The Island

The Island. The island was beautiful and full of tourists. Our bus ride from Koh San road was fine, but a bit long, about 10 hours. They played Die Hard 4 on the bus and turned off the lights, so reading was impossible- so we watched Die Hard, even though we had already seen it. We arrived at the ferry port at 7 am and boarded a ferry, which was fine. The ride to the island was beautiful. As the sun came up we could see many islands around us and the nice blue water below us. Having traveled for about 12 hours by that point we were about ready for a shower and a good nap.
When we arrived on the island our hotel was not ready yet, so we chilled and got something to eat across the road at the Safety Stop bar. This became headquarters for rendevous and the like; also they served good hamburgers for when we were tired of Thai food. Once we could we all went to our hotel, showered, and then lounged for a couple of hours to regain our footing. That afternoon we trekked it to a beach not far from us and went snorkeling. It was really fun, but I thought it to be unusually hard to do. I guess I just figured it would be easier than it was. I kept getting water in my tube and had trouble keeping up with my partner, but it was still pretty fun and there were a few fish and such to see. At one point Rich was snorkeling out near a large rock and ran into some divers- they mustve been doing a practice run, because it wasnt that deep. In fact, he went down there and gave em the thumbs up a few times- I don't think they liked seeing a snorkeler keeping up with them, must've made them feel kinda silly diving there of all places with all that gear and such.
While Rich and I were out snorkeling Katie found a new friend and by the time I got back to the beach they were chatting it up like a couple of school girls. Her name was Ursula and she was there with her boyfriend Mike. They were both from England, nice couple of people. When Richard got back to the beach we all chilled at the bar and decided to meet up later for eats and drinks, which we did. It was a really nice day, and a great start to our time on the island.

The next day we went to a beach where we heard we could find black-tip reef sharks. So Rich, Mike, and I went out for at least a two hour snorkeling session. We did eventually see some sharks, and one giant turtle. Neither species mided us swimming around with them, though they did keep their distance. After we returned to the beach, Rich decided he wanted to swim to an island that was a little ways of out the bay. He neglected to check a map for the actual distance. The rest of us decided to hang out on the beach and bit more, head back to the hotel, shower and get ready for dinner. A few hours later we all met up for dinner minus Rich. By this time it was dark and we were all stumped as to where he was. He finally came sloggin up 4 hours after we last saw him and told us the story.
The island ended up being a little less than 2 kilometers away from our beach. I'm not sure how long it took him to get there, but it must've been around an hour of swimming- also, once he had gotten out of the bay, the current kept pushing him, making the swim that much more difficult. The island was more like a mountain tip sticking out of the sea, so he decided that while he was here he would climb the thing. That took him about another half an hour, and not having shoes made it more painful than expected.
He didn't have a watch, but he kind of knew that if I didn't start heading back soon it would be dark. So back into the sea. This time he decided to swim to a closer beach and walk the rest of the way. Made it to that beach, which was a resort beach, and started walking down the road that led away from it. This was a terrible mistake. The road in no way led me the direction he wanted to go, it got dark quickly, and he had no shoes. Also the first 30 minutes of it was extremely steep. His motorcycle was parked at the entrance to the other beach, so after he climbed/walked to what must've been one of the higher points on the island, he started to look around for some way to get back down to the shark beach. He failed. At one point He was walking through jungle. 2-3 hours later he got to his bike, and headed back into town to meet for dinner. He was exhausted, and had little cuts all over his feet.

Our days pretty much ebbed and flowed like that for the next couple. Late to rise, down to the beach, beers around 4, nap and shower around 7 and then out to eat and drink a little more before bed. I found it quite enjoyable. New Year's Eve was something quite different and fun. If I told you that I spent New Year's on a beach in Thailand you could probably imagine what it was like. There were fire dancers, lots of music, lots of people drunk and dancing, people in the water, floating lanterns being sent into the air, and of course the general good cheer that goes with being in an island paradise full of drunken young travelers. All in all a good choice and something very unique and interesting.

Around the last day bad weather arrived and as the sky darkened the sea became a bit rougher. By the last day I did not want to stay on the island anymore, just getting a bit bored, and I did not want to leave, the waves were huge! As we boarded our ferry a ragged bunch of people got off the boat from one of the other islands. (two guys had trunks, scratches all over, and plastic bags on their feet...nothing else) People looked sick and frightened. One guy said, "Don't get on this boat; they are going to use another one because it's not safe." I wasn't really sure what he meant and they did not switch the boat, but I figured all was well because of the crew. They looked cheerful and were not reluctant to get on the boat. If trouble was up, they would know, so I just followed their lead.
I can't say that the ride was easy, in fact it was one of the worst I have ever had. For the first 15 minutes or so I was terribly sick from the rocking of the waves. They were so bad that to walk to the deck you had to stutter step and keep your legs in ready stance the whole time. I could have sworn we were going to tip and I wasn't alone. About half of the other people on the boat were the same as I was and the rest weren't much better. Around an hour in I started to feel better, but at the same time Katie started to feel sick. It was almost as if we switched positions and now she was going for the worse. Richard slept almost the whole time, I don't know how he did it, but I certainly was jealous.
By the time we got to the other shore about half the people on the boat had puked (some on themselves mind you!) and all were glad to get off that boat. Unfortunately the traveling wasn't done for us and we boarded another 12 hour bus to take us back to Koh San road where we got a cab to the airport and jumped our flight to Taiwan at 8 in the morning.