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.

This morning we had breakfast with a couple of new Australian bunkmates who are visiting the island to get their Dive Masters. We traded travel stories and tips while eating pancakes at “the shack” (50 Lps, or $2.63) with fresh butter and strawberry marmalade. Yummy! Today we laid around on the beach all day till the sunshine faded from the sky. Great day just relaxing in the sun (ok, and maybe recovering a little bit from the last couple of nights…).

"Panqueques" at the shack

Saben, Frank, and Glenn packed in one more dive and had a great time. They were able to hit their max depth of 60 feet and see two turtles very close up. Since they are all certified divers now, they can bring cameras with them so Saben was able to take a few shots above and below the water, unfortunately the camera will not work past about 45 feet (due to the intense pressure) so no photos of the turtles.

Saben on the boat

Scuba Frank and Scuba Glenn (and some other guy)

The Reef (Blue because of the lack of light at depth)

Saben Post Dive

The Three Scubateers

We feel at home here on Roatan now. It’s as if we’re lived here for years. We know all the great places to eat and shop and we always run into friends no matter where we go. What a wonderful life! It’s our last day on the island and though we a reluctant to leave such a comfortable, lovely place we are also ready to move on to something new. We went out with our friends but the bars were all dead in the West End so we called it an early night around midnight and decided to catch the ferry back to La Ceiba in the morning. We had planned on leaving Roatan a couple of days ago but decided to stay an extra day or two because the guys offered to let us ride back to San Pedro Sula with them. They were going there to visit their families and we were going there on our way to Guatemala. We were so happy and grateful that we couldn’t possibly say no! So we all leave together in the morning around 6AM to get to port in time for the 7AM ferry back to the mainland. It’s not often that one can make such good friends but then again we’ve been living with each other for about a week so we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. Looking forward to the journey!

So this is it—the last day of a really horrible year. We couldn’t be happier! This year has been pretty rough on both of us and we are super excited to see what will happen in ‘09! Saben did 2 dives today, finishing his PADI course. Just before he left, he built Lin a sea turtle in the sand next to where she was sitting on the beach. Then, when he went out diving he actually ended up seeing two sea turtles! How weird! He saw a hawk bill turtle, a green turtle, a huge barracuda plus he found (all by himself) a sharp tailed eel which even his dive master buddy had never seen before. Anyway, scuba Saben had a great day diving and Lin is getting a really great tan. We’re planning to hit the strip with our new friends (our bunkmates) to celebrate the new year. More on that to come…

Breakfast at Rudy’s this morning (best banana pancakes ever!). We took a little walk on the beach before Saben left to take his final exam at the dive shop. He passed with a very high score and had another amazing dive that afternoon. Lin had a relaxing day sunning on the beach with a cheap mystery novel from a local shop.

We’ve become really very comfortable here and love the atmosphere. Everything is simple, the pace is no-rush, and there is a great deal of trust among shopkeepers and customers. The people of Roatan, locals and ex-pats, have been very kind and seem to be a sincerely happy bunch. Everywhere you look dive masters, taxi drivers, shop owners all have smiles on their faces. But how could they not? They have a beautiful backdrop to a very casual, simple way of life.

View from the dive shop.

We got 3 new bunk mates today. They’re all brothers originally from Honduras but 2 have relocated to the States. They seem like nice people which is good since we’ll be sharing a living space with them for the next week.

Tonight we tried something different for dinner: pizza. There’s a sign for a place called Brick Oven Pizza about mid-way down the main road/”strip”. You walk through this little dirt alley up a hill where another sign says “400 meters” to the place but in 400 meters, there’s just another sign. Then another…and another. Finally, after a 10-15 minute trek through a swampy, muddy uphill/downhill hike in our totally unprepared flip flops, we get to this little patio with several tables and a little counter inside a barbed wire fence. We order at the counter (pepperoni in case you’re wondering) and grab a seat at one of the tables while we watch them prepare our pizza and stick it in an actual brick oven.

They bring it out piping hot, ready to cut it for you on the table. We wanted to take it with us since the bugs were so bad due to the swamp-like conditions and it was within minutes of getting dark. We tried to explain in broken spanglish that we wanted a to-go box for the pizza. It didn’t work so well and apparently our attempt at charades was rather poor. We did finally end up with a box and went to the counter to pay. Right now there is a bit of a cash shortage on Roatan and only one ATM (out of five) on our side of the island is working. Unfortunately this ATM only spits out 500lp bills so that plus a few smaller bills was all we had. Well it appears the owners were a little short on customers and had no change! So we scrounged around in our bags and strung together enough USD and Lempiras to pay the tab after showing the waiter on the calculator how the exchange rate worked. Whew! Finally after all that mess, we made the trek back through the swamp, horse pasture, washed out dirt road, side alley, and finally took our pizza to our favorite dock (which is really used for water taxi pickups) and tucked into our pizza. Which would have been pretty good had the pizza not had an (totally serious) inch thick layer of cheese on it and only three pepperoni. We were absolutely starving by this time so we ate every bite anyway and did not feel so well later.

Pizza......sort of

Started early in the morning with some more classroom work learning about nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness—fun way to start the day.

After a few hours in class, we broke for a quick lunch at “the shack.” We’re really starting to love that place. Great food, great service, great view. Today we each had a whole red snapper with rice, salad, and fried plantains all for 130 Lps/person (or, $6.84 US). 

Red Snapper

 Lin decided to stick with snorkeling for now and Saben got to go on his first dive! Saben’s dive was awesome! Got to see tons of fish and coral which was thick and covered every bit of the reef except for a small sandy patch about the size of a truck. That was where he practiced some of his scuba skills such as fully removing the mask and putting it back on while still underwater and doing an emergency ascent with no oxygen from 40 ft. Overall a great day on the reef. Saw several trumpet fish, a huge rainbow parrot fish, several lobster, a big school of blue tangs, a peacock flounder, a really cool flamingo tongue sea slug and tons of other fish.

We went for baleadas for dinner at our favorite baleada stand. Baleadas are flour tortillas with refried beans, meat (usually chicken or beef), and depending on who makes them, they might also have sour cream and/or onions and diced tomatoes. They’re delicious and super cheap. Three baleadas make a great dinner and run about 25 Lps each (or, $1.30US each).

Pollo and Carne Baleadas

Today the PADI scuba course began! We got up early to start the scuba training. Lots of book work this morning before we got out into the water in the afternoon. The book work is really easy but there are lots of terms to remember. We watched a few videos to go along with the book as well. It was a pretty tiring day but lots of fun.

The west end of Roatan is mostly a long single unpaved road with shop after shop running along both sides. There are fruit & vegetable vendors selling from the bed of their pickup trucks, plenty of little snack shacks, some overpriced restaurants that cater to tourists, and dive shops scattered in the mix. The road is made of sand and a little gravel so whether it’s rainy or sunny, your feet get covered in sand and grim. Since it’s just sand, the road is really just a series of various sizes of pot holes that are either filled with water or squishiness from the passing rain. Right now it’s the rainy season so we get a lot of rain here but it usually only last maybe a half hour and then is sunny the rest of the day.

Meandering up and down “the strip” we pass locals, plenty of American tourists on Christmas vacation,  and lots of slobbery dogs who don’t even notice you. Since Roatan is a major tourist draw for Honduras, we see lots of American tourists who are very rude and give the rest of us a bad name. When people vacation to other places, especially in other cultures, it is important to adapt to your new surroundings and accept the differences instead of expecting the people and places to function in the way you want or expect them to.

We had lunch at (our now favorite place to eat) “The Shack.” We call it the shack because that is exactly what it is. No Sign, No Menu, No English. Just great food at a great price. Today we had fried chicken with salad, fried rice, and fried plantains. It all comes out on a plate that looks like it belongs in a 5-star restaurant. All for only 100 lp ($5.30USD)! The shack is up an old set of stairs and sits above all the shops below so we get a great view of Half Moon Bay as we eat our lunch.

yummy!

After lunch it was back to the shop to suit up for our afternoon dive lesson. We only went out to about 6 feet and practiced our skills. Mask removal under water, removing and replacing our regulators under water and breathing off of our buddy’s regulator in an emergency.

We got back to the shop. Cleaned up our gear and sat back on the deck with a few beers. Great end to a fun day…

hanging out on the beach