brainylady

Sticky

Newsflash: it's hot and humid here! Over the last couple of years, when Bill and I would travel from Taipei to other sweaty places for vacations, we would giggle at the Westerners who would be wilting. What comes around goes around, baby. I am one hot and droopy little flower.

We're on Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Getting here was a bit of an ordeal: an eight-hour train from Bangkok to Chumphon, a few hours of sleep in a cheap and noisy room, and then a 6:15 a.m. bus ride to a two-and-a-half-hour ferry to Koh Tao. It's a lot different than I'd expected -- very developed. We hadn't lined up anywhere to stay, but we've found a pretty nice place. We're forking out a few extra baht for air-conditioning, too.

We went on two dives yesterday morning. The first one was no fun (poor visibility, and I kept floating up), but the second one was good. We saw a blue spotted ray, lots of pretty coral, and fish. Not nearly as many fish as in Malaysia -- I guess that's the difference between a protected area and a bay full of fishing boats. Bill and I were scolded for not keeping up with our divemaster. An underwater scolding! Imagine that: angry hand signals. He was mad at us because we kept falling behind. Dude, we didn't come all the way here to look at you. If I want to slow down and look at something, I'm slowing down. And this was in a group of four, including us and him! Whatever. Bill and I had a good time. We saw huge crazy clams with electric blue lips, and big creepy white worms, and a small school of barracuda, and loads of little Christmas tree worms in every colour. (When you snap your fingers next to them, they disappear into the coral.)

We're staying on a part of the island called Sairee Beach. Here's the view from our breakfast table this morning:



And here's what the island looks like, from the back of a taxi earlier today:



I'm still trying to relax -- sleeping a ton. I'm hoping to feel human soon. I'll let you know how that goes.