduled 9:30 p.m. and arrived at
Surat Thani, on the other side of the river from the wooden night boats, before
sunrise.
On to Thailand: Similan and Surin Islands scuba diving
Back to beginning of Southeast Asia Backpacking Jan.-April 2018