Ana_Ko Tao

Day 5
Sun. Jan. 21
Vane woke up so sore. Pure thing, she said she couldn’t sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night very achy. She didn’t know why. She asked me if I felt the same. I told her it was normal, she was breaking into being a backpacker. The long walks with your backpack, taking the overnight buses and sleeping on hard beds. Welcome to the club! It’s so normal. I still feel the same when I change a routine even now. Regardless her pain we did sign up for a snorkeling tour around Ko Tao Island.

We signed up in two minutes. We waited for 30 minutes to get picked up. One thing I’ve notice so far about Thais is they’re have this easy going personality, 100% laid back. Nothing seems to fluster them. When you ask a question everything is OK and possible. They affirm you with a DON’T WORRY and BIG SMILE. So far they’re super friendly. I haven’t met anyone who is rude or upset. However they can’t lie to you straight on your face to sell you something or perhaps they don’t understand you. Their English is pretty broken for the most part. I know is difficult to switch languages. I’m still learning how to say “Thank you” and “Hello” in Thai. Anyhow back to what I was saying yeah we waited to get on the long tail boat, which I thought it was going to be a small motor boat. It was a decent size. We took off around the island. Beautiful scenery and the water was emerald green. Our first stop our guide goes “we’ll stop here for an hour and you can snorkel near the rocks, OK GO! Vane and I looked at each other puzzled. According the agency we were going to be given instructions. I know is not hard to snorkel, but I’ve only done it once before with Tim and Vane had never done it. So I had to be the instructor for Vane. I told her to breathe into the mouth piece normally. We both put on lifejackets and jumped in the water. The water was freezing. We started snorkeling and couldn’t see crap. We kept checking on each other and coming up to breathe. Kept snorkeling for a while. In one of those times Vane looked up and says “ Mani, is our boat leaving?” I looked up and our boat was moving. I FREAKED OUT! I started yelling – WAIT, WAIT, WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! One of the guys on the boat was waving BYE. I didn’t think it was funny. I started doing circles. I couldn’t swim. I felt miles I was away from the boat. Vane on the other hand started laughing. She was swimming faster than me. I felt like wasn’t moving not even an inch. Then the boat stopped. It was only moving further back. I felt relief it wasn’t leaving. Afterwards I couldn’t help but laugh about it.

Last stop of the day was at Nuan Juang, another gorgeous small island. The water was also super clear. We had an hour to do whatever. We brought our snorkels only. The water was pretty deep and the current was pretty strong. From shallow to deep was just a step away. I’m not a great swimmer so I got tired super fast. Plus I didn’t feel safe to snorkel without a lifejacket. I know I’m an abuelita about it. I did see some beautiful colorful fishes nearby. There thousand fishes around us. I felt few nibbles around my leg. Fun trip!

Took a shower first thing when we got back. Walked around the beach to see another amazing sunset. Stopped to get something to eat. I wasn’t too hungry. Vane had a club sandwich. Her face was precious again. I can totally relate. She was savoring every bite. Plus they had barbeque sauce as a side which she loves. The waiters kept talking to us. Just small talk. We could barely understand. One of the guys said Vane was “A1” for being the number one and I was Johnny Walker. Why? Don’t know. Something about Johnny Walker represents looking ahead. Not sure. I thought it was funny. The other waiter was had a girly look to him. Not sure if it was a he/she. He was funny too. We left after a while. They were starting to get on my nerves.

Didn’t feel like going to sleep yet so we walked around. Was craving a beer. Went to 7-eleven to get it. Vane didn’t feel like having one. Sat in front of the beach on the side of restaurant to drink it. Boy, I was so buzz. Vane was laughing. She couldn’t believe it again. What can I say I’m a CHEAP DATE! Went to bed after that.



Day 6
Mon. Jan. 22
Moved bungalows, 100 baht cheaper. We bought our tickets to the next destination, Krabi which is on the Andaman Coast (Southwest of Bangkok) near Phuket. The area is known for the rock formations in the middle of beautiful beaches. The rest of the day we just relaxed. We had some corn on the cob. Muy rico! The cooked it on a small grill. Very crunchy but well cooked.

The highlight of the day was I got my flip flops stolen. We went to check our email and in a lot of places you take your shoes off when you go inside of place (rest., agency, store, etc…) so I took my flip flops off next to Vane’s. When I was done I came out I didn’t find them. I told Vane I couldn’t find my flip flops. Hers were still there. I was laughing. I couldn’t believe it, my cheap Bolivian flip flops gone. The lady at the internet place said that happens often people get mistaken and just put the wrong flip flops on. But the funny thing was the only two people at the internet place were Vane and I. Anyhow, I told the lady where I could buy new ones. She lend me hers and we went to get new ones. The guy the place also says he gets at least one person a day that had lost their flip flops. I like my new ones now.

We ended the night with a cocktail at the DryBar. It had really cool atmosphere. The DJ was playing some smooth techno music. It was nice to listen too. I had I Mai Tai, very smooth. Nice night talking and laughing!



Day 7
Tue. Jan. 23
Checked out by nine and put our bags in storage which was basically outside next to the kitchen. I felt very safe to leave our bags. But what can you do. They promised that nothing will happen that they do it all the time. I had to let it go and go with the flow.

As the day went by we just sat under the shade and I read about Krabi and what to do. Some many choices. Can’t go wrong.

Before we left we looked for chocolate banana pancakes. Deliciously greasy! This fried thing looking tortilla stuffed with sliced bananas and melted chocolate on top.

The ferry left at 9pm. Interesting set up. They mats along the inside of the boat with numbers on the wall. We were assigned number 30 and 31. Lucky us someone was on our beds. We sat next to four loud and obnoxious girls from Israel. I told Vane didn’t know if I could stand that for a whole night. I told here to go and ask if we could chance to the beds in front of us that were empty. She did. We got bed 64 and 65. I felt relief until this weird old Thai man sat next to me. He looked drunk. He started starring at us. I felt uncomfortable. He took out his cell phone and did like he was going to take a picture of us. We told him no thank you. Then the old man shows leans over to show Vane his cell phone. Vane was cracking up. She saw a topless girl on his display window. Dirty old man! He wanted more booby shots. J/K. Vane kept assuring me it was going to be fine. And it was. Next to us was a really nice Thai guy that spoke good enough English. He saw us play UNO and he wanted to play too. He picked up really quick. As the boat started moving I felt so sick. It was pretty bumpy. I felt like throwing up. I took one Dramamine right away hoping it wasn’t too late. I had to stop playing and look outside the window to breathe some fresh air. I was sweating cold. The lights went off. And one of the stupid Israeli girls decides to blow a whistle attached to one of the lifejackets on boat and woke everyone who was sleeping already. She thought she was pretty funny. NOT!

Lucky me and the Dramamine did its work. I kept thinking of Tim. He would be so sick too. I asked the local if it was normal for it to be bumpy he said it wasn’t bad. That the waves were probably 1 to 2 meters high which sometimes could get to 5 meters high. Oh, boy! I managed to fall asleep for few hours next to Vane. I woke around 3 am to go pee. The Israeli girls were up and were being loud and laughing. How rude! When I came back one of them told HEY CLOSE THE WINDOW NOW! I was pissed and told her NO, I CAN”T DO IT with an attitude. The tiger came out full force. I didn’t care and I went back to sleep. They felt asleep too. I slept a bit restless after that.