I’m sitting in my living room in Grand Rapids, Michigan day-dreaming about the paradise I just returned home from — TAKE ME BACK! Anyway, this post will be a rather nostalgic recollection of the past three weeks spent island hopping, scuba diving, relaxing, and partying.

Songkran in Bangkok

It’s April 13th — Thai New Year (Songkran) festivities are in full swing. I decide to stick around in Bangkok for a couple of days before heading south to the small island of Koh Tao.

I make it less than 10 feet out of the hostel before I’m sopping wet. My first purchase of the day is a big super soaker and a dry bag for my phone. Many of the large roads are closed to traffic and open for water fights so I head down to the main artery of Silom Road and begin my attack on innocent bystanders. All I can see for miles is water, smiles, and wet t-shirts.

Later that night I meet up with some old friends to take on the infamous Khao San Road for some more wet ‘n wild debauchery.

The next day is rough — but the party is still poppin’ with no end in sight. I decide to make a break for it and book a bus ticket to Koh Tao. Not everything is gravy yet — I still need to make it to the bus station which is strategically placed at the epicenter of the celebration.

Another backpacker and I make it to the edge of Khao San Road and are forced to walk, with backpacks and all, through the sea of water for roughly 45 minutes until we reach the bus station where we wait another hour for the remaining passengers to trickle in.

Paradise One: Koh Tao

After a grueling 17 hour pickup-truck/night-bus/speed-ferry/taxi combo I arrive at my destination — sleepless — on the beautiful little island of Koh Tao. The weather is terrible — hot, muggy, and raining.

I check in to Coral Grand Divers at 8:00 am, grab a bite to eat at the bar, and wait around until my room is ready. Scuba Diving class starts at 4:00 pm and I’m hoping to catch a few hours of sleep before jumping right into learning (ugh) — but my room isn’t ready until 3:30 pm, thus I have no time to sleep.

Here’s the deal with the Scuba Diving courses: In order to scuba dive anywhere in the world you first need to be certified. There are a variety of certifications available, but the first and most common are Open Water and Advanced Open Water. The main difference between the two is the depth you are able to descend to. An OW certificate allows you to dive up to 18 meters and an Advanced OW certificate allows you to dive up to 30 meters.

Koh Tao is jam packed with dive schools making it one of the most competitive, and cheapest places to learn to dive — not to mention one of the most beautiful.

All that being said, I signed up for the Open Water course and 4 nights of accommodation for $300.00. Here’s a rundown of the course:

1. The course takes four days to complete
2. Group sizes vary — ours was three students and two instructors
3. Homework, quizzes, and a final exam
4. Two days of confined water dives in a swimming pool
5. Four open water dives to practice a variety of skills

After completing the first course all I wanted to do was dive more. I signed up for the Advanced Open Water course and 2 more nights of accommodation for $200.00. Here’s a rundown of the course:

1. Navigation Dive — learn to use a compass underwater
2. Buoyancy Perfection — learn to perfect and control buoyancy
3. Night Dive — use torches to explore familiar dive sites at night
4. Wreck Dive — dive around a sunken ship
5. Deep Dive — dive down to 30 meters

Anyway, check out some photos of this unforgettable under water week.

As you can see it’s an entirely different world down there and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn to dive with such an awesome crew.

Now — after a week of diving I’m ready to enjoy what this little island has to offer on solid ground. I move into a cheap hostel up the road and meet up with Josh — an old friend that I met in Bangkok my first day of traveling. We decide to finish out our remaining days in Thailand together.

Not only is Koh Tao great for diving, but it’s great for snorkeling, relaxing on the beach, and partying at night.

After lunch we rent a couple of motorbikes and head to Shark Bay in hopes of catching a glimpse of some Blacktip Sharks.

We snorkel for a few hours and spot quite a few baby sharks, but none that are significantly big.

After snorkeling we grab a bite to eat and explore the island by motorbike until dusk.

When night time rolls around on Koh Tao the beaches turn into one big fire spinning, hoola hooping, beer guzzling frenzy.

We spent many nights at many bars, had many beers and many shots, met many girls from many countries, and stumbled home many times.

Josh and I decide to make a break for it before we get stuck here forever — but damn there’s no other place I’d rather be stuck.

Paradise Two: Koh Lanta

We book two tickets to Koh Lanta — an island located on the opposite (west) side of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. We hop on a night ferry to Surat Thani (8 hrs) and take a tuk-tuk to the travel agency where we wait for a minibus to take us to Krabi. A fist fight breaks out between one of the travel agency guys and a backpacker. Great, this is exactly what we want at 5:30 am. Anyway, a minibus arrives and takes us to Krabi (3 hrs) where we wait another 3 hours for yet another minibus to take us across the car ferry to Koh Lanta… phew, glad that’s over.

We arrive at Non La Mer hostel around noon, check in, and head out for lunch and a well earned beer.

Koh Lanta is a large, quiet island — the beaches are long and white, the water is clear and deep, and the weather is tropical — in a nutshell, it’s paradise.

Josh and I spend the week eating at our favorite restaurant, exploring the island by motorbike, beach-bumming, snorkeling, attending the nightly party at one of the dozens of beach bars, watching movies in the stoner-friendly lobby of the hostel, and dreading the day we have to leave this quiet paradise.

After a week and a half of some serious relaxation it’s time to head back to where it all began, and where it will soon come to a bittersweet end — Bangkok. We book a $30.00 plane ticket to Bangkok, spend one last day baking in the sun at the beach, and let the end begin.

The Last Hurrah: Bangkok Style

We arrive at the hostel in Bangkok at around 8:00 pm. As we sit in the same chairs at the same hostel where we first met the end of this journey becomes very real — and very sad. What can I say? As I sit here typing this I’m welling up with tears — I can’t believe it’s over, I can’t believe I’m not still there.

Alright, enough of the mushy gushy stuff — it’s my last weekend in Asia, time to show ‘em what we’re made of.

It’s Saturday. I spend the day vigorously shopping for family and friends at Chatuchak Market — the largest market in Thailand and an absolute frenzy.

Somehow I made it out of there alive with a butt load of goodies for everyone back home.

Back at the hostel we gather up a crew of fresh-off-the-boat travelers for a big night out on Khao San Road. What happened that night is locked up in the memory vault, but here’s a glimpse of the action.

We went out with a bang.

That’s All Folks

It’s that dreaded time — time to hop on a 24 hour flight back to reality. I board my plane at 2:00 am and I’m immediately reminded of how much I hate flying long distances…

Long story short — that big night on Khao San Road left me with a heady infection in my knee causing it to blow up to the size of a softball by the time we landed in Chicago. The day after I returned home I was sent to the hospital for emergency knee surgery and was laid up for a good week. Not quite the return I had in mind, but all is well and I’m slowly adjusting to the lifestyle of working 9–5 (Note to self: figure out a way to escape this 9–5 BS).

I’ll likely write another post dedicated to my thoughts on the entire trip, but until then, bye for now…