We've been living in the Little Mermaid since the last time we posted (can't get that damn song out of our heads actually), and we love Thailand even more because of it. The mountains were great, but the ocean and islands here are amazing. We can see why this is an international beach and scuba destination (we tried to avoid the huge crowds and hugely touristy places as best we could, but it's tough as they're touristy for a reason, they are great spots even when crawling with a million tourists and a million people trying to take advantage of those tourists). We haven't gotten too much insight into the culture down here as it isn't exactly accessible (the huge influx of tourists every day has kind of destroyed that aspect, we suppose touristy IS the local culture in these parts), so there isn't a ton to say on that front, but we do have some great pictures and some great memories from the Andaman sea side of Thailand.
After a few days relaxing on the beach and driving our scooter around wonderful Khao Lak, we set out into the ocean for the best scuba diving we have ever done, and we’re spoiled for life because of it. Live aboard scuba diving is the way to go. Live aboard means just that, you sleep on the boat, eat meals on the boat, and dive a ton right off the boat. The motto of the company we went with is “Dive, eat, sleep, repeat”, and we fulfilled that goal. In 4 days, we did 14 dives, each dive about 1 hour long underwater. We had a wake up call at 6:30 am, sipped a little coffee, and then slipped into the water for our first dive by 7:00. We ate between dives, moved to the next dive spot while we got rid of the excess nitrogen from the dive before, and repeated all day long, finishing with a night or sunset dive each day. We were diving in the Similan islands National Marine Park (and a bunch of dive sites further north) about 40 miles off the coast of mainland. This is commonly referred to as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world, and we can absolutely see why. The diving is AMAZING, like nothing we've ever seen. So much life, from small, outrageously decorated Harlequin shrimp about 1 inch in size to huge Manta Rays that are 15 feet across (see pictures of both below), all in turquoise water with great visibility (for the most part). We saw every type of Moray eel, schools of Barracudas, and watched huge Tuna hunting as they dived into clouds of sardines that would move en masse trying to get away. Then there is the coral gardens with an incredible array of corals, both soft and hard. One dive site is famous for the bright purple soft corals that cover the entire site like hair. All we can say is this is by far the best scuba diving we’ve ever done, and four straight days of it. We’ll let the pictures say the rest (keep in mind these are untouched, the colors were unbelievable down there).
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| Harlequin Shrimp |
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| Tiny christmas tree worms |
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| The most lethal snake in the world (per drop of venom), they're actually very peaceful and there are no known human bites |
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| "And to my left, a crapload of fish" |
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| Can you find the stone fish? These guys are insanely camouflaged and poisonous, you always have to watch out if you go to put your hand down. |
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| Close-up from the last picture, see him now? |
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| Salvador Dali face? |
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| Tiny Nudibranch |
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| Don't worry, these guys are peaceful (for the most part) but wicked looking |
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| Giant Sea Cucumber |
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| The outrageous Ornate Ghost Pipefish, super hard to find because they are rare, so well camouflaged, and only about 6 inches |
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| These guys really make us think of The Little Mermaid |
After stepping out of our scuba dream come true, we made our way to the island of Koh Lanta Yai, passing through the insanely touristy Phuket and Koh Phi Phi on the way (touristy for a reason as they are quite scenic, but a bit too commercial and soulless for our taste) . The boat trip there was awesome as the islands of the area are like something out of your wildest imagination of what an island could look like. Made of limestone, they rise out of the sea with dramatic vertical cliffs of exposed stone and are covered in dense vegetation on top. And yes, we passed by the beach where they filmed the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio (which apparently the Thai government was pretty pissed about, we heard they absolutely destroyed the beach leaving trash and all sorts of stuff in the process of filming). We spent 4 great days in Koh Lanta where the pace is just right, the commercialism is there but not too rampant, and you can still see a glimpse here and there of local culture. We stayed at a high end resort hotel that we had almost entirely to our selves (it’s low season here and we got a killer deal for 75% off the normal price as a result). We spent our days lounging by the pool, took a Thai cooking class (can’t wait to share our newfound ability to make a killer Pad Thai), and had another fabulous Thai massage (the Thai have definitely figured out the fine art of massage, part stretching, part pushing, it’s wonderful and available everywhere for cheap, we’ve indulged ourselves quite a bit). We also rented a scooter one day and drove all the way around the island, a great way to spend a day.
We’re now back in Bangkok and getting set to leave the country tomorrow. We know we said in our last blog that we’re not leaving Thailand, but we lied. We met some people on the dive trip that told us about how awesome Borneo is, so we’ve changed plans again and we’re headed there to finish our trip seeing wild orangutans in one of only two places in the world that they exist and diving on another of the world’s top ten scuba destinations. We’re going to the Malaysian part (the island is actually three separate countries, the other parts belonging to Indonesia and a country called Brunei) and couldn’t be more stoked. From there, we’ll head to Singapore and then home on the 21st, we can’t believe we have less than three weeks left on this adventure. We’ll let you know how all that goes on our last blog post. Until then, you stay classy America.
Top things we’ve never done before this trip
1) Watched a majestic Manta Ray glide by in the most gracious way imaginable for a creature that size.
2) For Todd, been suckled by a small Thai man. One of the crew members on the ship was hilarious, and one day that Todd decided to dive without a wet suit, he couldn’t help but make everyone laugh by giving Todd’s giant nipples a little bite right before we got in the water. Too funny.
3) Took 4 different forms of transportation in one day. We rode in a tuk-tuk, a smaller ferry, a larger ferry, a van, a plane, and another van, in one day.
4) Seen a mind-boggling number of transvestites (lady-boys as they call them here). They are fully accepted in society, are everywhere, and are truly a part of the Thai culture.
5) Did 14 scuba dives in four days in some of the best dive sites in the world.
6) On a one hour scooter ride, we passed by 2 groups of elephants (not wild, but feeding right by the side of the road and still pretty cool) and had a wild monkey run right in front of our scooter on the road.
7) Happened to come across an outdoor gym in a park that is financed by the government. It is free, the activities are fun, and they call it the Happiness Center. The Thais are on to something here with encouraging exercise by making it fun.
8) Saw a cat that is even hotter than Todd. For those that don‘t know, Todd‘s forehead is a very accurate thermometer. A little moisture means a little hot, beading up means a little more hot, and dripping profusely is really hot. Todd‘s been dripping a lot. It’s hot here. The cat has the right idea.
