Island Style

Chris and I have been residing in a small resort called Sunshine on Koh Tao for the past few days. Chris has completed both his Open Water dive course and his Advanced Open Water dive course with PADI: http://www.padi.com/scuba/default.aspx

I went along for a few (fun) dives with him while he was training, as I had already completed my training in the frigid waters of Canada's west coast. Last night we went for a night dive, which was my first time under the ocean in the dark. It was pretty cool. We each had a torch (flashlight) which we used to light our way. At one point during the dive we all turned off our lights and moved our hands about in front of our faces. The plankton lit up and sparkled with bioluminescence. Pretty magical.

We spent a day at Aow Leuk, a small bay with a nice white sandy beach. We snorkeled in the warm turqoise water, which had the best underwater scenery I've seen. There are so many different varieties of coral and fish. I felt like I was in the movie Finding Nemo. Chris didn't listen to my advice and got severely sunburnt from not wearing any sun protection. "I never get sunburned", he made a point of saying. I think he's learned his lesson, since his back is now blistering and I imagine that his skin will start to peel soon. Poor guy, he had to wear his BCD and heavy dive tank on his back while diving, which apparently was very painful.
The sun down here is much stronger than what we're used to! I think that my Fabutan base tan is actually helpful now that I see how badly Chris was burnt, and I not nearly as much. My skin is much fairer than his, so it's a little shocking to see his tomato coloured skin. We went to the local pharmacy and bought some aloe vera 'after-sun' gel and noticed that they were also selling "Beer & Egg" shampoo....

Mangosteen is aboslutely the best tasting fruit EVER!! I have a thing for fruit... if there was only one thing I could eat for the rest of my life it would be fruit! Some other fuits that are common here are mango, rombutan, lansones, durian, banana, pinapple, coconut, watermelon, and dragonfruit. YUM! You can order fruit shakes from street vendors, as well as the most delicious pancakes, pad thai, and other such treats. I haven't gotten sick of Thai food yet. It's always been a favorite of mine and now I get to eat it every day.


Traveling has a desirable allure, but so do most things when you see them from an outside perspective. "The grass is always greener on the other side" is a common belief, but once you attain what you desire you sometimes realize that the fantasy was just that: fanstasy. What I'm getting at is that since we've arrived in Thailand, we've noticed some of the seedy underground below the surface of what most people are aware of.... I'll elaborate on this another time as I think it's important to emphasize that there are always two sides of the coin, so to speak.




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Travel tip of the day:
Consider traveling during the low season. Companies are competing for your business and so you might be able to find cheaper rates and may also be able to barter for better deals.