Underwater Adventure of Koh Tao (Part V)

Somewhat ironic that our 1 taxi ride and 1 ferryboat adventure to get to this island only 2 hours away took about as long as the 7 different modes of transportation we took to get to the last island. At least it was more relaxing with just a lot of waiting around rather than running and negotiating all the prices. As our boat approached the smallest of the developed islands in the region know as Turtle Island, I was shocked at the massive development of most the coastline that we could see. 10 years ago most places were scattered around and bamboo bungalows littered the beach. Now there we full resorts, concrete bungalows and a ton of shops, bars, restaurants not to mention the Dive Centers. This island exists for not what is on the island but rather what is below it. The coral and marine life, combined with the water conditions makes this one of the most famous and cheapest places to dive in the world. It is also where I got my certification 10 years ago. Seeing that Pranvera enjoys the water so much we thought it would be great to get her certified (4 day course) and then for us to spend the remaining couple days of our honeymoon underwater.

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Unlike the rest of Thailand which was mostly 'off season', Koh Tao was fully ON. To the point that we spent 2 hours walking from place to place to try and not find a shitty bungalow that was targeting the cheap backpack divers but a nicely cleaned and affordable beach side place we could enjoy our last week. After I has given up on this vision Pranvera returned to a nice place that didn't have anything that night and convinced them to not only discount an amazing room that fit my vision but put us up the first night in a place that had construction going on but allowed us to move the next day. It was perfect and certainly gave us the padding to just chill out watching movies when we wanted while looking at the beach (or actually strolling down to it). The other thing about the island is as perfect as the beach looks where we stayed (next to her diving school) the beach was too shallow to actually swim. And once you walked way out to get past your knees it became rock. And then just sitting or splashing in the shallow reminded us of a bathtub so we opted mostly for the pool or going out on the dive boats to go deep.

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While settling into the island I actually thought it would be the easiest of all our locations since an old American friend of mine has been living on the island for 3 years with her family and we were counting on their local expertise and connections to get our bearings. Although we met with her husband who is also a dive instructor to get his suggestions as it turns out my friend Tracy was stuck in the US and we would miss her entirely. Too bad but we were at least able to follow her advice on some great places to eat, drink and practice yoga. While Pranvera was in class so was i with a fantastic teacher doing his daily advanced classes for 2 hours. Followed by a fresh fruit shake and a 1 euro Thai dish. The afternoons for me were a combination of reading, walking, hanging out or beach time.

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I actually crashed Pranvera's pool instructions just as a refresher for myself before I did my first dive in 2 years. Fortunately she was the only student at the time (before the Full Moon Party wave brought hundreds of students) so Lorenzo was happy to teach us both and have me photograph her first underwater experience. When the day finally came for her open water dive I was on the boat and did my first fun dive with a father-son team and I partnered with the dive master. Funniest of all was the fact that we ran into them underwater but she was so focused on her instructions (and that all divers look the same) she did not acknowledge me till the second dive where her new partner freaked out and had to return to the boat. Pranvera just loved it!!! It was so fun to see her totally get into this new sport and do quite well on the exam and practical test (they had to make sure she slowed down and didn't go to deep). I on the other hand was enjoying all the wonderfully colorful fish and coral and becoming isolated in the underwater world again. Wonderful practice for all the yoga breathing as well.

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As much as we loved the food at Sanctuary, it was fun to pick a new place to test each night...winning with some and losing with others. The big thing with our beach was for all the guest houses to set up tables and chairs and cart out huge grills and tables full of fresh seafood for BBQ. They threw in a token baked potato or corn as well. But somehow they seemed to just overcook the fish too much and didn't clean any of the insides out. So we opted for our other fish adventures to come from the nicer places. We usually tried to stop into one of the more stylish beach bars for a sunset cocktail or a nightcap. Great music, fire twirlers and tons of people to watch. Not to mention we never wore shoes, often I no shirt and had very light island wear otherwise.

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The day after Pranvera completed her course we took a break from diving and hired a kayak to head out to an island we could swim and snorkel on. About an hour paddle and just a perfect beach but full of other tourists out there with motor boats. However upon our arrival a local come up to try and charge us each 2 euro for arriving on the island. We, we said we didn't have any money and were shocked someone 'owned' the beach and wanted us to pay to swim. So we ignored them and enjoyed some soft sand and some ok coral within which we snorkeled. When we were ready to leave we realized they had stolen our paddles so we couldn't return without paying them. Pissed off I snuck back up to their bar and stole the paddles back. Pretty funny to see me running to the boat telling Pranvera to push off not knowing what I had done. Well we got away clean and added a little extra adventure to our trip.

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The final day we buddied up to do two fun dives around 16 and 18 meters deep. We had such a great time chasing one another and pointing out the funny fish and amazing coral. We even had time to do some underwater dancing much to the confusion of our dive master...until they realized we were on honeymoon. We certainly look forward to doing this on future trips.

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Our final departure was one to be remembered as about 300 enthusiastic tourists boarded a catermeran ferryboat for a 2 hour gut wrenching on very rough and stormy waters. The night before had been non-stop winds which had mostly died by the time we boarded but we felt the aftermath none the less. We happened to get outdoor seats in the middle of the back of the boat which was mildly sheltered from the spray soaking everyone around us. Everyone turning green and pucking into whatever they could grab. Someone Pranvera and I just held onto one another, tried to joke about the departure and to look forward to our final couple nights in Bangkok.

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Finally surviving the ride we boarded a bus for the final 5 hour segment of the trip. Luckily it deposited into Koh San Road (backpacker area) where we had already decided we wanted to stay. Somehow we were able walk no more than 5 minutes, step inside a very sterile yet nice hotel to get a very affordable matchbox room to hold us over for our final 2 nights. Freshly showered but tired and starting to fight off a cold, we just walked the streets, got some food and drink and rested well (still rocking a bit from the boat).

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Our last day in Bangkok involved a final bowt of shopping for gifts and making our way back to the shopping center to see the IMAX version of Dark Night. After 30 minutes in our taxi moving less than 1 km, we realized this may not happen. Fortunately we were able to jump out, make our way to the water taxi and have it race us in the polluted water right to one of shopping centers where we walked to the theatre to see a fantastic film on one of the largest screens in the world. This was followed by a wonderful fresh seafood dinner outside the mall with our own homemade waterfall, palm trees and teekie torches. A wonderful touch to a wonderful holiday.

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Our over packed shuttle raced us to Thailand's wonderful international airport where we had plenty of time to wait and shop before catching an almost empty flight back to Istanbul a somewhat painful overnight in Istanbul until returning to our beloved Pristina that night morning. 30 days and 300 stories. A lifetime of memories and us recognizing the blessing we had to enjoy each other uninterrupted for this time before our lives and all the enormous changes envelop us over the next several months.