Maiden Voyage: Know thy self, know thy enemy...A thousand Battles, a thousand Victories.

Day 26 01^st March – Koh Tao

If I wanted to 'play safe' and choose the easy option, I could have stayed in Koh Lanta for the remainder of my stay in Thailand….its really is a beautiful place and I was very comfortable here. I felt however I needed to max out my experience in the south and decide to head off to Koh Tao (a little island north east across and). I’m collected at 8am in a minivan and this experience was to be my worst journey ever! We were all crammed in with bags on top of us, shoved and pushed around by the driver who I think fancied himself as a bit of a ‘gangster’. He was a nasty piece of work, he was arrogant, ignorant, dripped jewelled gold and quite frankly had no consideration for his passengers, it was inhumane and clearly we were just ‘dollar’ to him. The journey took five hours. We had to endure his Thai music blasting out of his ghetto blaster style sound system, no comfort breaks, no food, or water….it was honestly hell. I sat with two young German girls who were clearly traumatised by the experience, I felt a bit responsible for them which fortunately for me helped me maintain my composure. We all endured it but I think it’s the closest thing to human trafficking I hope I'm ever going to experience – Horrendous!!

The second leg was the catamaran to the island, this was a pretty good service apart from yet again sitting next to a victim of sea sickness – I must be a magnet for them!!

26^th February 2017 – I declare WAR!

I arrive at my new home for the next few days after 12 gruelling hours, I’m desperate for a rest….. It’s at this point I realise I may have I’ve pushed my boundaries a little too far…..

My accommodation is called 'The Earth House', its intended for the ‘eco warrior’, self sufficient and minimalist type....all things natural and all that which I quite liked the idea of. It’s a series of little bamboo huts, each one has a single bed, a bedside cabinet, a switch which controls single dim light bulb (covered in cling film to protect it from the elements) and an oscillating desktop fan....no wifi. The huts are not sealed and have a inch gap around all doors and windows. Each opening fastens with a stick of bamboo (no locks whatsoever). The welfare facilities consist of a two compartment combined toilet/shower room with a low level wall between w/c’s. The sink is mounted on the external wall. It’s immediately clear….If you arrived at this place with dignity, you certainly ain’t leaving with it!!

My little home for 3 nights...Bamboo Hut No.4. To be fair for £10 a night I shouldn't complain (I was budgeting hard!!)

An aerial view, notice the daylight around the door ...leading directly to outside!!

Yep these were the welfare facilities....not much privacy from humans or any pest control
measures!....it makes me shudder looking back on it now.

I open my hut and am greeted by a wonderful collection of creepy crawlies (*Morse I thought of you at this point, you’d have had an absolute meltdown... the image of your face at this makes me laugh!!). Spiders, green fly thingy’s, a Gekho’s and a mass of mosquitos buzzing (the absolute bane of my life!) They’re happily marching all over my bed, crawling the walls and floating airborne poised waiting to launch their attack. It was like the movie 'A Bugs Life' and Utopia was my bedroom! I shut the door and immediately declare “right you *uckers this is all out WAR!”

I rummage through my bag for my secret weapon….the insect bomb! I throw in the grenade ...a couple of sprays of this little beauty and they’ll be on their backs wishing they’d never invaded hut No.4….I mean business and am taking no prisoners! After 10 minutes I re-enter the tiny space and sure enough the insect colony is in a state of surrender. I’m loving my never failing weapon of mass destruction (not exactly environmentally friendly I know but c’mon ….it’s them or me!) and take a moment bask in the glory, nodding my head holding a firm stance with folded arms …a proud moment of triumph. I quickly install and tuck up the mosquito net, have a cold shower (there’s no hot water at this place), cream up (repellant) and get my head down for the night. Things were moving all night every night, you could hear people shuffling about in the early hours, there was weired scratching, tooting, tapping and buzzing. The constant disturbance and pending readiness for battle was exhausting but I managed three nights at this place, it pushed me to my absolute limits but I’m proud to say I survived without a single bite and I’m claiming this a firm victory!

My trusty weapon of mass destruction!

So if that wasn’t torture enough, after my snorkeling experience I’d got quite inquisitive now about what lies beneath the sea. I book onto a local scuba diving course. I can’t believe I’m associating myself in the same sentence with a fear of water and confined spaces. I spent two full 12 hour days ‘one to one’ with an instructor and eventually made a 12 metre dive below the sea…the sights, sounds, magnificence and sheer determination of that moment will stay with me forever, it was absolutely incredible.

During the two days I went through extreme states of emotion …absolute fear - at 5 metres below they make you remove you goggles and swim for 15 metres, replace your mask and clear it of water, crippling terror - as you remove your regulator (air supply) and swim releasing air from a single breath for 10 metres (this is an emergency ascent known as a ‘cesa’) all whilst trying hold composure and battling the personal fears and trying desperately not to drown. I was physically, mentally and emotionally broken by the end. It is by far the most physiologically challenging thing I have ever done. I had a series of panic moments but managed (just) to hold it together. Did I conquer my fears? NO…it was traumatising and gave me nightmares, but you know what, I achieved my Scuba Padi License (I need 2 more dives to achieve the ‘open water’ status) and no one can take that away from me…one of my all time greatest moments of personal achievement - I still can’t believe I did it!!

With my instructor Rob

We couldn't take pictures during the sessions so i have found some images online which are of the Twins dive site, which is where my deep dive took place. Ive only put in images which are a true reflection of what I personally saw during the training.

This is a typical image of the training to remove the mask and regulator etc,

I take the final day to explore a bit more of Koh Tao on foot and I can't hep feeling Thailand truly is the ultimate contradiction. On one hand there are stunning and spectacular views of incredible beauty and literally to the opposite viewpoint (often the opposite side of the street) complete and utter squaller. This is clearly a result of poverty and overpopulation but somehow the two appear to blend. Wherever I have visited in this country its the same, though somehow strangely this manages to work...people just seem to be beyond recognition of the filth, again I guess this is their reality.

A few honest images to go with an honest blog....this is literally a regular site everywhere in Thailand.

A few images of Koh Tao (*note its been raining non stop for days so it was a bit overcast for these pics). It was a lovely place focused primarily on young 'surfer dude' types you know...."Yo Man"..."Awesome"..."Super Cool"!!. They were having a great time to be fair but for me this wasn't my favourite island of the trip.