Thailand 2005

Over a year ago, my mate Pete invited us to join a group of his mates scuba diving in Thailand. We'd paid up and almost forgotten about it, it was that long ago, but time marches on and we found ourselves at Gatwick on a cold February morning with the rest of the crew - 9 people and a veritable Everest of luggage. Phuket Air got us to Bangkok in good order and we spent the first 48 hours exploring this amazing city. If you've never been there you must do the following:
1. Take a tuk-tuk...even if it's just a short trip. What a giggle!
2. Go to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This beautiful building and the rest of the Royal palace buildings will astound you.
3. Go to the red light district of Pat Phong. No dirty old men in raincoats watching dodgy videos....the Thai people have an amusingly liberated view of sex. Just don't drop litter - they've got a real thing about rubbish!

Having had a snapshot of Bangkok, we all jumped on the overnight train to Chumpon and from there the ferry to Koh Tao (translated into Thai this means Turtle Island). It's one of a number of small islands in the Gulf of Thailand including the better known and larger Koh Samui.

Koh Tao is a tiny, weeny place, about 21 sq. miles. The main draw for tourists is the diving and there are several dive centres along the coast. The accommodation is aimed more towards the Aussie backpackers who originally touched down here in the 70's and 80's, but fortunately for those of us with a bit more cash, the creature comforts are beginning to become more commonplace as enterprising Thai property owners move away from mosquito-plagued, unlit huts. Check out the View Cliff apartments north of Mae Haad. Nice, clean, new, no mozzies!

The food in Thailand is legendary, so I won't take up valuable space repeating what so many people already know. The standards of food on Koh Tao are equally as good as (if not better than) Bangkok, and not much more expensive. We spent a few evenings at the Flower restaurant on Sairee Beach and were never disappointed with either food or service. A really nice meal, with a couple of beers will set you back less that seven quid. That's for two people, by the way.

What about the diving? I hate to say I was slightly disappointed. The visibility wasn't more than 5 metres most of the time and there was nothing bigger than a Moray around. Paul made the pithy observation: "It's like being off the Isle of Wight, but warmer!" Many people I've spoken to rave about the diving off Thailand but we only went to one site with anything like half-decent viz...that was the Japanese Garden, where reef fish were swarming between baby barracuda and beautiful brain corals. I've put a few pictures on a supplemental page - click here to view them. Note the colour of the water - the full moon was really stirring up the plankton!

I would love to go back to Thailand again - the people, food, architecture, culture and natural beauty are all amazing. I'd probably go to the Andaman Sea side next time, Koh Phi Phi or Phuket. Don't let the enormous flight time put you off!