Koh Tao

Although the name Koh Tao means Turtle Island, they might as well rename it to "Diving Island". The cheapest place to do your dives (2500 yen a dive as opposed to Japan's 15000 yen), the shore is lined with one diving school after the other. Naturally, the commercialising of the sport here probably makes it a bit more impersonal, but if you want to get your qualification from people who have over 4000 dives under their weight belts, this is the place to go.

I arrived on Koh Tao early in the afternoon, and zombied my way to Crystal Diving resort, where I had a bed to sleep in. Not having slept for 2 days, my general vocabulary dropped to the retarded phase, and I booked myself in saying: "Uhh, I think I'm here for scuba. Or summin'."
The guy at the counter gave me one look and said: "You just came from Koh Pan Gnan, right?"
I didn't have the energy to be funny, so I took my room key and made my way to my home for the next 4 days. Too tired to sleep, I missioned off in search of an internet cafe, and to my surprise I ran into Chris on the beach. I wanted to have with her and the other Okayamans on Koh Tao for dinner, so we set a time to meet, and I slept right through it. What a good sleep though.

Somewhere during my first day on the Turtle Island, I fell in love with it. I lost count of how many times since leaving Koh Tao I said: "I want to go back to Koh Tao". It could be because I met some amazing people there who became instant friends. It could be because it's where I had my first taste of breathing underwater for 40 minutes. It could be because I found myself lazing about on a deserted white beach, shaded from the sun by huge overhanging palm trees (okay, it was only deserted for an hour just because I got there early). Ag, I don't know. I just lost my heart there. And I need to return to pick it up. It's without the raven crowds of Koh Pan Gang. Everyone just leaves you be. Nice and quiet. I would have breakfast in restaurants reading my book and now and again having a bite of food, while looking out at the wooden, hand-painted taxi boats anchored on the shore, or watching a sun-bleached CocaCola umbrella lazily move in the breeze. Koh Tao is my idea of paradise.

Through my diving class of seven people, I met Monika and Diana, two amazing girls from Mexico and Brazil currently on a 4 month journey of the planet. Even though our roads only briefly crossed, I feel that they taught me something (thank you). Then Lee aka Hege, a beautiful Korean girl who grew up in Norway.. Actually, every conversation seemed like the beginning of an international joke: "A Brit, a South African, 2 Danish dudes, some Dutch people, a Norwegian couple, some Australians, a Japanese, an Austrian boy, a Mexican and a Brasilian were sitting on this island one January evening...". I'm serious. That was our dinner group. Now, THAT is what I call internationalisation. Thank you, JET Program, for making moments like that possible with your misdirected financing. So, the kids will never be able to speak English, but one out of three isn't bad.

I loved the last part of my holiday (note: not journey but holiday. I was still a tourist. Which is not good enough) so much that I decided to skip meeting J&D in Bangkok, and got a room for one more night with Paula, the English girl, at Mr. J's. Mr. J is a funny man who puts random posters up all over town advertising things like "Hand Made Condoms - Buy 10 get 1 free". He also has graphs of nationalities up all over town, saying what percentage of his guests are from which countries. South Africans were supposedly 4% of the bunch, but not having met any other Saffers, I had my doubts. Each nationality had a one-word description next to them, and SA'cans were labeled as "handsome". Shot, Mr. J! Anyways, Paula kicked ass because she had Christmas lights and big paper stars in her backpack, so the room looked like home.

Our days were spent getting into the finer details of diving (plus 4 getting down to the ocean bottom dives), and the nights were spent kuiering in bars that spilled over onto the beach. Every night, new star systems were created by orange paper lanterns that were floated into the sky to hang in orange constellations that never existed before and will never exist again. People talked about the world under the sea and the differences in languages and compared motorcycle accident wounds. Conversations mingled with misunderstanding due to heavy accents and English not being anyone's mother tongue. We watched toned, tattooed Thai guys play fire as if they were brushing their teeth (perfection, precision, but with no passion), and walked up and down the beach with our feet in warm water.

And, as if KT didn't give me enough by just existing, it also gave me free food the one night.

Some of the crew went to an Italian restaurant, and I missioned off with Paula and the Dutch dude to find Thai food. We got to a cosy restaurant and walked in to check out the menu.
"Oh, everything is free tonight." the girl at the counter replied.
We "but..but.." gulped air like fish on dry land, trying to understand what exactly she meant by that.
One of the waiters saw us fumbling around in confusion, and explained that it was the owner's birthday and to celebrate, he had a massive table filled with creamy oysters, spicy meat, mountains of pasta and big bowls of punch, all on the house. We filled our plates, giggling like kids in a candy store. It was a feast, and to top it all off, a girl came around dishing out pieces of chocolate cake. Indeed, my idea of paradise.