Koh Tao

I flew the 45 minutes from Bangkok the Koh Samui and then caught the 2Hr catamaran from there to Koh Tao, via Koh Phangan.  The three islands are relatively close together in the Gulf of Thailand.  While Thailand is just entering the monsoon season, it is fortunate that these islands seem to escape most of the rain, and the weather is good all year round, with only a little increase in inclement weather  in November.

I stayed in Simple Life accommodation on Sairee Beach and had a huge en suite double room with air conditioning for only about £34 per night

Sairee beach is great.  As the island caters mostly for the diving community, the beach is underutilised.  It is quiet and backed by a number of relaxing beach bars and restaurants.  At only £1.60 for a vodka and coke from 4 to 7PM. How could you refuse a relaxing drink or 6 after a hard day's diving?

All the locals are unbelievably friendly and will go out of their way to help you, should you ask for it.  They are friendly in a very genuine way, and not because they feel they have to.

I came here for the diving, and did 12 dives in all.  It was OK, but not the best for marine life that I have experienced.  This is a place to learn diving and to get any and all certifications, at a very reasonable rate, and in most cases half the price you might pay elsewhere.  I have been offered the chance of a Divemaster internship, and may well come back here for the 2/3 months of  the Indian monsoon season.

I would definitely recommend Koh Tao for a fantastic place to visit.  It is an idyllic island, with plenty of restaurants serving all kinds of food from Thai to Italian, and extremely inexpensive.  Good for diving, snorkeling and you can even go on the "zipwire" which is strung between two small islands.

When I went to order a taxi to take me to the ferry to go home the next morning, the receptionist asked if she should put it on the bill along with my extra night.  I was confused about why I was being charged an extra night.  Then I realised I had forgotten to go home.  I should have left that morning and it completely escaped my mind!  There were no free flights from Bangkok to Bangalore for another week.  It was either stay another week, or go back business class.  As tempting as it was to stay, discretion meant I had to suffer 6 hours of the business class lounge in Bangkok Airport!

Bangkok

Jennifer and I spent four days in Bangkok for a quick break together before I went diving in Koh Tao.  We had a really nice suite on the 28th Floor of the Chatrium Riverside Hotel, and were relieved to get an early check-in as we had been travelling all night.  We were both tired which was evident as Jennifer rang the hotel to find out what time the first hotel taxi left Saphan Taksin pier where we were waiting.  I heard Jennifer repeating "What do you mean 'when'.  I am there now".  She was getting more and more irate.  "Why do you keep saying 'Say when thirty' ?" and "What do you mean 'Say when thirty' ?  I am waiting now".  She handed me the phone in frustration. "Ah, you mean seven thirty."  I deduced.  Jennifer not good at understanding the difficulties the Thais have with pronouncing "V" as "W", whereas the Indians pronounce "W" as "V".

Bangkok is much different to Bangalore.  Its shining high-rise buildings and ultra modern Skytrain transport system are testament to the wealth it has experienced and reinvested in recent years.  It is clean and mostly efficient, with the Chao Phraya river dominating the city with its ever frequent river taxi service, free hotel boats and huge commercial barges, with their exports of sugar and corn, travelling the final 10 miles down to the sea.

We spent the next few days looking at the sights.  First of all we went up the river to the Royal Palace.  I was struck by the sheer number of scammers hanging around this area.  They were trying to tell me that the Palace was closed and that they would take me somewhere else, and the the Golden Buddha was in a completely different direction to the way we were walking, which I knew was rubbish.  Thankfully, we are relatively experienced in dealing with such people, but I can see how many more naive travellers could be taken advantage of.

The Royal Palace is a series of impressive buildings situated very close to each other in a compound.  There is plenty of gold and other bright colours that momentarily distract you from the fact that every molecule of water is oozing out of your body with the humidity at a rate in excess of that which you are able to replace it.

From there, we dodged a few more scammers and headed to Wat Pho.  This is a magnificent golden reclining Buddha and a popular tourist attraction.

Then we crossed the river to the Temple of the Golden Dawn.  At ground level there are a number of small golden Buddhas and other artifacts, but the site is dominated by the tall temple structure.  There are really steep steps up which you may climb, which provide a great view over the city and the river.

In the evenings we visited each of the three red light districts.  These are the only places where there the pubs and restaurants are in plentiful supply.  They are Pat Pong, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy.  Despite them being the famous flesh-pots of Bangkok, they do make an interesting visit.  There are no pushy sales tactics and Jennifer and I felt quite relaxed sitting in the bars watching the antics of the bar girls and their prospective customers.  The girls' friendly nature, smiles and fawning attention belie the fact that many of them are from such poor families the country areas that their parents were forced to sell them into the sex industry from an early age.

There is plenty of good food to be had here, and on the last night we went to a Japanese grill restaurant.  This was strange, as many Japanese things are.  Each time a customer came in or went out, the entire staff chanted something.  I have no idea what it was.  There were little hollows in the tables, into which the waiter puts a small tin of hot charcoal, again to some Japanese chant by the entire staff, upon which you cook your own beef.  We had the famous Japanese Kobi beef, which was really nice, but well overpriced, especially for Bangkok.

Then the next morning I was off to Koh Samui and Koh Tao, and Jennifer went back to Bangalore.

Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Jennifer's Mum and Dad came over for three weeks so we took the opportunity to go away with them for a while to Goa, then on the the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  

In Goa we stayed in the Hotel Severina which is a delightful, refurbished, colonial residence in the Calangute area of North Goa.  The hotel only has sixteen bedrooms, in the main building, with eight upstairs and eight downstairs.  The majority of the downstairs is taken up with a large Romanesque fishpond.  The outside bar was great for mosquito bites in the evening, and the restaurant was great for quality of food, and the usual rubbish standard for Indian service.  It was in easy reach of the main beach and a number of cafes, restaurants and bars.

Goa is similar to other parts of India, albeit a little more upmarket due to the low taxes and strong tourist revenue.  I was surprised at the number of older people there, and some cafes were a sea of grey washing over a plethora of red plastic tables and chairs.  So many English pensioners staying there to escape the British Winter and to spend their Winter fuel allowance on tea and Werther's Originals.

The other side of the clientele were new age traveller types, there for the omnipotent beach parties and accompanying drugs culture.  Mixed in with fat Russian drugs barons, local hawkers and the ubiquitous Indian brown street dogs, it makes for a compulsive people watching experience.

We had a car and driver for our time there which was convenient, if not a little over opulent, but meant that we had the local knowledge without the usual problems of being ripped off by taxis.  Calangute beach was really busy with domestic Indian holiday makers.  A strange bunch to see on the beach.  The Indian people have a very conservative attitude to beach life.  Exposure of any skin whatsoever is discouraged, and you will see many bathers with either full length swimsuits, or even more commonly getting into the water fully clothed.  I did a couple of scuba dives while I was there, and there was an Indian girl with us, who did the dives wearing her jeans.  Remarkable.  In any case, we got out driver to take us further North to Anjim beach.  It was much more peaceful up there, but still plenty of bars and eateries, in the usual form of ramshackle huts strewn along the beach.

The stray dogs were funny here.  They were really friendly to the tourists, but aggressive to any hawkers that came by.   This meant that we were all left alone to lay in the sun, without getting pestered to buy some ill-constructed rubbish or partake in what appeared to be an Indian torture session meted out on unsuspecting individuals, in the guise of a session of soul cleansing spiritual massage.  At one point an elderly man came along with a long horn type instrument, and a decorated cow in tow.  He would play the horn and try to get money from people.  However, the dogs took exception to this and went for him, and nipped the heels of the cow.  It was sad, but somewhat satisfying sight, to see them flee in Monty Pythonesque style down the beech.

One day we went to the spice plantation, which I would recommend.  it was interesting and informative to see how all the spices were grown and harvested.  There was also an opportunity to go on an elephant ride.

Then it was back to Bangalore for an hour only to repack suitcases (don't ask - a nightmare with cancelled flights etc which I won't bore you with) then off to Chennai for the night.  The next morning we flew to Port Blair and had a night at Corbyns Cove.  We were spending the next week in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  While still sovereign to India, they are closer to the coasts of Burma and Thailand.  You need a special permit to go there and even then you are only allowed on certain islands.  Many of them are still inhabited by tribal aborigines who have never seen a foreigner.  If you accidentally get onto these islands they will throw spears at you, kill you and eat you.

On arrival, I got into my swimming gear and went down to the cove for some snorkeling.  The visibility of the water was rubbish, and I did get a really strange feeling.  Can't describe it, but felt a bit uneasy.  There weren't many people in the water and those on the beach seemed to be looking at me.  In any case I got out and went back to the room, got changed then headed for the bar.  

The next morning when we were checking out, the guy on reception said he had seen me snorkeling the day before, and at the spot I was in, just as I was getting out, he said he saw two 10 feet salt water crocodiles.  This was also later confirmed by the security guard who told Jennifer's Dad the same story quite independently.  The receptionist said that they usually advised guests not to swim in the cove due to the danger of the crocodiles.  Of course I explained to him the obvious merits of informing the guests of this at the time of check-in, rather than waiting until they have almost been eaten and are checking out.  A couple of years ago a tourist actually did get eaten, so it can be quite a serious problem.

Then we were off on the ferry to Havelock Island. it is quite a small island, and has only really been opened for tourists in the recent past.  As you would expect, accommodation and facilities can be somewhat spartan, but for us were acceptable, and the excellent restaurant made up for any deficiencies in other areas.  I am not a great fan of seafood, but I could not resist the unbelievably fresh Red and White Snapper, Kingfish, curried Barracuda and many others that were just out of the sea.

I did quite a lot of diving while we were there.  The visibility was very good and there was plenty of diverse marine life on several dive sites.

The beaches were really quite and unspoilt with clear turquoise water which was quite shallow, so you could wade out some distance.  Although, you would have to remember that you were still in India so the chances of some random elephant just turning up out of the blue on the beach was always a strong possibility

It was a privilege to be able to visit such an out of the way destination, which is still so unspoilt.  Somehow, if everything worked and it was full of modern conveniences, the charm and ambiance would just not be the same.