Ngan, and is a lot smaller (2 miles wide and 3 miles long) and less
developed than the other islands. Definitely my favorite place of all
the places we visited on the Gulf Coast. We arrived there in the
evening of July 22 and wandered around looking for a dive resort to
stay with. We wanted to do some diving on Ko Tao because it would
probably be the last chance we would get to dive on our trip and it is
one of the cheapest places to dive in the world (because of the great
supply of dive companies that stretch along the islands two most
developed beaches). After much looking, we finally chose the dive
resort, Big Blue, because they offered free dorm accommodations every
day you dive with them. To take advantage of this offer, we signed up
for a night dive for that evening and then two dives the next morning.
That way we able to get free housing for both nights that we stayed on
Ko Tao. Lucky for us, noone else ended up staying in the dorm rooms
either night, so it was as if Leslie and I had our own room and
bathroom, which was pretty sweet!
The night dive was cool, although it was pretty difficult to see
things in the dark, even with a flashlight. The coolest thing we saw
was this really strange-looking creature that looked like a bumpy,
colorful walking sea star. We found out later that it was a decorated
crab, which ornaments itself with pieces of shell and coral as a way
to camouflage. At one point during the dive, we turned off our lights.
It was pitch black and when we waved our arms around we saw the
glow-in-the-dark plankton light up. That was also really cool!
One of our morning dives was our first deep dive. We went down to a
depth of 30 meters! At this depth, the pressure is so strong that when
we broke open an egg underwater, the yolk didn't break...even after
squeezing it and batting it around like a ping pong ball. On that dive
we saw a beautiful anemone garden, with purple, orange, and green
anemones and lots of cute clown fish poking there heads out of there
homes. We were pretty unimpressed with the second morning dive,
probably because we have been spoiled after diving at Sipadon.
Ko Tao has a lot of pancake stands, where one can sample from Thailands array of stuffed pancakes (everything from tomato and onion to banana, coconut, nutella). Leslie and I soon found our favorite Pancake vendor, a young man originally from Calcutta, India. He was really friendly and smiley. Whenever, he made a pancake he did this whole routine where he would twirl his knife, drum on the counter, and do tricks with the butter. He was so charming that we went back to him several times.
The third day at Ko Tao was probably my favorite day of the whole trip
so far! We went on a hike along the Southwestern coast of the island
and explored the secluded beaches that can only be accessed by boat or
by the trail we took. It seemed like each beach was more breath-taking
than the next, and we had some pretty spectacular views! The turquoise
water and white sand was surrounded by huge granite boulders and trees
blowing in the wind. And there was very little development, only the
occasional bungalow, so it was really peaceful and serene. I can't
really put into words how happy I was to be there!
What made the day even better was that we encountered a litter of
Cocker Spaniel puppies. They were adorable. I could have played with
them all day, and I would have, if Leslie didn't finally drag me away
from them. I could have stayed on Ko Tao at least a few more days, but we had
already bought our tickets for the night boat that evening.
The nightboat was definitely an adventure! It was basically a freight boat
with the upper deck converted into a "sleeping area" (thin mats on the
floor) where they cram in as many tourists in as physically possible.
Each person literally has a 2 foot by 6 foot area to sleep in and
there is nothing separating you from the person sleeping next to you.
Leslie called it cruel and unusual punishment. We spent 8 rocky hours
on that boat and I have never been more glad to reach land as I was
that morning!
The glow-in-the-dark plankton sound really cool, as does the deep water dive. Those pancakes sound delicious!
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