Koh Tao: The September Diaries
With the end of the summer, I've moved on from Central Asia to South East Asia to find Matt - after a full month solo, I'm super grateful to have a travel buddy again. We're spending the full month in Thailand - specifically, Koh Tao, a small island off the east coast, where Matt has spent a handful of summers. He made the transition easy, both by having a local apartment complex and moped rental preference handy.
As I type this, I'm watching one of our many lizard roommates hunt for bugs off our ceiling, so "easy" is relative.
Travel Roster
Bangkok
Koh Tao
Bangkok
First stop on our journey south is Bangkok. Since this is such a large flight hub, I'm relatively sure I'll have a few chances to visit over the next year (seriously - how lucky can a girl get!). As a result, I wanted to stay here a few nights, but didn't rush to get everything done on the first visit. I prioritized seeing a few temples (this could be a trip alone!), eating at night markets, and doing some urban herping.
First: reunited with Matt, who just finished his own adventure in Ecuador. Someone on this continent knows me!
Temple Crawl: Wat Arun, Wat Pho, and Wat Paknam
Urban Herping at Lumphini Park
Herping is the hobby or practice of searching for reptiles and amphibians in the wild.
This may be my favorite Bangkok activity. Several thousand Asian Monitor Lizards call this park home, and it's easy to pass a morning watching these guys hang out
Koh Tao
Soon enough, we were boarding the 7 hour bus that connected us to the 3 hour ferry that brings us to our island. Matt couldn't be happier to get into the water!
Koh Tao is the first experience I've had this year of really settling in to a new place. I have a month-long apartment lease, my own moped, and a gym membership. I even have a preference about local grocery stores (and local 7/11's!)
Our apartment on Hin Wong Bay
What a fun place to callhome! Our living room is entirely open, which brings the cool breeze... as well as any lizards, mice, or mosquitos that happen to be interested in our snack of the day. Thankfully, the resident monitor lizard hasn't taken interest in us yet.
Leaning out of the balcony, you can see the fish on the rocks on a clear day. We can walk right down to the shore and snorkel the reefs a short swim away.
Our favorite roommate this month, Tim, the Tokay Gecko.
My loyal(ish) Moped
A fun part of living on Koh Tao is most people commute via moped. Since our apartment is a hilly climb away from the main street, I end up driving most days.... until Matt is home from class, at which point I happily ride shotgun with him.
I ended up buying my own helmet, since most on the island treat them as optional.
A wonderful side effect of scooters being the main form of transportation is that it is not uncommon to find dogs riding on their owners' scooters. I try to snap a picture whenever I see it
Days here in Koh Tao are spent slowly:
training for a half marathon I impulsively signed up for in 3 months
snorkeling to the nearby coffee shop (I could hike, but land access costs 40 baht!)
hiking the deceptively many trails and outlooks on the island
watercoloring postcards, given for free with a morning coffee at my favorite shop
What I'm Eating These Days
So much great Thai food - this is common enough in the U.S. I don't need to spend too much time on this, but highlights include:
Mango sticky rice, my favorite Thai dessert, specifically the naturally tri-colored kind served by a single woman in Koh Tao who sells out within 1 hour of opening
Curries (massaman, panang, thai, red, green, yellow - you name it!)
Night market bites
Koh Tao has a community from Myanmar, and with it they bring fantastic Burmese food
As much tropical fruit as possible - cheap and delicious!
The good: Traveler Milestones
Having an apartment lease (even if just for a month!), a moped license, a gym membership, and a coffee shop I became a "regular" at is a new experience for me in another country - the next few months will be a lot of movement, but this felt very cool.
After about a week of having my scooter, I had my first flat tire. In the middle of the day, I had to hoof it to the nearest moped repair shop where I hitched a ride with a mechanic back to my bike. We had no language overlap - however, based on the sounds his moped was making as we were driving, his bike was in worse condition than mine!
The bad: What I Messed Up This Time
My poor, brand new phone screen cracked badly enough that I needed to get a new phone screen- the only replacements they have on the tiny island of Koh Tao are intense privacy screens, and I cannot see a thing on my screen in direct sunlight. This is one way to digitally unplug during the day, I guess.
What next?
After a blissfully easy start to the month, I plan to begin travelling through the rest of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, our neighboring islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, and then head inland to Khao Sok National Park.
Comments