Alright, the cat's out of the bag and the one-way tickets are booked. Next stop: Palau! Pa-what? Unless you are a serious dive enthusiast or a World War II veteran, chances are you might not have heard of this tiny island nation, and for good reason. Palau is 1000 miles east of the Philippines, 1300 miles southwest of Guam, and 1900 miles north of Papua New Guinea. Whoa! It's a little intimidating to think of spending a significant amount of time away from any large mass of land, but at the same time it is perfectly fitting. I love the ocean,
I wrote a dozen different introductions for this post apologizing for being insensitive, racist, and poking fun at others' expense, but then I realized that if I was really that concerned, I wouldn't be writing this post in the first place. Or maybe I would write it and just leave it to collect cyber dust with all my other half-written drafts. So yes, these stories I'm about to tell may come across somewhat insensitive, racist, and poke fun at other's expense. If you're going to be offended, read no farther. I'm sure I'll have another post about kittens up before
GETTING HERE If you are flying into Bangkok you have two options: The Slow & Cheap Option: Take an overnight bus/train from Bangkok to Chumphon followed by a ferry from Chumphon to Koh Tao. After arriving in Bangkok, walk into the first booking office you see (tourist areas such as Khao San Road are riddled with them) and say you want to go to Koh Tao. They will give you all of your options. The overnight buses and trains both take about ten hours. On the bus you get to sit in an uncomfortable seat all night. On the train you can
Monday We booked an early departure from Koh Phi Phi. It's a fun place for a couple of days but after that it's easy to get your fill of drunk tourists and trashed beaches. Gone are the days of the pristine, undiscovered paradises from Alex Garland's novel, at least as far as Koh Phi Phi is concerned. The ferry brought us back to Krabi and from there we got a transfer to Ao Nang. In Ao Nang we had the shuttle driver drop us at the corner on the beach where a booth selling longboat tickets was located, and bought three
There's a saying in Thailand, same same but different. If you have ever been there, then you are likely all too familiar with it. It originated in reference to the ladyboys, for obvious reasons. But now you can't walk into a souvenir shop without seeing it splashed across a tshirt or have a conversation with a local without hearing it in everyday conversation, because it just works for everything. Spend more then a couple of weeks in Thailand and pretty soon you will be throwing out same same in the middle of a conversation without even thinking twice about it. The