May 29, 2011

Days 11-20

Hello from Chiang Dao, Thailand ! To anyone following this blog, I’m sorry for the long gap since the last post.. the past week and a half has seen a huge amount of travel, some illness, and a lack of internet availability. I’m going to forgo the day-by-day approach for this entry, since I think it would just be tedious.

Last weekend, I decided it was probably now-or-never for leaving Koh Tao, and I reluctantly booked my ferry-bus-flight off the island. I had an absolutely incredible time there, but I had never meant to spend more than 4 or 5 days in Koh Tao, and suddenly found myself looking at 2 weeks. It was time to move on! Before leaving, I did 4 more dives, which were all amazing, as always. The last two, with David as my dive buddy and his friend Michelle as our guide, were especially fantastic and gave me some great final memories of the reefs!

*All diving pics courtesy of Michelle Ahern* Me (left) and David diving on my last day in Koh Tao!

Me in Koh Tao

At 3pm on Monday, I got on a ferry bound for Chumphon.. the first leg of what was to be a very uncomfortable, sweaty, tiring, TWENTY-HOUR trip to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. There was no air conditioning and very little shade, and the sun was blazing hot. It was a 3-hour ride. After that came a 2-hour layover at a smelly bus station, followed by an 8-hour bus ride to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at 3:30am. When I booked the tickets, I was told we’d arrive at 6am, which, frankly, is a much more desirable time to get dropped off on the side of the road in a huge city where you don’t speak the language. So at 3:30 in the morning, I found myself standing on the sidewalk in Bangkok in the dark, in the rain, with all of my belongings. A swarm of taxi drivers had been waiting for the bus to arrive, and all of them were shouting at the bus passengers, trying to bully them into paying exorbitant prices. I tried to find another traveler to split a cab with, but it seemed like I was the only one traveling alone, and within a few minutes, everyone was disappearing down the street. I finally managed to find a cab driver who promised to use the meter. I told him to take me to the airport, then I crossed my fingers, got in the cab, and hoped to god I wasn’t going to turn into a cautionary tale about traveling alone in Asia. Words cannot describe my relief when we passed a sign on the road with an airplane icon on it!

I arrived at the airport in Bangkok at 4am and had to wait around for my 10am flight. Luckily, Bangkok Airways puts every American airline to shame in terms of customer service, so I was able to spend the layover in a very nice departure lounge with free food, coffee, etc. The flight to Chiang Mai was just an hour long and nothing too interesting happened, besides that I was sitting next to a (hopefully) 18-year-old Thai girl and an obese, middle-aged Russian businessman, who held hands and cuddled through the whole flight. Gag.

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand. It is a little chaotic, with the usual mix of tuk-tuks, songtaews, and trucks crowding the roads, but it is a much more approachable place than Bangkok. I wish I had more to say about it, but my 2.5 days there were a bit of a blur. When I first arrived, I went straight to my guest house (where I had AC for the first time on this trip!) and went to sleep for something insane like 23 hours. The next day, I explored a little bit.. I checked out the famous Chiang Mai night bazaar, which was fine but not that interesting to me. I also got my fourth Thai massage of the trip.. this time from a place where all of the employees are blind!

Doi Suthep (Mt. Suthep), as seen from the roof of my guest house in Chiang Mai.

The following day, I wasn’t feeling very well. Also, I noticed that I had a strange, itchy rash on the palms of my hands. I thought back to my Emerging Diseases freshman seminar and imagined all kinds of terrible parasitic causes. I frantically emailed a couple doctor friends, then decided I probably needed to see one in person, which is how I ended up at the Chiang Mai Ram Hospital. To make a long story short, I was diagnosed with a simple allergic reaction of unknown cause, which should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. They took one look at me, prescribed me enough steroids and antihistamines for 15 people, and sent me on my way. I felt more than a little ridiculous for having gone to the hospital, but it was an interesting look at medical care in Thailand! They were much more efficient than any hospital I’ve been to in the States. Within 5 minutes of me walking through the door, they had my height, weight, blood pressure, and temperature, and I had an ID card with my name and a barcode on it.

I walked out the hospital doors and back into the 90 degree, 100% humidity weather of Chiang Mai and decided right then and there that it was time to get out of the city and head farther north. I hailed a songtaew (pick up truck) and went to the bus station, where I got a 40B ($1) ticket to the mountain village of Chiang Dao, up near the border with Myanmar/Burma.

Bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao

I was the only foreigner on the bus. As we drove through the city, the usual diesel fumes filled the interior of the bus, and I felt incredibly nauseous.

Skyline in Chiang Mai as I left for Chiang Dao.

But the farther we drove, the cleaner the air felt. Soon, we were winding up through the mountains, making all kinds of improbable hairpin turns. The air felt cool and misty, the higher we climbed. After weeks of hot, humid air, it was such a relief I nearly cried tears of joy.

Mountainous road to Chiang Dao

After 2 hours, we arrived in Chiang Dao. I signaled to a guy working on the back of the bus that I wanted to get out. (The bus continued on through several more towns. People got on and off along the whole route.) On the street, I found a songtaew and told them the name of one of the guest houses listed in Lonely Planet, and off we went. Five minutes later, the driver suddenly pulled over on the side of the road and started yelling, “Doi Chiang Dao! Doi Chiang Dao! [Mt. Chiang Dao! Mt. Chiang Dao!] Good picture!” I turned around and saw the most absolutely stunning limestone mountain jutting out of the landscape, shrouded in mist. The driver had pulled over so I could get a good shot of it.

Doi Chiang Dao

My guest house turned out to be a very small operation with two little bungalows. I was the only guest. I rented the smaller bungalow, which had a beautiful four-poster bed and a porch overlooking rice fields and Doi Chiang Dao. The place was run by a Thai family who spoke very little English. They were extremely kind, and their cooking was incredible! The first evening, I had dinner, then read on the porch. At night, the fields around the bungalow were alive with the sounds of crickets, geckos, and frogs.

Bungalow at Chiang Dao Rainbow

View from my bungalow's porch at Chiang Dao

Me in the beautiful bungalow at Chiang Dao Rainbow.

Tokay gecko hunting in my bathroom!

Yesterday, I woke up at 4am from the terrible noises my own stomach was making. Uh oh! Well, I made it 19 days without getting that most common of traveling ailments.. that has to be some kind of record. In any case, I was out of commission for most of the morning and afternoon, but luckily I had brought some antibiotics with me, so I felt better pretty quickly. Later in the afternoon, when I was feeling up to it, I rented a rickety old mountain bike and set off through the rice fields and orchards, toward the mountain. Chiang Dao is famous for a series of huge caverns of Buddhist religious significance at the base of the mountain, and I wanted to check them out.

En route to Tham Chiang Dao

Doi Chiang Dao

Tham Chiang Dao (Chiang Dao cave) was really pretty amazing. There’s a Buddhist temple complex around the entrance. You pay 20B (60 cents) to get inside the first cavern, which has all kinds of Buddha statues and has electric lights strung on the ceiling. Then, for another 100B, you can get your own personal guide, a Thai lady with a gas lantern, to show you through the rest of the caves and point out all the structures that are supposed to resemble various things.

My guide was Yoo, a 33-year-old Thai woman who was maybe 5 feet tall, spoke limited English, and was ridiculously agile. Since the caves are a big tourist attraction, I had assumed we’d just be slowly wandering through some big rooms. Instead, I was practically running to keep up with her and her little pool of light, as she darted around pointing at stalactites. “Here… lotus flower! Elephant! Elephant with three heads..Frogs!…” Then she stopped in front of a hole in the wall which was only about as big around as a manhole and said “OK. Here entrance to second cave! OK? OK!” And before I had a chance to question her, or to even begin to try and explain my severe claustrophobia, she was already disappearing down the tunnel, on her hands and knees, carrying our only source of light. I had no choice but to dive in after her.

Tham Chiang DaoTham Chiang DaoTham Chiang Dao

Tham Chiang Dao

If there is one thing that I have learned in the last 3 weeks, it’s that sometimes you just have to have a little faith that everything is going to be OK. Your bus is not going to crash over the side of a mountain. The cab driver will indeed deliver you to the airport unharmed. And Yoo the tiny Thai woman is not, in fact, going to desert you in the caves and come back in a few weeks to steal your passport. For someone as chronically anxious as me, it has been a difficult adjustment, but it is a change in mindset that I hope will last beyond this trip.

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July 7, 2011

Days 41-59 (The End!)

Vang Vieng, Laos

Monsoon season in Vang Vieng

The rock-climbing cliffs were on the side of this limestone mountain.

Climbing instructor.

Fellow climbers. Our first wall. The guy in the Pai State Tshirt schooled us all with one hand!

Omer reaching the top of the wall.

Me after the first wall.

Night train from Nong Khai, Thailand to BangkokNight train from Nong Khai to Bangkok.

Me on the night train from Nong Khai to Bangkok, circa 5am.

Don Det is covered in ants!

Chilled out cat, Don Det.

Khone Falls in 4000 Islands. According to my extensive research on Wikipedia, these falls are “the primary reason why the Mekong isn’t navigable into China.”

Mmmm...

Searching for Irrawady river dolphins in the northern tip of Cambodia.

Dolphin watching.

Yet another beautiful rainbow.

Very rare Irrawady river dolphin!

Pet monkey on Don Det.

Bungalows on the Mekong River on Don Det, 4000 Islands, Laos.

Mekong River at Don Det.

Don Det

Don Det

Watching the sunset on Don Det on my last day of travel before going back to Bangkok.

Sunset on Don Det.

Graffiti wisdom on a hostel wall on the last night of my trip. Khao San Road, Bangkok.

…60 days later, back in NYC.

Home again: JFK Airport.

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June 17, 2011

Days 29-40

Hello, hello from Vang Vieng, Laos, where I’ve been relaxing and doing as little as possible for the last several days. I passed the halfway point in my trip last week, and with medical school fast approaching, I’m trying to soak up every last second of having zero responsibilities.

Since the last time I wrote, I spent a few more nights in the lovely city of Luang Prabang, Laos. I ended up spending more time there than I had intended, partly because it’s a great city, and partly because I made a couple of great new friends. After a month of traveling alone, it was good to have a home base with nice people for a while.

..Also I couldn’t tear myself away from the Night Market, where I ate at the buffet every evening and bought even more souvenirs. I’d been so proud of myself this whole trip, with my compact backpack, looking down on all the other travelers with huge, 60+ liter bags.. That was until I was forced to travel for several days with a plastic bag full of trinkets from the market. Really takes away from the whole savvy traveler image. I eventually had to ship a big box of stuff home, more to save face than for any other reason.

Food alley near the night market in Luang Prabang.

Night Market, Luang Prabang.

New Israeli friends, Moran & Roy, in Luang Prabang.

10,000 kip (US$1.25) to fill a plate at the buffet in Luang Prabang.

One of my most memorable evenings in Luang Prabang was a few days ago, when I was walking along the riverside, taking photos. I passed by a stand on the sidewalk where a shirtless, potbellied Laos man was enthusiastically trying to sell shots of “snake wine” to a French couple. I’d seen little bottles of this stuff at the Night Market… some kind of alcohol with a single small snake inside, like a more vicious version of the worm in a bottle of tequila. This man’s ‘wine’ took it to a whole new level, though (see photo).

Snake wine, Luang Prabang.

He had two gigantic jugs with maybe 20-25 dead snakes and giant centipedes in each. He also had a book that everyone who’d tried it had signed, but which I don’t think he himself could read, since the first entry said, in all caps, “DO. NOT. DO. THIS.” The three of us laughed, shook our heads, and walked away in opposite directions down the street, as anyone with any sense would do. A few seconds later, we turned around and dared each other to try it.

Max and me, pre-snake wine.

Post-snake wine.

The snake wine was… potent.

I met the French couple, Max and Joelle, for dinner later, and we went on a quest for more disgusting things to try. We settled on something that I think was the larvae of a huge beetle.

Max and Joelle, pre-larvae.

Me, Omer, and Max, about to sample some larvae in Luang Prabang.

It wasn't the taste so much as the texture..

I can honestly say that I’m glad I tried the snake wine. With the larvae, I’m not so sure. They really didn’t taste bad at all, and if you didn’t know it was a dead bug, it would be fine. But knowing it was larvae, combined with the crunchy-on-the-outside, mushy-on-the-inside texture, was very nearly too much for me to handle.

The best part of all was later, when we were all sitting eating dinner near the Night Market. Joelle had refused to try the larvae earlier, but she wanted to have one of the leftover ones after dinner. (We had a whole bag full.) As she was about to pop it in her mouth, a Lao girl sitting across the table from us yelled at her to stop, then showed us we’d been doing it wrong.. She took the larvae, broke it in half, and pulled out some of the guts, making a face to tell us that they don’t eat that part.

If I hadn’t been feeling sick before…….!

This girl showed us how to eat larvae.

After two more nights, I finally left Luang Prabang for Nong Kiaow, via a 3-hour minivan ride north.. the scariest ride I’ve had on the trip so far. Our driver seemed intent on passing people in the left lane whenever we were going around a blind corner. I counted 5 near-accidents. No seatbelts, of course.

Nong Kiaow was incredibly beautiful, straddling the Nam Ou River and surrounded by karst limestone mountains. I spent one night there in an awesome guest house with a deck overlooking the river.. expensive, but worth it for the sunset views of the mountains.

Nong Kiaow

Nong Kiaow. The first bungalow on the right is the most expensive place I've stayed at on the trip. ($33)

In the morning, I caught a one-hour longtail boat up the river to Muang Noi, a tiny town of only 800 people which is not accessible by roads. There are no cars, and there is only electricity for about 3 hours a day, from sunset to 10pm. I looooooooved it. Easily one of my top 3 favorite places so far.

Elly, Muang Noi.

Resting Lady mountain in Muang Noi.

Swimming in the Nam Ou River in Muang Noi.

I spent 2 nights in Muang Noi before going back to Luang Prabang. Getting back to Luang Prabang was something of a nightmare, since the bus that was supposed to take me back allegedly “broke down” (even though I saw it drive away!!… only in SeA…), so I was forced to pay the same amount to ride in the back of a songthaew with about 100 other people for 3 long, bumpy, nauseous hours. A middle-aged Lao woman sitting to my right decided to take up 3x as much room as anyone else and use me as a backrest. A middle-aged German woman on my left kept egging me on the whole time, telling me I’d been singled out because I looked weak, and that I needed to learn to stand up for myself, so by the end of the ride, I was literally hammering my elbow into the Lao woman’s back. (In vain! She took it like a champ!)

After a recovery night (+ massage!) in Luang Prabang, I moved on to Vang Vieng, which is where I am now.

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is infamous on the Southeast Asia travel circuit, and not necessarily in a good way. In the last 10 years, it has transformed from a blip on the Luang Prabang–Vientiane highway to backpacker party central. The main attraction is the Nam Song River, where you can spend all afternoon inner tubing from bar to bar, getting free shots of Lao whiskey, drinking beer, and dancing. Many people think Vang Vieng is completely atrocious.. I would agree with those people….. if it weren’t so much damn fun here. The beautiful scenery doesn’t hurt, either. Unfortunately, I have no photos of the tubing since I don’t bring my SLR with me into the river, but I will try to find someone else’s later. In the meantime, try Youtubing “Vang Vieng” if you’re curious.

Me in Vang Vieng

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June 7, 2011

Days 21-28

Hello from Laos! (But I’ll get to that later.)
–
For my third and final night in Chiang Dao, I moved to another guest house, Chiang Dao Nest, which was so, so nice. Easily the nicest place I’ve stayed so far on this trip. I paid $11/night for my own bungalow with a balcony overlooking the forest. The restaurant at the guest house is run by a Thai woman who trained at a culinary institute in (I think) France, and the cooking was gourmet. I hate to say it, but the best food I had in Thailand may not have been Thai food!

Bungalow at Chiang Dao Nest: $11/night

Chiang Dao Nest

Fantastic restaurant at Chiang Dao Nest

On my final morning in Chiang Dao, I woke up early to hike part way up the mountain to a Buddhist temple and monastery. The walk and the temple were beautiful and peaceful.

Forest around Doi Chiang Dao.

Chedi at the top of the Buddhist monastery on Doi Chiang Dao.

Signs with Buddhist wisdom lined the 500+ step walk to the monastery on Doi Chiang Dao.. this was my favorite.

After the hike, I had a delicious Thai iced coffee (is there any other kind?), then packed up and caught a songthaew back to Chiang Dao “town”, where I hopped on a bus to the town of Fang, about 2 hours northeast. In Fang, I got songthaew to Tha Ton, about 45 minutes farther. It was dark by the time I got there, so I went straight to a guest house. I won’t write any more about Tha Ton except to say that I spent one HELL night there due to a horde of enormous, dark purple millipedes that crawled all over the walls and ceiling of my room.

The following morning, I caught another songthaew to take me 2 hours north, on a small, winding, mountainous highway, to the tiny town of Mae Salong. I was the only foreigner again, and Thai people climbed on and off the back of the truck the whole way, including several hill tribe women carrying huge baskets of produce and dressed in beautiful, brightly colored traditional clothing.

Songthaew that I rode in from Tha Ton to Mae Salong.

En route to Mae Salong.

When I left Chiang Dao, I worried that I wouldn’t see another place as beautiful on my trip. Mae Salong turned out to be just as nice. The town is spread along a winding road through the mountains, just miles from the Burmese border, and it feels really different than the rest of Thailand due to its interesting history, which I will now briefly describe and hopefully not butcher too badly.. Mae Salong was founded by the 93rd Division of the anti-communist KMT army from China, who refused to surrender at the end of the Chinese civil war. They initially settled in the Burmese jungle, but were eventually forced to move to Thailand in the 1960s. For a long time, Mae Salong was a big part of the Golden Triangle opium trade, but the Thai government began instituting crop substitution programs in the 1980s. Today, it is known for its tea plantations. Most people in Mae Salong are of Yunnanese descent and speak Mandarin.

What all of this meant for me is that I got to escape to a picturesque mountain village where I could drink tea and eat steamed buns and noodle soup all day.

Mae Salong

Tea shop, Mae Salong

My guest house in Mae Salong had a hand-drawn map of the area which pointed out the locations of nearby hill tribes. Hill tribe trekking is a big industry in Thailand, but I hadn’t done it because I’ve heard it can feel like a human zoo, and that the hill tribe people end up being exploited. I wanted to see the villages though, so I jumped at a chance to walk there alone.

The map I was given had “NOT TO SCALE” written on it, and I probably should have paid more attention to that. I ended up walking for about 18km/11 miles on a back road, up and down mountains, wearing $2 flip flops from 7-eleven. [My Chacos were stolen in Koh Tao.. ARGH!!!!!] At one point, I stood on the top of a hill and could see the dusty road winding for as far as the eye could see… down the hill, through a huge valley, and back up the mountain on the other side. No one else around. I just laughed and started down the hill.. obviously I had no choice but to keep walking. The walk was probably the most physically challenging thing I’ve done in the last 3 years.

Walk to Akha village

I did manage to find one of the Akha villages on my map, so I walked through and took a look around. All of the houses were wooden and up on stilts. Pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs ran all over the place. I saw a few people, but no one spoke any English, so our conversations were pretty limited. Still interesting, though!

Akha father and son.

Took me a minute to realize what they were playing with!

Me near the end of my epic Mae Salong trek.

I spent 4 days/3 nights in Mae Salong.. it was hard to leave such a lovely place! I saw only one or two other travelers the whole time.

Rainbow over Mae Salong.

Akha woman who convinced me to buy far too many souvenirs in Mae Salong.

From Mae Salong, I took a one-hour songthaew ride to Mae Chan, and a public bus for another hour to get to Chiang Rai. The bus passed through a police checkpoint on the highway.. the third I had seen since going north of Chiang Mai. At this particular one, our bus was surrounded by Thai police officers, some carrying AK-47s. Two came on the bus, along with a police dog, and they checked everyone’s citizen cards. A man, woman, and child who were sitting next to me were singled out and taken off the bus, then the officers checked around our seats… I’m not 100% sure, but I believe the checkpoints are set up to find illegal immigrants from Burma. It was a very strange thing to see.

From Chiang Rai, I caught another bus to the border town of Chiang Khong, where I spent one night in a lovely old guest house run by a Thai woman and a man from Florida.. first southern accent I’d heard in a month! I ate dinner on a balcony looking across the Mekong to Laos. In the morning, I got my passport stamped out of Thailand, then hopped on a longtail boat to cross the river to Huay Xai, Laos. From there, I got on the “Slow Boat” for a 2-day trip down the Mekong to the town of Luang Prabang. (This is as opposed to the “Fast Boat”.. a one-day DEATH TRAP in a longtail, where you have to wear a helmet in case the boat hits a log and you’re ejected into the river!)

The Slow Boat was one of the best things I’ve done on this trip! I had been a little wary… two 8-hour days on a boat has the potential to be terrible.. but it was really just so much fun. There were about 40-50 travelers on the boat and we all bonded over Beer Lao (vastly superior to Singha or Chang) and Cup-of-Noodles served on the boat.

Slow Boats, as seen from our guest house on the hill in Pakbeng.

Slow Boat Day 2: The mighty Mekong

Lao village along the Mekong.

One half of my Slow Boat crew: Heather (Canada), Joe (UK), Caroline (Canada)

Me on the Slow Boat

We arrived in Luang Prabang around 6pm on Sunday, and I wandered around the town for a bit looking for a guest house. Found one, got settled, then went to the Night Market, which is AWESOME. Bought a few things, then got dinner at a street stall. There are many places here where you can pay 10,000 kip (US$1.25) for a plate that you fill with as much food as you can fit. They set out big bowls of noodles, rice, vegetables, etc., and you take what you want. It is so, so, so delicious. After you fill your plate, you can sit down at a picnic table and eat dinner on the side of the street. A group of other travelers I recognized from the slow boat sat down next to me, and we ate dinner together, then went out for a few drinks. Luang Prabang has a 12am curfew for everyone who lives here. At 11:30, bars shut down, and you’re supposed to be “at the residence where you are registered” by midnight, by law. Very interesting…  so we left the bar at 11:30, but then we were told that, of all places, a bowling alley is open late. Which is how I ended up bowling all night in Laos.

Yesterday, I explored Luang Prabang a little more in the morning. I had a bowl of delicious Lao noodle soup for lunch, down some side street ($US1). Then I ran into some more people I recognized from the boat, and we took a tuk-tuk together to get to Kuang Si waterfalls, about 25 minutes outside of town. Spent all afternoon there, hiking around the falls and swimming in them.

Kuang Si Falls, outside of Luang Prabang.

Kuang Si

Chip (Malaysia) and Omer (Israel) at Kuang Si

Later, we went back to the market for all-you-can eat Lao food. Chip and I split a huge grilled tilapia. Delicious!

Grilled tilapia stuffed with lemongrass. 20,000 Lao kip (US$2.50)

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May 20, 2011

Days 8-10

Day 8 — Koh Tao, Thailand
Tuesday was my first day on Koh Tao without being in dive school. I missed it instantly! After a little deliberation over breakfast, I decided to sign up for the Advanced Diver course. My Open Water classmates, Toby and Rosie, decided to do it, too, but Toby needed a day off to get over a head cold. (Sinus congestion makes it really difficult and painful to equalize the pressure in your ears as you’re descending on a dive. I had some problems from allergies the first day.) We arranged to start the course the following day, again with the legendary Claus!

I met up with Toby and Rosie for dinner and we hiked up a dark, jungly road to get dinner at a fantastic Korean barbeque place. For those who have never done this, you sit down at a table and a guy brings you a burner with a metal contraption on top of it. You also get a kettle of water, bowls of different sauces, a plate of raw noodles and vegetables, and a bowl full of raw meat (we had pork, chicken, and prawns). You pour the water into a little moat around the bottom of the metal thing, then you put the raw meat on the metal part, where it cooks, and the juices run down into the water, making a broth. Then you add vegetables, noodles, and sauces to the broth. Finally you throw in the cooked meat, and you’ve got yourself some awesome soup. We ate for two hours. I fed my prawn tails to a very cute and very hungry cat hanging under our table.

May 17, 2011 -- We had fantastic Korean barbeque down in Mae Had.

Day 9 — Koh Tao, Thailand
Wednesday was one of the most memorable days of my life. The Advanced diver course is all about honing your basic skills and learning some new ones. Our morning started early with two fantastic dives/lessons, “Perfect Buoyancy” and “Navigation.”

May 18, 2011 -- Got these pics of the Rescue Diver course while we were out on the boat. I am seriously toying with the idea of doing the course myself.

May 18, 2011 -- My friend David pretending to be unconscious in his Rescue Diver course.

In the Perfect Buoyancy dive, we learned to control the amount of air in our vests (“BCDs”) so that we could float more or less motionlessly underwater. We crossed our legs and “sat” in lotus position for a minute, put out our arms and legs in “parachute position” for a minute, and hung upside down for a minute. Then we moved on to swimming through hoops. Claus had brought down a big square hoop that had weights to hold it in “mid-air.” It was maybe 3 feet on each side. We took turns lining up our bodies and getting our buoyancy just right, so that we could swim through the hoop without bumping into it with our flippers or tank. Then we did the same thing, but turned a slow circle while going through the hoop. Then we took off our fins and swam through again while turning a circle. (Very difficult!).

Before going into the water, Claus had told us on the boat that after we did the basic hoop skills, he was going to see if we could do some harder stuff, but that if there was anything we weren’t comfortable with, we didn’t have to do it, because it was just him having fun, not anything required for the certification. Underwater, every time he wanted us to do a skill, he would have us watch him do it, then signal for us to repeat it back to him. For the final exercise, he got our attention, then TOOK OFF his vest/tank, pulled the regulator (air source!) out of his mouth, and swam away from his vest, through the hoop, turned around, swam back through the hoop, and swam back to his vest to get a breath of air before strapping it back on.

I was NOT feeling this, and in my head, I was preparing to signal that I wasn’t comfortable enough to do it. However, he motioned for Toby to do it first, and he went for it. Then Rosie did it. And I couldn’t be the only one to chicken out! So I did it. And it was really scary but also exhilarating, and I’m glad I went for it. All of these calculated stresses make you so much more confident a diver.

The second dive of the morning was Navigation, in which we were each given a wrist compass, and we had to swim around in a giant square and come back to where we had started. It was complicated by terrible visibility at that particular dive site, in which you could only see about 4 feet in front of you! Again, scary but a great skill builder.

We went back to the island around 4pm and got dinner before heading out on one last dive, which I have been eagerly awaiting since I got to Koh Tao… the night dive! This is already getting to be a very long post, so I won’t go into too much detail except to say that it was FANTASTIC. Jumping off the boat just as the sun was going down was very spooky but exciting! We were each given a flashlight to bring down with us, and it was really dark, so you could only really see whatever was right in the path of your light. I felt like an astronaut on a strange, dark planet, and the Darth Vader-esque sound of my own breathing definitely added to the feeling…

May 18, 2011 -- We left for the night around sunset via longtail boat. There were pretty epic storm clouds rolling in, which gave the prospect of jumping into the ocean at night an even spookier vibe!

May 18, 2011 -- Feeling a little anxious about the night dive on the way out to the dive boat!

May 18, 2011 -- My diving buddy, Renee (American), checking out the sunset before our night dive.

By far, the coolest sight on the night dive was the Great Barracudas, who have evidently learned to hunt by the light of night divers’ flashlights! These things were absolutely enormous.. some were over a meter long. One of our assistant instructors “played God” by shining his light on unsuspecting little fish, and I got to see a barracuda attack!

The end of the night dive was a tad scary because I suddenly ran very low on air. This is of course the sort of situation which we were trained to deal with in the Open Water course, but I was definitely a little panicky once the total darkness was thrown in. Everything was fine, though. The boat ride back to shore was amazing.. Nico and Tuka were also out on a night dive, and the three of us sat on the top deck of the boat, looking up at the stars and full moon.

May 18, 2011 -- Beach entertainment after the night dive.

Day 10 — Koh Tao, Thailand
Yesterday was our second and last day of the Advanced Diver course. We started out at the crack of dawn and took a long, beautiful, sunny boat ride out to our first dive site. The first dive was a “Deep Dive”, where we went all the way down to 30m. (Think about that! 100 feet down!) At those kind of depths, it is common to experience “nitrogen narcosis”, which makes you feel kind of drunk. To test whether we were getting intoxicated, we sat on the ocean floor and played rock, paper, scissors, then wrote our names backwards in the sand.

The second dive of the morning was “Fish Identification”… lots of fun, as we just swam around, carrying waterproof field guides and pointing out interesting fish to one another. We went to Green Rock, a dive site which is totally awesome because we got to swim through a couple caves, which we had never done before!

After the dives, I spent the afternoon hanging around the dive center with Claus, Toby, and Rosie, as well as lots of other divers. I continued to think about whether I really want to go to medical school… Claus has assured me that you make great money being a dive instructor and that the work is easy to find… add in my Spanish and French skills, plus maybe some Thai, and I’d be golden. [Simon, if you're reading this, I know you're laughing at "Spanish skills." They're getting better in Thailand, believe it or not!] Plus, while I was talking about this with him, we looked out on the water, and there was a circular rainbow in the sky. I mean, COME ON! What?! I don’t believe in signs, but give me a break!..

May 19, 2011 -- As I sat thinking about leaving med school behind and moving to Thailand, a circular rainbow appeared from behind the storm clouds over the Gulf. Never seen anything like it.

I later had dinner with Toby and Rosie, and David joined us down on the beach a little after that. We went for a swim in the sea around 11, music blaring from the nearby restaurant. I looked up at the beautiful night sky and experienced a perfect moment in time. Koh Tao, what have you done to me?

May 19, 2011 -- Beers on the beach with Rosie, Toby, and David.

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May 16, 2011

Days 4-7

(I am in paradise!)

Days 3&4 — Chumphon & Koh Tao, Thailand
Last Thursday was my 8-hour bus ride from Bangkok to the port town of Chumphon. While waiting for said bus, I sat along Khao San Road, eating massaman curry, drinking a Singha, and people-watching. A thunderstorm rolled through around 8pm, and I experienced a strange moment in time as I ate dinner alone under the restaurant awning, watched the hippies go by, and listened to “Comfortably Numb” drift up the street from a Pink Floyd cover band somewhere.

Caught the bus around 9pm, and made a new friend, David (South African) on the ride. We arrived at our dock on the gulf at 5am and waited 2 hours for the ferry to come and take us to Koh Tao. It was really wonderful getting to watch the sun rise over the sea. (I have pics but not on the memory card I’ve got with me right now. Will post later.)

The ferry to Koh Tao took about 2 hours. David and I chatted about life along the way. He first came to Koh Tao in December and did his dive course here. Loved it so much that he dropped out of school when he got back home, and has come back to the island to live here and work as a dive instructor. I have since heard a very similar story from just about every dive instructor on the island! As we pulled up to Koh Tao, I could see why.

Koh Tao is, in a word, stunning. As our boat docked at the pier, I looked across the water to a huge, green mountain, lined by white beaches and calm, turquoise waters. Dive shops and bungalows dot the coastline. I won’t try to describe it any further.. pictures will do a better job, although I doubt they’ll really convey just how beautiful it is here.

I spent my first day on the island picking a dive shop and bungalow, and continuing my ongoing quest to find the best pad thai on Earth.

Day 5 — Koh Tao, Thailand
My scuba course started early on Saturday morning with some classroom work. I met my classmates (a young British couple, Toby & Rosie, and a South African, Richard) as well as our dive instructor, Clause. Clause is a middle-aged Swedish man who, at first glance, does not look like someone you would want to be responsible for your well-being, as he looks very much as though he just washed ashore from a shipwreck. When I met him, he had long, messy blond hair and a big beard, and he was sporting a Tshirt with a picture of a baby drinking a Heineken. That said, Clause is totally the man. The first thing he told us was that he’s been teaching diving for 20 years with no accidents and that it’s been way too long for any of that to change now. I was feeling fairly nervous going into the dive course, so this was good to hear!

After a couple hours of classroom learning, Clause and the four of us put on our scuba gear and jumped in the pool to learn some basic skills. It is very strange to be able to breathe, deep underwater!! Very exciting, though!! We spent the afternoon learning how to deal with various problems, like a tank malfunction, running out of air, having our masks fill with water, etc. etc. etc. Ended the day feeling exhausted but so incredibly excited to get out on the reefs.

Day 6 — Koh Tao, Thailand
After a few more hours of classroom learning, we waded out into the sea, climbed into a longtail boat, and were shuttled out to our dive boat. We took a short drive up the coast, anchored, did our “buddy checks” on each other’s gear, and jumped into the ocean! Clause led the way, and we held onto the anchor rope as we slowly descended 10m to the ocean floor. Such an incredible and strange feeling!! I immediately noticed schools of fish on every side of me. Huge schools! Hundreds of beautiful, shining fish in all directions.

We knelt a few minutes on the bottom to practice our problem-solving skills one last time, and then we took off around the reef! Dive class is really, really cool.. It’s kind of like follow-the-leader. Clause led the way, pointing out interesting fish as he went, and the four of us trailed along behind him.

We did 2 dives yesterday, and they were both fantastic. We even saw a sea turtle and stingray!

At night, I reunited with David (from the ferry), who had just finished a night dive out on the reefs. Very cool! We sat at one of the ubiquitous beach bars and drank Singha while looking out on the waves, talking about life, and watching a couple Thais do some pretty impressive fire-dancing on the sand.

Day 7 — Koh Tao, Thailand
Today is my last day of dive school! Got up early this morning, and we left at 7am to reach some far-off reefs. Today’s two dives were even more incredible than yesterday’s. We dove deeper.. down to about 20m. Saw a huge school of silvery barracuda, many sargeant fish and angelfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, a neon-colored sea slug, tuna, huge corals, groupers, clownfish (Nemos!), triggerfish… many more. Amazing. Just amazing. Tonight I’m taking the written test, and then I will be PADI Open Water certified, meaning I can go out and dive to 18m anywhere in the world for the rest of my life! Totally awesome! I had planned to leave Koh Tao shortly after getting my certification, but I will probably stick around to do some more dives.. hopefully a night dive, too, if I can!

And hey, maybe I’ll just forget about med school and stay here awhile……. seems to be the thing to do.

(Don’t worry, parents. Kidding.)

(Sort of.)


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May 12, 2011

Days 1-3

Day 1 — Bangkok, Thailand
After 27 straight hours of travel, I finally made it to Bangkok! I arrived in a total daze, not having slept much on the flight, but I somehow managed to navigate the airport just fine. I handed a taxi driver the address of my hostel, and off we went!
My first impression of Bangkok was that it looked like pretty much any other big city in the world, at least from the highway. Only the vegetation seemed to suggest that I wasn’t in the States. (And the road signs in Thai… but the signs and many of the billboards here are in English!) That said, once we were 5 seconds off the exit ramp, it was VERY clear that I was actually here in Asia, actually starting this trip! The traffic was insane–taxis (“taxi meters”), tuk-tuks, motorcycles, all weaving around each other. Huge, tropical plants spilled from the sidewalks. People were everywhere. When we seemed to turn the wrong way up a one-way street, I became convinced that we were lost, but then, out of nowhere, appeared the hostel.
My hostel was really lovely, and if anyone is interested in a great place to stay in Bangkok, please check out Refill Now!
I spent my first afternoon lounging around the hostel, trying to stay awake as long as possible so as to ward off jetlag. It was to no avail, however, and I passed out with my face in my journal around 4pm.
Day 2 — Bangkok, Thailand
I woke up at 3:30am feeling extraordinarily disoriented, and I lay there for 2 hours unable to fall back asleep, listening to dogs, roosters, and geckos out the window. At 5:30am, I gave up on sleep and went out to the stairwell balcony to watch the sunrise over Bangkok. It was quite a rewarding view. (see photo)

At 6am, I decided it was safe enough to wander the neighborhood. My hostel was located far from the touristy downtown areas of Bangkok, in the middle of a very “real” feeling neighborhood. At dawn, there were already a few old Thai women out walking as well as some school children, several stray dogs and cats, and many chickens! A van drove past me and stopped 15 feet ahead. All doors opened simultaneously, and 4 or 5 Buddhist monks got out, dressed in bright orange robes, to receive offerings from women who had come out into the street with rice and flowers. The neighborhood came more and more alive with each passing minute, and soon there were women everywhere, setting up street stalls with noodles, sticks of meat, and huge woks full of oil. Everyone stared at the lone farang wandering the streets, but they were all incredibly friendly. I felt alive in a very particular way, which I had not felt since Costa Rica.

After wandering a bit, I returned to the hostel and met a pair of Canadians–Jamie and Brady–as well as a Kiwi, Simon. We explored the city together all day. We made it to the Grand Palace (beautiful, but hot and had to wear long sleeves and pants for modesty!), Khao San Road (trashy/touristy), Wat Pho (had a Thai Massage within the temple complex!–13 USD for a full hour!; saw the beautiful Reclining Buddha). Wandered the streets after dark, sampling street food. Had my first taste of durian (Thai “king of fruits”!) and do NOT understand what all the fuss is about.

The four of us picked a street stall as far off the main drags as we could find. Dinner for all of us combined was 160 Baht, or roughly 5 USD. Check out the photo gallery for a shot of the adorable patrons at the table next to us!

Day 3 — Bangkok, Thailand
I am making this entry from an internet cafe near Khao San Road, where I’m waiting for a bus/ferry to the southern island of Koh Tao. It will be a long trip at nearly 12 hours, but I couldn’t be more excited for the coming week, as I am planning to get my Open Water SCUBA diving certification! Beautiful beach pics to come…!

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