Thailand 2021

Today we both were already feeling almost healthy, so more diving was in the program for the morning. At first dive site Green Rock we attempted a dive, geared up and were ready to jump but the currents were so strong that the dive had to be canceled, would have been impossible to see anything interesting at this dive site before the current would carry us away.

Slightly more calm dive site White Rock followed then, in addition to Koh Tao's most famous wreck HMS Sattakut. Good dives, although nothing that special was seen. Koh Tao Divers had to sell their own boat, the legendary M/V Sinking, to survive over the worst corona restrictions so they are subletting a boat from another local dive company. Missing the own boat, as this one is not exactly in great condition, tanks are old and with broken sealing rings and so on.. The good news is that a new own boat has already been ordered.

Now a quick nap after the dives, Iryna listening to some school lessons and then we could see what else to do on the island today. Considering if we should take a freediving course tomorrow.

I was already giving up with today's dives too, but the fever finally went away with some paracetamol and the antibiotics started to work. Felt better, so while Iryna was working I could do the night dive for which I had signed up earlier before this fever mess.

Nothing special, but night diving is always fun. Bioluminescent plankton is interesting, looking like fireflys in the water and often you see animals which only come out at night. This time just a couple of fish though.

Hngh. Two days of fever for both of us, due to some stomach infection. Yesterday we both visited a doctor and got antibiotics but they seem to take a while to work, so has the cancel the dives for now. So, just hanging around inside the room and waiting for the situation to improve..

Slow day today, Iryna was working and me handling some practical issues like renting a scooter, signing us up for a couple of dives and getting small repairs done to my diving equipment. Finally met the diving center owner Mikko also, somehow I have always avoided meeting him on our previous trips.

Like on the previous trip we decided to get stuck on Koh Tao again, although this time we decided it already and not on the last day. Booked three more nights here and a night train to Bangkok next Tuesday, so now we have a bit over a week here. Would have been useless to try to reach some other place like Koh Chang for only two days or so, and Bangkok is not that interesting place to spend a lot of days before our return flight.

Although looking at the Finnish corona restrictions and the situation there in general we could as well get stuck in here for a bit longer time. Work is remote, school is remote so.. Let's see.

Arrived to Koh Tao after an hour long ferry trip and a breakfast in a local coffee roastery. Got some coffee to bring home too, and an another grinded bag for our morning coffees here as the shops only sell untasty instant coffee.

Unfortunately the Finnish dive shop was already closed for today, so couldn't arrange a dive for tomorrow morning. Let's see if I can still do it in the morning. Massages on the beach are still good, and Sairee beach sunsets beautiful. :)

The most interesting looking breakfast on the map was on the another side of the island, so today we actually had to move a bit and rent a scooter. Getting used to horribly steep hills and the left side traffic took again a moment, but it was definitely fun to drive around. Had breakfast in a small cafe owned by a Russian lady, visited a couple of beaches and drove back home through horrendous rain. Syrniki naturally. :)

Seems the other part of the island are way more lively and there's more people, both local and expats living there and tourists. So we just managed to select the most quiet corner, which is still nice.

The ferry finally took over four hours instead of scheduled 2.5h and we arrived our new home late in the night. This time we have a big bungalow on a hill with a sea view, and the apartment is definitely really nice. Big balcony, big comfortable bed and big windows towards the sea.

We are living in the Haad Rin area of Koh Phangan, and this area is mostly famous for the Full Moon Party, a huge techno beach party every month. The next party is only in two weeks, so at the moment the area is absolutely dead.. I don't think here are very many tourists, so far we have seen a dozen or so. Most of the shops and restaurants are also closed. But well, it's not a problem for us, at least it's very nice and quiet. :)

Other areas of the island might be more lively, so I think we will try to rent a scooter tomorrow and explore the island a bit. Today we just stayed around our area, did some work and was generally lazy.

As planned today was the day to leave Railay and move a bit further to Koh Phangan island for a couple of days before Koh Tao. The travel agents at Railay gave a bit high prices for the ticket to Koh Phangan and we would anyway need to travel first to the nearby town of Ao Nang, as there is no road access to Railay. So, we decided to first get to Ao Nang and then see how to manage the rest of the journey.

Basically everything is going as planned, but one long journey it is.. In the morning we departed the hotel after breakfast with the hotel shuttle golf cart to the beach and boarded a longtail boat to Ao Nang after waiting for a while for the boat to gather eight passengers which is the minimum for them to depart. Or well, actually at some point we five passengers just agreed to pay the price for eight to depart immediately and not continue waiting.

At Ao Nang we actually managed to buy tickets all the way to Koh Phangan for a bus and ferry combination via Surat Thani, and saved some hundred thai bahts in them compared to the prices quoted by Railay travel agents. We were a bit lucky again, the first bus was fully booked but two people canceled so we were in.

That luck did not continue though. The minivan collected us and other passengers around the city to a bus company hub, and for some reason we had to wait there an hour or two before departing towards Surat Thani. That already made us miss the daytime ferries to Koh Phangan, so getting on the earlier bus (which departed later than the next one..) was not that useful.

Interesting logistics this is. First they collected all the people to the hub station where the minivans to different locations departed from. The next collection point was in Surat Thani in front of a travel agency, where we again waited an hour or two for the bus to the harbour to depart and more and more people slowly arrived by the collection minivans. One more hub station before the harbour and our full bus of people finally boarded the slow ferry towards the island. Now just waiting to reach there....

Just walking around, exploring our surroundings and kayaking a bit again.

Yesterday was again one of the lazy days. We just walked all the way up to the viewpoint high above the city, lovely sport in hot and humid climate and spent some time around the town.

Today was way more active then. Early in the morning we woke up and went diving with a local diving company, taking two dives nearby. Comparing to the Similan islands the visibility was far worse here, but there was still a lot of marine life. Most importantly, we saw two turtles. :)

After the diving we departed the island on a speedboat to Railey beach, somehow luckily getting two last tickets on the boat. Actually the boat was already full when a travel agent sold our tickets and we almost were changed to a later and slower boat, but some people did not show up so there was still space for us.

Railay is.. Different from anything else we have been here so far. It's a small rainforest valley and beach surrounded by huge mountain cliffs, having just a few restaurants and shops and being in general a very quiet and nice place. Mountain climbing seems to be a popular sport here, even at the front gate of our luxorious resort there is some kind of climbing school. Maybe we should even try that..

Railey has a quite a population of monkeys, so we have already seen monkey families here and there. Just need to be careful with them, monkey bites are the most common reason for people to visit the local hospitals here and on Phi Phi..

Now the plan is to stay two nights at Railay, get to Koh Phangan island, stay maybe one or two nights there and move to Koh Tao for a week. More diving coming there. :)