Ban’s dive shop is the place to be on Hat Sai Ri. It’s where the best music, most people, and best beach layout can be found. At night, it also hosts the world’s best pancake maker (self-proclaimed of course). There’s a nice local guy who sets up his portable kitchen right along the walk path that cuts through Ban’s. His marketing scheme is to simply yell out, “Best pancake! Best pancake! Hey, you my friend… Best Pancake!” I must say that the man isn’t lying. I think I averaged about a pancake a night. My favorite was the apple cinnamon and honey but I also enjoyed the Gnutella/Chocolate pancake.
After an enjoyable few days of diving, I moved out of my nice resort style accommodations to the much cheaper bungalow. Even still, you cannot beat any sort of room that is a stone’s throw from the ocean for just under $10. After diving I had a good six days to just relax on the beach and explore the island.
My new friends Dustin and Shane and I rented motobikes for two days and took them around the island to check it all out. On the south side are a nice cove and a more laid back beach if one is looking to escape reality even further. There is a fun bench swing that hangs out over the water during high tide that I spent a few hours on relaxing to the sounds of lapping waves below me. Since I was traveling alone, I was more interested in being where the action was so although I stayed on the south side for two nights, I ended up back in Hat Sai Ri. The three of us also took the motobikes to the north (which takes only about 10 minutes). On the main road that stretched the island north to south, one can really let loose with the motobike. We got those things hauling up to about 55mph but I didn’t stay there for very long since I didn’t have a helmet. To get to the north side of the island requires navigating some windy, steep, and mostly dirt roads. Although our motobikes weren’t meant for off-roading, they got us there. My buddy Dustin unfortunately put his on its side adding a few scratches to it. At the top of the trail is a beautiful view of the island looking south. From there you can take a pathway down the hill, through some resort bungalows, and finally to a nice platform over the water. There isn’t any beach on the north side at Mango Bay, but diving off of the platform was still fun. There were tons of fish making for good snorkeling. It was nice, but I still preferred the west facing beach of Hat Sai Ri.
After our two days of romping around on motobikes, we all went our own ways with different itineraries. It was nice meeting these new friends and enjoyed hanging out with company on the island. Dustin and Shane both left Koh Tao while I stayed. I spent the remainder of my time just being lazy on the beach, swimming, and relaxing. At night I hung out with a few others from our dive group who had stayed longer as well. One guy originally planned his stay on Koh Tao to be four days; he ended up staying a full month. After being there for a week, you start to recognize all of the long timers and you realize just how small the island is. You see the same people every day doing the same ‘ol thing. They’re either diving or hanging out on the beach. It was truly paradise; the phrase ‘no shirt, no shoes, no problem’ actually applies here. I didn’t touch my sandals at all and only wore a shirt at night. This was the kind of place you feel you could live forever.
But then again, paradise is only paradise for so long. Towards the end of my stay, my smiled started to fade. It is nice escaping to some tropical paradise, but it sucks doing it alone. I longed for a companion of some sort but understood my circumstances. You meet people for sure, but there is just a lack of intimate connection. After my experience on Koh Tao, I’ve made some serious conclusions about life. First off, life is not worth living without someone to share it with (although being single does have its benefits, having a significant other eventually outweighs those benefits). Second, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing as long as you are with the ones you love. Finally, life is all about relationships; there is no sum of money, no island so perfect, no set of circumstances so ideal that could ever fulfill one’s heart like relationships can. Granted, these are not ground breaking truths that I’m talking about here. I just further appreciate them now having first hand experience with what they really mean.
On my second to last day I decided to do two more dives just for the fun of it. The water visibility had progressively gotten worse since I had arrived, however. My fun dives weren’t as exciting as the first dives I had done but I at least got to see two new dive spots. It was also nice just to be back in the water. Like I said before, I love the ocean; any day in the water is a great day for me! I soaked in my last night dancing with some friends from Switzerland at a cool place called the Lotus Bar. We had a great night but I was ready to move on.
I enjoyed my time on Koh Tao and was thankful for the opportunity to dive. I was also grateful for the people I had met and the experiences we shared. With my trip now more than half over, it was time to make my way back north to Bangkok. I would continue straight up through Laos, stopping in two cities, on my way back to Kunming.
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