If we previously thought we had landed in paradise, we were wrong. Today we really did land in paradise. The moment we stepped off the ferry and had a glance around the bay we were docked in, we knew it was going to be a really spectacular week.

Beautiful Koh Tao

Koh Tao is in fact the most beautiful beach we have been to. Seems like each time we go to a new Thai beach it is more beautiful than the last. Really it’s not even our imaginations, it just is. Since the ferry business from Koh Samui took a bit longer than we had hoped, today was an errand running day. (Really that just means that we had to find a place to sleep and a nice dive shop for Saben to go with tomorrow.) We ended up at the well known Big Blue Dive Shop with a double room and private bath for 200 baht (since Lin doesn’t dive; but if she did, lodging would be free).

Serene

Traveler’s Tip: – Dive Shops on Koh Tao

There are a million and half (I don’t know, maybe more) dive shops, all with bungalows, on Koh Tao so you really have your pick. Don’t forget to check our their dive equipment to make sure everything is in order. Saben chose Big Blue because they run a really tight operation, the staff are great, and their equipment is top notch. Dive rates are pretty standard across the island. We will use Big Blue as an example since we know those prices best. They have a sliding scale for dive rates, as do most of the other shops we checked. Their Boat Dive rates are:

1-2 dives 1000 baht each
3-6 dives 900 baht
7-10 800 baht
11 or more 700 baht each

(Note that most dive shops start at 1000 baht per dive; that figure is based on 4-5 shops we checked and out of those, they all did sliding scales on rates.)

The dive packages almost always include free lodging for you on days you dive with them (otherwise it is 400 baht per night in the fan room or bungalow which are not as nice or safe as the rooms) and breakfast is sometimes thrown in as well.

If you are looking to do your PADI or Advanced Open Water course while on Koh Tao, you will be happy to know just how cheap it is! To get your Open Water Certification is 9000 baht (about US$273) over 3-4 days. The Advanced Open Water Course is 7800 baht over 2 days. If you are looking to get your Divemaster, you will spend around 25,000 baht but it depends on how you set up your program with the shop.

Besides the money, it’s good to know that the diving on Koh Tao is very good. Visibility is around 20 meters and marine life is varied and plentiful. You will see plenty of reef sharks, maybe some bull sharks (yikes!), rays, Christmas tree worms, and so many kinds of fish your eyes would glaze over at list of them all! With that said, if you have been diving in places like the Bay Islands or in the Red Sea, you will likely want to know that the reefs are not quite as spectacular and certainly the vis is not as good. However, it is still definitely worth diving on Koh Tao as it is really stunning!

Traveler’s Tip – For Non-Divers on Koh Tao:

If you are like Lin and don’t dive, you can still have a really great time on Koh Tao. There are tons of great snorkeling spots all over the island and you will see more fish than you can remember when you get back on dry land to look them up. Grab a map from any dive shop and ask about the best snorkeling spots. The dive shops (as well as a few places in town) nearly always rent snorkel gear and don’t mind to give you some tips on where to go. Most of them can be reached from the beach but we very careful if you are walking around near or in rocky areas because broken glass, sea spines, and other unpleasant things can find their way into your feet. As with most things on Koh Tao, snorkel gear rental is pretty standard at 100 baht. Some places will charge another 100 for fins but look around in town and you can find a place that does the whole ensemble for 100 solid.

Besides diving and snorkeling, the beach is great with tons of room and plenty of shady spots if you prefer. The bay goes out flat and shallow forever it seems so this is a great place for famillies with small children too. There is a decent amount of longtail boat traffic (boat taxis) coming in and out of the bay but they are very good about keeping an eye for heading bobbing in the water. Still, be aware of your surroundings especially if you can snorkeling or swimming underwater. Wouldn’t be a very nice holiday if you got your head lobbed off!

Scooters are available for rent everywhere starting at 150 baht/day for a crappy manual or 250 for the more common regular ol’ scooter. But you can still get around on foot quite easily but watch out for traffic since some of the gringos zip around a little too fast without much attention to where they are going.

Along with all that jazz, Koh Tao is chocked full of tourist restaurants, bakeries, mini and supermarkets, internet cafes, souvenir shops, tattoo shops, book shops and the like. Anything you could possibly need or want, you can get here.

At the ripe hour of 7AM we descended upon the city of Ranong intent upon finding the immigration office. We need that exit stamp from Thailand so we can officially leave and come back with a fresh 15 day visa. Gives us plenty of uninterrupted time to “explore” the beaches of southern Thailand. Of course, that mainly hinges on the idea that “explore” means drink beer, go diving and snorkeling, and maybe—if duty calls—some lying on the beach, just to make sure it’s safe for future travellers, of course.

Boats at the Thai side of the border

At any rate, it really wasn’t that far, the Thai immigration office. After we left the guest house and set out on our own, on foot, we realized we were wasting time. We convinced the first moto taxi we could find to take us to the office. It was a tight fit with the three of us on the little moped but we got there and it was actually pretty fun. Turned out that we went to the old immigration office and by the time we could decipher this tiny morsel of info from the, shall we say, unhelpful chap within our moto taxi was gone and we once more set off on foot to find the proper office. Fifteen minutes later we found the right pier where the new office is located and another 10 minutes in the strictly “Foreigner” line, we had our exit stamp.

Saben on the boat to Burma

Now only to get to Burma. Hmm…Wait, what’s that little man with webbed feet? Yes, I do need a boat! No, that’s too much but we’ll pay 100 baht each instead. OK? Right, let’s go.

With another grumpy looking German couple, we descended some rather precarious looking stairs and hopped into one of the hundred or so identical longtail boats bobbing and clunking together in the black water. The same black water that just moments later unapologetically swallowed Saben’s sunglasses. Materialistic bastard.

The dividing waters

Just across the river there is a major visible difference between Thailand and Burma. The Burmese houses are so shabby and sad looking it is hard to imagine anyone living there. Big contrast between how the beloved King of Thailand treats his people and how the Burmese government neglects theirs.

The burmese side of the river

Anyway, back to the visa business. With a couple of scheduled border checks along the way and a river so choppy and with such strong waves it seemed certain we would capsize and die just like the fate of so many boats each day here, we eventually made it to Burma. Nameless border town which holds little import for us as we are on a single track mission: getting a stamp in and back out again. We made a single purchase during our time in Burma and that was to buy a Myanmar Beer for Saben’s beer label collection. Stamp, stamp, US$10 (ouch), beer, and we are back in the boat zipping noisily across the river that we keep taunting with our stubborn survival at its fierce attempts to make us “sit down and stay a while.” The whole matter took 2 hours and we were very lucky to have a good boat driver who did not indeed allow our boat to capsize and did not break down.

Our boat in the water

Back at the Thai side, we officially re-entered Thailand, got the stamp, paid our boat driver, and hopped into the back of a truck taxi heading for our side of town. Grabbed our bags and hopped a bus 45 minutes later and, whew! Finally we were on our way to Koh Samui. All that before noon and we didn’t even get the opportunity to eat a single meal yet today.

The minibus from Ranong to Surat Thani (port town where you catch the ferry to Koh Samui—or another chosen island destination) took about 3-4 hours. A bit of waiting around for another hour or so til we could get the next bus to the actual port where the ferry way leaving and then we were lucky enough to catch the ferry literally 2 minutes before it pulled off. During the hour and a half ride to Koh Samui we chatted up this nice German fellow with bright blonde hair and a hearty laugh. The sun was just setting at we pulled out to sea and made for a nice ride to the island. We arrived just at dark and hopped another truck taxi from Nathon (Koh Samui’s port town) up the coast to the northern beach Mae Nam. Big sigh of relief to be in one place for at least the next 7 hours. Definitely ready for some food and sleep!

Sunset on our way to paradise

Travel Tip:

Honestly, you can do this without a tour guide or going through a guest house. You can do it on your own, for less money and in less time. You will probably even get out alive! I mean, no guarantee there but we both did so there is that.

Anyway, since we have a certain affinity for using overpriced and generally unnecessary tourist setups, we decided to forgo the guest house’s border run package. We stayed at the Kiwi Guest House as a matter of convenience because we were dumped on right there by the bus station and it was getting dark and beginning to rain. We had heard mixed things about the place but turned out to be basic but sufficient for one night. Staff are really terrible, bathrooms not great but rooms are okay and there are a few local restaurants nearby that are much cheaper than the Kiwi’s. Of course, it didn’t help that we refused to buy the border run package or the minibus ticket to Koh Samui with them so that probably contributed to our ideas of their staff and service.

If you want to do the visa run yourself, it’s all quite simple. The immigration offices open at 7:30AM every day of the week. If you go on a weekend or other “holiday” you will be charged an extra 5-10 baht by the Burmese at one of the 2 stops on your boat ride. It’s called a “holiday fee” and as you might have guessed, is just a nice way for the Burmese border folks to make a little extra money on the side.

Take a moto drop or truck taxi to the port immigration office. If you are staying in the market area of town, it should cost maybe 20 baht for a moto. From the Kiwi Guest House it might cost 30-40 baht (just a guess since we didn’t pick one up til we walked to the market and a bit farther). The port is very busy with locals going to work or just hanging around. There will likely be at least a couple of guys direct you toward the immigration office for the hopeful 5-10 baht tip. You can’t miss it though. Just walk toward the noise and water and turn right when you get “inside” the huge building, which is kind of open air. There will be a line of foreigners waiting for their exit stamp so you’ll obviously want to join them. When your turn comes, you will wordlessly hand your passport into a low dark window and stand and wait patiently (2-3 minutes) for them to hand it back. Just before they return your passport to you, they will take your picture so be sure to remove hat and sunglasses and look at the little camera behind the dark glass so you don’t have to try to figure out what they hell they want from that tiny uncomfortably low and small window.

From there, you might get picked up by a boat driver or you might need to walk over toward the rickety looking stairs and ask someone around there. Negotiate a good price and find out how many other people will be in the boat. If are two people and want to rent the whole boat, a good rate is 300 baht. Of course the drivers start out asking around 1000 baht so don’t be afraid to seriously negotiate with them. If you can share the boat with say, 4 people, a really good rate is 100 baht per person. This is what we paid but the driver was charging the German couple we shared the boat with 200 baht per person. Just FYI.

Very important thing to know: have a photocopy of your passport ready! You will need it for the first Burmese border check (your driver will take it and your passport inside and you will wait 3-4 minutes in the boat). If you don’t have one, you can pay 5 baht for a copy at the Thai immigration office after you get your exit stamp (door on left side as you walk away from the stamping counter).

Once you are in the boat, the driver will get you to where you need to be and make sure you are properly checked and stamped. When you get to Burma, you will go into a little office where you will wait with a big gaggle of other foreigners to have your passport stamped and pay your US$10. They will hold up your passport and try to pronounce your name so you can come over to the counter and retrieve your passport; then you ca be on your merry way, whether into Burma or back to Thailand.

A note about the US$10. It must be American currency and it must be absolutely pristine! The bill needs to be as new as possible and without any creases or blemishes of any sort. If you don’t have US$10 you can pay the Burmese visa fee with 500 Thai baht. Of course that translates into about US$15 so it’s best it you have American currency. However, the Burmese border officials are known to be awful to deal with and will come up with any number of absurd reasons to reject your perfectly spendable US$10 bill and demand payment in baht. You can see why, when they would make an extra US$5 off each person they do this to!

So that’s it. Your driver will herd you back into the boat and zip you back across the crazy river. There will be two scheduled stops on the way back. One is to make sure you didn’t smuggle drugs or people or something else equally illegal and one is to check your passport again. Boat driver handles these again and each takes less than 5 minutes. Once you arrive back to the Thai side of the river, head back up the stairs, get in to “Arrival” line and get stamped back into Thailand. Done! You’ve got a fresh 15 day visa, now get to the beach!

Rather than give away our favorite hide-outs we decided to go another route and give you three of our secrets (or not so much secrets) to traveling happy and for less money. Without further ado:

You do not need a guidebook:

Oh yes, you heard me right. You do not need a guidebook. On this trip and previous ones, across 27 countries, spanning 13 months of combined travel (4 months to go), and we have not carried a single guidebook. Guidebooks are great tools for reference but that is all they are, tools. They are not to be used as a step by step itinerary. There is no need to carry it, literally, in your hand everyday all day. For every hotel or restaurant that is in the book there are thousands that are not and I can guarantee you that nine times out of ten they will be cheaper, cleaner, and nicer than the ones that are “in the book.” Countless times we have seen tourists walking kilometer after kilometer past dozens of restaurants, guidebook in hand, trying to find that one restaurant that’s “in the book.” But you know who eats at the restaurants that are “in the book”: tourists and only tourists. You know what (most of) the restaurants “in the book” serve: western food. If you want to eat bad spaghetti with a bunch of other foreigners that’s fine but if you are traveling to meet the local population, eat local food, and live in a different culture then leave your guidebook at home. (Traveling without a guide book can be a challenge sometimes which is why we are currently working on a in depth travelers tip post to explain the process a bit more in depth.)

Take local transportation:

For us, the travel is just as important as the destination. Traveling on local transport is the best way to meet, converse and mingle with the local population. Some of my favorite moments have came from a 10 hour chicken bus ride or hitchhiking in the back of a truck bed. Don’t miss these moments! Sure it’s not always fun. In fact most of the time it is hot, sweaty, smells bad, and you are pretty sure you will die at any moment, not to mention the allure of the nice air conditioned Volvo bus or the AC3 train. But when you take that kind of transport you are cheating yourself out of the very things you came to see. You did not travel to a far away land to sit in a nice air conditioned bus with a gaggle of your fellow countrymen. You came to see, feel, experience and live in another land. I’m not saying boycott the nice transport—we upgrade all the time, but don’t make a habit of it. Take the good with the bad and ride that chicken bus or horse cart or general class train. Good or bad, it’s always a good story in the end.

You do not need a guide:

Here you are walking into the Taj Mahal or Tikal or The Great Wall and there they are, an army of guides waiting to fill you head with non-stop useless facts and information for the low low price of $9.95. Sometimes a guide is great and we have had a few fantastic guides on this trip and others but we only get a guide when it is required (Tibet, for instance). Some people love going with a guide. They get tons of info and feel like they are learning something about the culture and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I argue the opposite. We hate having a guide. Nothing ruins a moment more for me than trying to sit and people-watch or enjoy a monolithic piece of architecture while someone is rambling random facts in my ear that I don’t care about or will forget in ten minutes anyway. If I am further interested in a place I visit, I will do a little reading about it before or after my visit but while I am there I just want to be there and soak up the history and presence without the constant interruption. Secondly, going without a guide gives you such freedom. The guides all have a schedule and they all run the same route but what about all the other stuff not on your guide’s itinerary? There are always hidden corners and alleyways, tiny back exhibits and small gardens. These are the beautiful places, not the bare meeting room that you and the 5,000 other tourists are climbing on top of each other to see. Sometimes a guide is a great idea but do take the time, even if it is after your guided tour, to see a place for yourself. I guarantee you will find something special.