Life Beyond Diving

In Touch Guesthouse, Ko Tao, Thailand
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Although diving did take up most of my time, it did not take up all of it.  On my first dive I met Jess, a 21 year old Brit who is aspiring to be an actress, who was with another instructor.  We hung out for three nights and since she had been in Ko Tao for about 2 1/2 weeks, she was able to take me to some of her favorite places.  We had good Italian food at Thaita (although it was a little on the cold side and bad cocktails) and then good grilled food at Sairee Hut.  Our last night hanging out together, we went to the Lotus bar which is located right on the beach.  Sitting on mats and Thai cushions (which have a triangular back to the cushion to lean on) right on the sand, sipping cocktails and watching a fire dancer, I realized that this was the first time that I felt like I had actually "gone out"!

South Sai Ree Beach at Night, Ko Tao, Thailand
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My day off between my diving course and my fun dives, I managed to get some beach time in.  The beach itself isn't very wide at all and the water is warm and very shallow for quite a distance so all you really do is sit in it.  The only not so good thing and I am not sure if it was just the time of day, but there were some sand fleas that give you a good biting.  After recovering from my bites, I had the perfect island night, sex on the beach at sunset (the drink that is ;p), an hour Thai massage (I decided to brave it and it was actually very nice), followed by dinner right by the beach.  Ahhhhhh.  My last night, I ended up going to the restaurant associated with where I was staying.  The manager was taking a break and offered for me to sit with him.  Turns out he is actually Burmese and has been working in Ko Tao for 12 years now.  Unfortunately he doesn't get home too often, but seems to like Ko Tao.

Ko Tao, Thailand
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I was definitely sad to leave Ko Tao.  If I didn't have just 11 days left on my visa, I would have loved to stay.  My last morning I made a special trip to get my last chocolate croissant at the bakery almost across from Scuba Junction (next to Coffee Boat).  Yum.  I was also sad to leave my room, except for the cockroach I encountered.  I first saw it by the shower head, but decided if it wasn't bothering me, I would bother it.  That was fine until it decided to move onto the plastic bad holding my toilet paper.  Now, you know you are a backpacker when instead of just throwing the plastic bag away, you doing everything to save it.  Since I really needed it, I bravely first tried getting it out the window, but with the wind, that didn't work.  So, I finally managed to get it into the toilet and flushed away.  Or so I thought.  My last morning, there was a cockroach on my bed (thankfully as I was packing not sleeping).  Ok, so realistically, it probably wasn't the same one, but you never know, those things are pretty hardy little suckers and maybe it came back to torment me.  Not wanting to get near it, I went on my croissant run and then immediately picked up my belongings so that I could get to the taxi that was going to take me to the pier to catch a 10:15am boat to Chumphon.