Koh Tao: Paradise and Pyromania.

There is only one word to describe my twelve night stay in the paradise that is Koh Tao, and that word is fire.

Possible the best photo ever.

Our stay in Koh Tao can only be defined by the beautiful food and the fire show at Lotus Bar on Sairee Beach. And of course by the friends we made.
We got the boat from Koh Phangan, the fast one, on the Monday after Full Moon so that the Hangovers would be well and truly gone. At the port in Koh Phangan we bumped into three Irish boys, Damien (Damo), Diarmuid (Diarmo) and Khalid (Kylo), who we had met sporadically on Koh Phangan, and we saw them every night (and some days) until they left a week later. Though the boys were infinitely intrigued by our love of the fire, they willingly stuck by us through the buckets, the late night pancakes and the pork flavoured noodles. We were delighted to have met them again, not only becuase they kept us seats every night but because we got on like poi on fire.

Myo, playing with fire

It wasn't just the fire show that kept us going back to Lotus bar every night; we were enthralled by the lives of the burmese boys who threw it too. Nearly everyday we discovered more about their fascinating lives, lives that were so far removed from anything we knew ourselves. One, my personal favourite, had only been to school for two years, from the age of five to seven, and then worked with his family making some sort of fabric. He arrived in Koh Tao in 2006, with no English or Thai but with an English-Burmese dictionary. Though his English wasn't perfect, even in the two weeks we were there he always asked questions about words and was definitely extrememly interested in the language. On our last night, he told me that he wanted to perfect his English and move to Europe; his girlfriend was Swiss and Europe was his ultimate goal. He was twenty-one. I didn't really get to know the others as well, but each of them had their own unbelievably difficult stories; full of both sadness and quests for freedom at the same time. We became very good friends with one of their girlfriends, Libby. She was from London and was sweet and fun and we loved hanging out with her. She told us so many more stories about our new burmese friends that they didn't tell us that we felt like, I suppose, we knew them better than we actually did. That said, I still think we got a fair idea of how they lived and who they were and it was a fortnight that really, in the end, made me appreciate where I was born and the oppurtunities that have been awarded to me as a result.

It's not the first time this feeling has come over me, the feeling of absolute gratuity for my place of birth. It happened a few times on Koh Phangan as well, especially when we saw little children roaming the streets when we were walking from dinner to the beach or even from the beach home at the ungodly hours we did; another time was when myself and Rachael were on one of our walks and talks around Haad Rin and we saw how the locals lived in their little huts. Well, my face was green after the complaining we did about the proximity of the shower to the toilet in our bungalow, I'll tell you that.

Instead of spending my whole Koh Tao post talking about how bad I feel for the things I have, I will be utterly selfish and also tell you all a little about the FOOD we ate on Koh Tao. And beautiful food it was. We ate in Sairee Cottage Restaurant on our first night, where I sampled my first (and last) Penang Curry. It was too spicy and sufficed to say I was unable to attend the fire show that night! On our third night, Claire's last night, we ate in The White Elephant, which was definitely one of our favourite restaurants. Our other favourites were our expensive Italian Portobello and the delicious Fizz which we returned to twice, but only discovered during our second week, even though we walked by it every day. The day of Claire's departure, we decided to eat close enough to the fire show so that we would get there early. We settled on Blue Wind where we'd had cocktails that afternoon. The food was beautiful, Massaman Curries all round, but it took almost an hour for us to get our meals so our ploy to be early for Fire show was kaput.

On the plus side, that night we met Barney, the barrister from London. He did what I hope if I ever need to do I will be able; he appraoched our group as we ate. He was over in Koh Tao after spending a few days in Koh Samui with his mum. He was learning to dive. He joined us, even after our rudeness of leaving him mid-meal to leg it to the fire show, each night of the three nights of his stay. We had fun with Barney and were delighted he approached us that night. We even got to meet his mum, and even she stayed an extra night on Koh Tao.

Which I suppose brings me to the explanation of why we stayed so long when initially our time on Koh Tao was supposed to fit in Chiang Mai as well. You see, Koh Tao is an island people go to for a week and stay three years. Take Libby for instance. She was on her gap year, travelling the world. Thailand was one of her first stops. And she stayed on Koh Tao a whole year. People stay for numerous reasons. We even bumped into a girl we went to school with, Sarah, who was doing her Diving Instuctor training on the island. I got the impression she'll stay a while too. At first we stayed two extra nights because the Irish guys were, and well, we just didn't want to leave. So we booked our boat/bus with Kylo who was heading back to Bangkok to meet 'Charlie and the girls' (Charlie is in fact a boy) for the Sunday afternoon. We had some time after check out, breakfast and before our boat left so we decided to go to Lotus Bar for one last good-bye. We didn't think anyone would actually be there, but we just wanted to see the bar before we left anyway.

When we arrived down, only Cyrus, the fourteen year old swiss Fire Man was there. He duly, though we hadn't asked him to, woke all the boys and they came out one by one to 'say good-bye'. As we sat there, on the little cushions, on the deck, talking, a rush of 'I don't want to leave' energy passed through us. It had always been between myself and Rachael I suppose, an unsaid thing that was understood, but Alice had been on the Chiang Mai train ever since we'd arrived in Thailand. I can't remember who said it first, but suddenly we were tossing a coin, and deciding our future in Thailand. Kylo, who had been with us the whole time, was watching our ridiculousness in amazement. It was ten to two. The bus to the boat left at two. Kylo had to get the bus to the boat. We, after three tosses, were destined to stay in Koh Tao.*

So we had ten minutes to find out if we could get our money back for our boat tickets. We walked more quickly than we had ever done down the street to The Silver Sands, and amazingly we struck a deal. So we waved our son, Kylo, off as he, or so it felt, set off to war, and we jumped up and down in excitement.

There was a worry, however, in the back of our minds that the process of getting our Visas for our planned trip to Vietnam a week later would be a week long ordeal. It turned out, we could do it easily online, but more about that later. So we stayed in Koh Tao an extra six nights. And they were as good as the first.
We have no regrets about staying because we know we are going to try to go back to Thailand at some point so we haven't missed out on anything really. 

We didn't just go to the fire show either. We occasionally did stuff during the day. On the Friday before the Irish boys left, we went snorkelling around Koh Tao. We had a beautiful day, but it was not with out mishap. In the first bay we were snorkelling, we were just making our way back to the boat when Diarmo and Damo started shouting at Rachael; A trigger fish was making his way to her and looking like he wanted a nibble. Rachael looked down just in time to see the massive fish take a bite out of foot! Luckily, the only thing she lost was a flipper and we didn't even have to pay for! The oddest part of the day, was when we were just off Nang Yuan island. We were in the middle of the beautiful ocean, looking at tropical fish and lovely colourful coral. It was the day of Election '11 and we began talking politics. I'd say it's the strangest place the future of the Irish language in relation to an Irish Election has ever been discussed!
Myself and the girls went to Nang Yuan one day ourselves, when the boys had left. We spent a gorgeous afternoon, on the private island. It was absolutely magical and we agreed that if it didn't cost a fiver (200thb) to get to, we'd be there everyday!

Nang Yuan as seen from Koh Tao

I don't feel like I've done Koh Tao justice in this post; it was the most relaxing and at the same time fun twelve days of my travels so far. So much happened that I can't remember, because when you keep a diary and take photos, they become all you remember. I do remember the happy feeling though. And I doubt I'll ever forget it.

The Alii - A girlband styled by Alice :)

*We actually tossed the coin a fourth time after we got Koh Tao on the third toss. It was Chiang Mai. But because our decision had been made, we were oblivious to the Universe and its 'signs'. We were staing in Koh Tao.

Thanks to Alice and Rachael for the photos, yours were better than mine!