Bottle Beach

We occupied the remainder of our time in Koh Tao by doing one of the following things: eating, sleeping, lying on the beach, enjoying Singhas and/or diving. The diving, although visibility could have been a bit better, was still really good. I saw my first wreck and the whole time I was swimming around it, I kept thinking of the Titanic. We did a deep dive, around 90’ or so. Saw some cool fish: trigger, a massive sweetlips (I love that fish’s name!), giant grouper, etc. Also, saw a cool white/hot pink jellyfish and a moray eel. At one dive site, there were a lot of swim throughs – kind of like caves – which was awesome! All in all, a great time was had in Koh Tao.

On Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to our new diving friends and took a 45 minute ferry to Koh Phangan. We met an Austrian couple, Laurenz and Lena, on the way from Bangkok to Koh Tao and kept in touch throughout our week diving. They made their way prior to us to Bottle Beach on the north side of Koh Phangan, so we decided to meet up with them. You can only access the Bottle Beach bay by boat (that’s a lot of b’s!!). If there is a more amazing beach on the planet, I’d love to know about it because Bottle Beach is truly paradise. There are three restaurants and three ‘living quarters’ on the bay. The living quarters go like this: on the far left, the budget-conscious (aka poor) bungalows. In the middle, the average bungalows. On the far right, the fancy (aka pricey) bungalows. One shop. No roads. Hardly any people - nothing but white sand, teal water surrounded by mountains and palm trees. Paradise.

Obviously fitted for the slums, we suffered through a very basic bungalow right on the beach for 250 Baht a night, roughly $8 USD. We had a balcony, so we immediately purchased and hung a Gator blue hammock. The food at the restaurant on the slum side of the beach was incredible…by far the best green curry I’ve ever had, as an example. They had a very chill bar with lots of fun experimental drinks like an Oreo & Jim Beam shake and other magical treats. Each night, they had a bon fire and live music along with fire twirlers. It was amazing. We didn’t raise our heart rate above resting other than to swim, play volleyball, snorkel or jungle trek (Gerad did that without me…the hammock was calling my name that particular morning!). If you happen to be in the market for a honeymoon spot…Bottle Beach is number one on my list! We met a cool Israeli couple on their honeymoon and spent the majority of our time hanging out with them, Laurenz and Lena. By far the best beach I’ve ever been to!

On Friday, we pulled ourselves away from paradise and took another ferry bound for Koh Samui. I’d always heard that Koh Samui was really paradise…but in my humble opinion, it is a little overdeveloped and too touristy, not too mention more expensive. We enjoyed our day by the beautiful beach and ate our weight in food for dinner – for $32 USD total, we had beer, an entire sea bass (Gerad ate the eye ball!!), calamari, massive tiger prawns, crab, soup, salad and rice…a fantastic end to a great time in the islands of Thailand! Up early on Saturday, we flew from Koh Samui (which, incidentally, is the most impressive, tropical, open air airport I’ve ever seen!) to Chiang Mai to begin our jungle adventure!

Sibling update: Gerad and I are getting along fantastically….laughing and making fun of each other a lot. It seems there is a battle of wills going on to see who can be the laziest of the two of us. For example, we argue over whose turn it is to go up to the bar to buy the next round or who’s turn it is to walk the 200’ to the shop to buy toilet paper. In the end, we sided with just borrowing some napkins from the restaurant to save us from all that silly walking. Gerad’s turn!!

I am officially an Advanced Open Water Diver. I am not even too sure what that really means, but it sounds pretty cool. To get the advanced certification I needed to complete five more dives in a day and a half. I got to do a deep, navigation, wreck, fish identification, and multi level dive. We were supposed to do a night dive, but were never able to because of bad weather. Another important note is that I had no more major melt downs under water after my first little episode. The advanced course was much easier, as we actually got to dive and did not have to do any under water safety exercises. I will definitely be diving when I get back home; it is quite an amazing experience. I hear Boynton Beach has great diving and the Keys. Mom we need to get down there again and dive this X-mas. After completing all the diving and having a little party with our new friends, we left Koh Tao and headed to Koh Phangan to meet up with a couple we met earlier in the week.

The couple was staying at Bottle Beach, which is a beautiful place. If heaven exists and it’s anything less than Bottle Beach, you will not find me there. Bottle Beach is by far the most amazing place I have seen or been to yet. It is the epitome of the term “No Worries.” We stayed about 50 feet from the beach for about $8 a night. The beach is surrounded by mountains and a ten minute walk from the beach puts you in the middle of the jungle. The Thai people at Bottle Beach are so friendly, nice, and laid back they definitely put things in perspective for me. They do not have medical coverage, car insurance, a dental plan, 401ks, any type of investment portfolio, fancy degrees, a four bedroom house, a luxury car, designer clothing, or any of the other material possessions that are often confused for necessity items in the Western World (America). They have none of these things and yet are happier and more relaxed than any other people I have ever met. All they have is beautiful surroundings, delicious food, amazing families, and great friends. I am not saying that everyone has these items as the most important things in their lives. I guess I just forgot about what is really important to me and spending a few days at that beach brought it all up to the surface. It was a great time and a wonderful life experience.

We just got to Chiang Mai and are going to get into the jungle and see some animals. Talk to you later and I will try to be funnier on the next blog.