The answer was “yes” but we had to move quickly!  Even moving quickly, this had to have been the selfie with the most preparation in history!  We started setting up at 18:20 and were still going at 19:13!!  In the end we did two selfies with two different cameras, a proper posed photo, and a funky flash photo to justify bringing the flashes all that way.  The geek out to end all geek outs!

At the end of the day though, an arm still has its merits!

As the only non-scuba diver in the group, it was up to me to keep myself entertained for the 4 days on Koh Tao.  While the gang was busy with their first scuba lesson, I took a taxi from the hotel to Mae Haad (where the ferry came in).  From the hotel it cost 200 baht (5 €) to go the 2 km (?) not sure of the distance, but it’s not very far at all.  This was my first introduction to the ridiculousness that is taxi travel in Koh Tao!  From Mae Haad I took the brick path that starts at Cafe del Sol and goes to Sairee.  It takes about 15 minutes and involves one steep hill up and one steep hill down.  Easy peasy!

My first stop in Sairee was at Goodtime Adventures.  I had been in contact before the trip sounding out potential activities so I was super-excited!  The activity I was most excited for was…..the flying trapeze!!!  Yes!!!!  And it just so happened that they had an opening that very evening so I just went with it so that I couldn’t talk myself out of it!  I was able to send a quick e-mail to Carlos to let him know the details in case they finished their lessons in time.  The other activity that I was most interested in (hiking, cliff jumping, and snorkelling tour) still didn’t have any trips scheduled.  They need a minimum of 2 people to run a trip and alas, I was all by my lonesome!!

Feeling pretty good (and scared) about my upcoming trapeze adventure, I went to the beach and had a lovely swim to pass the time.  I can see how some people wouldn’t like Sairee…too busy, too built up, too whatever….but I thought it was nice enough for a late afternoon swim.  It is a big beach so I’m sure you can always find a quiet corner (and to be honest, there was no one there that afternoon).

Next thing I knew, it was almost 5:30 pm and time to make my way to the big top tent!!  (Disclaimer: there was no tent, but there were funky lights!)  Ahhhhhh the nerves!!!!

Kelly and Bjorn were our trapeze experts on hand (Bjorn saving our lives on the platform by attaching the harness while Kelly was saving our lives by controlling the harness from below!)  Our group consisted of me and a French mother, father, daughter combo.  We first practiced hanging from a low-level trapeze (just needed a little hop to reach it) and doing the movement of bringing our legs up and hanging by our knees.  Ouch.  Kelly promised it wouldn’t hurt as much with momentum behind us!!

And just like that, I was climbing the 23 steps up the ladder to the platform.  By the way – the ladder is by far the worst part of the whole experience!!!!  Just don’t look down!  I definitely had a few choice words for myself as I stood there with my chalked hands, harness secured, and trapeze in my grasp!!  What was I doing????!!!!!  🙂  And then woosh!!!  I was off!  I was never really good at getting my legs up smoothly and quickly, but I killed the dismount every time!  In total we had 3 goes with salto dismount, 1 go with flying release, and then 2 tries at being caught by Bjorn on the other trapeze.  The video shows my 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th attempts.  The 2nd and 5th were omitted since the world really doesn’t need to see those failures (complete with some mild obscenities in the 2nd attempt!!  oops!)

The most annoying thing though is that I came SOOOOO close to completing the catch with Bjorn….our hands touched but we just couldn’t latch on.  The next one would have been a success for sure!!  🙂  For those of you wondering who was saving our lives on the platform if Bjorn was trapezing, it was Gemma!

What an experience!  Many thanks to Carlos for finding his way into town to bear witness to my greatness!  ha ha!  Adrenaline was definitely running high all the way back to the hotel.  The only thing that could knock me down was a rather large lizard waiting for us in the room when we got back!  It made a quick escape through the air conditioning unit (that was henceforth never turned off) and just when we thought we were safe, we opened the bathroom door and discovered….cockroaches!  Noooo!  First trapeze, then lizards, and now cockroaches???  My body was strung so high that I needed my harness back!!!  We chickened out and solicited help from the hotel in clearing out the bugs (the girl went at them barehanded while a man silently watched the air conditioning for evidence of this so-called lizard…they really must think we’re crazy!)  They left us a spray that we used liberally in the bathroom and never turned the fan off there either.  We are usually much more energy conscious….!  But we never had any surprise visitors again for the rest of the stay!

Today we traded big island life for small island adventure!  Koh Tao here we come!

Our Lomprayah ferry transfer arrived bang on time at 6:30 to bring us 15 minutes down the road to Mae Nam Pier.  Needless to say we were quite early for our 8:00 ferry departure, but it was nice to be checked in and ready to go before the waves of passengers arrived.  Everything was fairly well organised with everyone sporting colour coded stickers so that staff could tell at a glance what our final destination was.  Our bags were stored outside on the bow of the ferry so we were grateful for the sunny morning!

We left pretty much on time and were barely settled before the first stop half an hour later at Koh Phangan.  Amazingly the majority of the boat were on day trips to Koh Tao (from both Koh Samui and Koh Phangan).  The ferry was quite comfortable with the lower level filled with bus-style seats, the middle level had exclusive seating that you could pay 150 baht and up for quieter surrounds and cushier seats, and the top level was the sun deck with benches.  We sat on the lower level for the 2 hour journey.  Before stopping at Koh Tao, we let the day-trippers off at the neighbouring islet of Koh Nangyuan.  You can probably guess that we pulled into Koh Tao …. 40 minutes late!

We disembarked quickly and crossed our fingers that our bags would be waiting for us on the pier (they were!) and the ferry continued on its way to Chumphon.  We had arrived!

Koh Tao’s claim to fame is scuba diving.  There are over 50 dive schools on this teeny tiny island and it is the place to be in Southeast Asia to learn this sport.  I couldn’t bring myself around to the idea, so it was just Carlos, Javi, and Virginia who would be learning the art of scuba over the next 4 days.  I’m sure it is something that I’ll regret someday down the road, but for now, it was the right decision!!

And with over 50 schools to choose from, how do you choose?  In our case the choices were narrowed down considerably by language and then Virginia had found reports on an Spanish outfit called IHASIA that was the eventual winner.  We met El Brujo (the owner of IHASIA) at the 7-Eleven near the pier and got the day’s plan sorted out.  We all piled into a pick-up truck and hung on for our lives as we motored 10 minutes down the road to Chalok Baan Kao Beach – our home away from home for the next 4 days.

Luckily our rooms were ready at Ko Tao Resort when we checked in (or at least almost ready…the housekeepers were working hard finishing them, but we were able to drop our bags inside).  We sat by the pool and went for a walk on the beach to work up an appetite for lunch.

Before we knew it, it was time for the first scuba lesson down the beach at IHASIA.  I dropped the gang off and El Brujo told me that I could go out on the boat with the scuba students on Days 2 and 3 so that I can see them action and do some snorkelling on my own!  I also signed up for a snorkel trip around the island for Day 4 to make sure that I get my daily dose of water and fish!!

So off they went for their theory lessons and off I went to town to see what other activities I could line up for the next few days.  In the interest of brevity (which I am not known for AT ALL!) my extra-curricular activities are described in the next post!

The 3 hours of theory on Day 1 were followed by another 3 hours on Day 2.  At that point, they were ready to take to the water.  I joined the group as official photographer and cheerleader and we boated over to Aow Leuk which is a popular bay for diver training.  It was fairly smooth sailing but when it came time to prep the equipment, they quickly realised that there is a big difference between doing it on land and at sea.  Not something you really take into consideration as you practice in class!!

Once we dropped anchor in the bay, it was time for the final instructions and preparations. Before getting suited up, they had to swim a lap of the boat to “warm up”.  Carlos and Javi jumped from the upper deck of the boat but couldn’t really match the finesse of their instructor Tony!!!

Then it was back on board to gear up!

Since this was their first immersion, they swam for a bit above water and did drills to practice reacting to water in their masks, losing their mouthpiece, etc.  I didn’t see much of this since as soon as they were out of range, I was in the water myself for a spot of snorkelling!  Not to be left out, I jumped off the top deck as well.  Super Freaky!  I’m almost glad my cliff jumping trip didn’t get off the ground!  🙂  I had almost an hour to float around and explore the north reef.  It wasn’t as spectacular as Ang Thong (nothing will ever beat that!) but it was still entertaining and the time passed quickly.

Back on board I managed to capture the group resurfacing from their dive.  Such a weird feeling!!  There was only one immersion this day so we boated back to Chalok and hit the hotel pool for sundown and a good session of back patting!!  That night there was a shaving session….Carlos’s trip beard was interfering with his mask’s ability to keep water out.  He had quite enough practice that day clearing his mask of water!!

Day 3 started with the final exam – everyone passed!  Then it was back on the boat for the afternoon.  We returned to Aow Leuk but this time to the south reef.  The rocking boat didn’t phase anyone today and they were suited up and ready to go in no time at all.

The first immersion included more drills (this time practicing taking off their tanks and weights and putting them back on).  Meanwhile I was off playing with the fish…or rather they were playing with me! Little guys darting in and out around my hair fringe – freaky!!!

Between dives we reconvened back on board for a break and then it was back into the water.

This time they were diving at the reef so I followed them at the surface.  It was wild to see them down at the bottom swimming along.  I even witnessed the moment when Javi found his sunken treasure – a bracelet with a cute little bow that he never took off again much to Virginia’s chagrin!!

All too soon it was Day 4 and time for the final outing.  I couldn’t go on this dive since it was not snorkel appropriate (and they left at 7 am so I wasn’t completely heartbroken!)  They went to two sites: Hin Pee Wee and King Kong.  Instructor Tony had a GoPro with him so was able to capture the intrepid divers in action!  It’s hard not to get carried away with the underwater shots….bear with me!!!

And so ends the scuba adventure …. for now! We whole-heartedly recommend IHASIA for all your diving needs on Koh Tao.  Especially for the Spaniards out there!!  www.ihasiadivingkohtao.com

The next stage of our adventure brought us south to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.  We paid the big bucks to fly directly from Chiang Mai on Bangkok Airways (200 €).  100% worth it!!  Much to my delight, there was a Dairy Queen at the airport!  This seems to be a trend in South East Asia since we also found one in Phnom Penh back in 2010.  I could only convince Javi to indulge with me (after all it was only 10:30 am!)  You’ll note in the photo that we are wearing our “elephant pants”.  These baggy pants in millions of different prints are found all over Chiang Mai.  It seems to be a rite of passage to buy a pair – even for the men (although Carlos was having none of it!!)

We left at 12:30 pm and had a nice 2 hour flight complete with lunch and great clouds!!  As we took off, we could see Doi Suthep and the temple from our side of the plane.  The land was amazing as we made our way south…very fertile and a constant agricultural presence.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and ready for island life!  We had booked a transfer through our hotel, Hotel Pelegrin.  This is a small hotel run by a Russian family.  It is inside the Fisherman’s Village of Bophut and ideally situated for village life.  It was certainly basic, but it was clean and fulfilled our needs entirely for this short stay of 2 nights.  Carlos and I even dared to book a fan room instead of air conditioning just to see what it was like.  It was definitely warm but the fan was powerful and we managed to stay comfortable.  Our room had a little balcony with a clothes line so it was perfect for a bit of laundry.  The sun even came around at the end of the day for some extra drying power.

We went to the beach for the afternoon and had a dip and a walk.  The water was like a bath!!  We walked all along the beach and ended up at a beach bar for a shake to hydrate us for the return.  It was a tricky beach to walk on since it was quite sloped and the sand was really coarse.  On the plus side, we now have perfectly exfoliated feet!

Friday night in Bophut is…you guessed it….Friday Night Walking Street!  Town was buzzing and it was a great vibe.  We weren’t really in the market for shopping so we just treated it as entertainment.  We ended up at the Smile House Hotel restaurant and had our dinner right on the beach.  It was a very pleasant evening watching people send up lanterns into the dark sky and hearing the waves breaking on the shore.

Saturday morning dawned somewhat ominously – the clouds here are out of this world!!  We had booked an excursion to Ang Thong Marine Park for today – essentially the only reason why we came to Koh Samui. Our tour operator of choice was 100 Degrees East (www.100degreeseast.com) and right from the first contact with Caz back in April, they were an absolute pleasure to work with.  And most importantly, the day out was fantastic – but I’ll get to that!

We were picked up at 9:10 am and driven to the 100 Degrees East base in Big Buddha Beach just 10 minutes away.  We filled in our waivers and got fitted for our snorkel gear as the group assembled.  This was a speedboat trip so we were a small group of 10 hailing from Spain, Canada, Switzerland, England, and Australia.  Our guide/cruise director/boat master was Milla from Finland.  During the journey we had a few moments of anxiety when a massive storm cloud blew over the islands where we were headed…we could see it coming and we could only hope that we would see it leaving too!!!  Thankfully we did!  The day was absolutely perfect.

It took just under an hour to get to our first stop of the day: snorkel time!  When we arrived, there were a couple of other boats in the area, but by the time we got sorted out we were all alone.  All alone above the water that is!!!  Below the water was a different story!  Never in all my snorkelling experience have I seen so many fish and marine life!  It was quite simply breathtaking.  And also hard to describe.  Fish zooming every which way and visibility like you wouldn’t believe.  Milla said that she had almost never seen it as clear before.  We were so lucky!  We snorkelled into caves and marvelled at the changing light with every ebb and flow of the waves.  I could go on and on forever, but I’ll spare you!!

In the end we were in the water for almost an hour.  Even so, it was a struggle to tear ourselves away from the magical world under the sea (cue: steel drums and Sebastian).  Back on board, we traveled about 10 minutes more to our kayak location.  We did a 40 minute circuit to build up our appetite for lunch.  Our leader kept close to the cliffs and rock overhangs (to grab some much needed shade while waiting for the group to catch up) so it made for some precise kayaking.  Carlos did a great job steering!

Once we surrendered the kayaks, we jumped back on board the speedboat for a few minutes to travel to our picnic lunch location on Samsao Island.  It was a perfect slice of paradise accompanied by fantastic food including the best fried chicken I’ve had in a long time (or ever?)

After lunch it was time for some R & R on the beach.  It was so peaceful that we even had a little snooze!

But the day wasn’t over yet!!  Our next stop was Mae Koh Island and its famous emerald lagoon, Talay Nai.  While the walk up to the viewpoint was relatively short, it had its fair share of challenges.  This was mainly due to the insanely steep and narrow steps that form the pathway.  Some people in our group managed it in flip-flops but I recommend shoes that attach to your foot to eliminate one level of concentration!  There are three viewpoints with the top-most being the most popular and shortest to get to.  From there you can walk down more steps to a lower level and then again to almost lake level.  We only went as far as the lower level due to time and energy constraints.  The steps were crazy!!!

Back at the beach we were all dripping in sweat and dying for a swim. Milla suggested that if we could hold on for 5 more minutes, we could boat to a nicer beach.  Naturally we held on!  And so we ended up at Park Headquarters on Koh Wua Talab.  This is where you spend the night if you wish to do so in bungalows or tents.  The beach was lovely and the water crystal clear.  Milla went for a quick walk to see if there were any monkeys about but with the rains earlier in the day, they had retreated deep into the island forest.

It was a perfect end to an even more perfect day! We were so fortunate with the conditions and 100 Degrees East was a fabulous company to go with.  I can’t imagine being on a big boat with 40 other people (having to take turns snorkelling and kayaking) and having to travel at least 2 hours to reach Ang Thong.  The speedboat was worth its weight in gold!!  And yes, compared to the big boats you do feel like you are dipping into your gold reserves to pay for the trip, but it was more than worth it.  Especially for us since we were only in Koh Samui to take this trip.  Like the elephants, exclusive was the only way to go for us. A day to remember!

The day I was most looking forward had finally arrived: our adventure at Elephant Nature Park (ENP – www.elephantnaturepark.org).

ENP is a very special place about 60 km from Chiang Mai.  It is there that a young woman named Lek started a refuge for elephants.  Many people don’t realise the brutal process that an elephant must go through in order to be trained to carry tourists, paint pictures, dance, or whatever else they are forced to do beyond their nature.  Lek endeavours to put an end to this torture and captive lifestyle by providing a safe haven for rescued elephants to live.  There are several programs that visitors can participate in and contribute to the cause.  We chose to experience the park through the Pamper a Pachyderm one-day program.  This special program began in early 2014 through the collaboration with a neighbouring trekking camp run by Muoy who decided to turn her focus to care and refuge.  Up to 6 people per day are given the opportunity to spend time with this small elephant herd.  On our day, there were 5 female elephants to befriend along with several at the end of the day at Elephant Nature Park: