Following a memorable overnight journey through a thunderstorm on a rusty freighter, we wake-up in inexplicably awesome Koh Tao, and head straight to the heart of the action: Sairee Village.
Most travelers headed to Koh Tao, no matter how flexible or open-ended their itineraries, seem to get here the same way: by “fast boat.”
And why shouldn’t they? 1.5-2 hours on a comfortable passenger ferry or “fast-cat” motorized catamaran and you’re in paradise.
Better yet, get a joint ticket from your Khaosan Road hostel to your Koh Tao bungalow and you don’t even have to mess with the pesky logistics.
Problem with all that is, it really doesn’t feel much like traveling…at least not to us, anyway.
All that to say, when we learned that there was an overnight “slow boat” option on a freighter from mainland Thailand to Koh Tao, we jumped at the chance — and were greatly rewarded by the experience.
Just after sunrise the following morning, we emerged from our modest floating digs to find this:
And, yep, we did indeed hoof the 2.6km (1.5 miles) from Mae Haad pier to Big Blue dive resort in Sairee Village with our heavy packs, because, a songteau would have cost the equivalent of a couple of beers, and we weren’t prepared to dip into our budget for that.
Plus, it was just a gorgeous morning on an even more gorgeous island.
From the beach side of things, Big Blue isn’t much to look at.
We chose the place on a recommendation from Lori’s brother who had visited three years prior and done his dive certification there.
I was already certified and Lori wanted to get certified as well so we could go diving together.
We had talked about getting her Open Water certification while we were living in DC, but the open water portion in the DC area basically amounts to ticking off the basics in a murky rock quarry.
By then, we already knew we were headed to Asia for an extended honeymoon, so why not wait until we get to Thailand?
And we were so glad we did. Rock quarry or this. Hmm…
In addition to being one of the top dive schools on the island (and in Thailand as well), Big Blue offered free accommodation with an Open Water SCUBA certification course, which essentially sealed the deal.
When we arrived, we weren’t all that excited about the free lodging options (a handful of bungalows nearly on top of one another adjacent to their popular beach bar). Fortunately, we were able to upgrade for just a few dollars more per night to this:
We stayed in the newly-constructed hotel block at the rear of the property, which featured tile flooring and a very and private balcony.
Most accommodation in Sairee Village contrasts greatly with the seasonal worker housing behind most of the larger resorts.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the island was like back when it might have been nearly impossible to tell worker housing from lodging options — likely only a decade or two prior.
There’s a main road behind all of the resorts that connect everything, and if you want to get somewhere fast, the main road is your best option.
Most other times, we opted for the slow route — along the beach. It’s pretty hard to resist sand, sea and swaying palm trees.
Sairee Beach is breathtakingly picturesque, no doubt, but not the most swimmable beach, at least not while we were there in late September.
The slope of the beach is quite shallow, so there’s a significant differential between high tide and low tide.
At low tide, the visibility was very good, but we had to walk a bit to the water, and even then it wasn’t deep enough to jump in. At high tide, it was more conducive to swimming, in this respect, but the water was opaque and full of detritus from the local fishing industry and trash from the village, all brought in by the tide.
On top of this, there were a number of longtail boats constantly coming and going — again, fun to watch, but not so fun to wrestle with in the water.
It was challenging to strike a balance between all these factors, but I found that early morning offered the best chance of a satisfying dip.
What a day on the beach does to some people…
While others…
For a community of its size, Sairee Village has more than its fair share of delicious Thai food, and we were quite pleased to indulge in the local offerings.
After more than three months of backpacking, we were also happy to feed our inner farang at places like New Heaven Cafe, which had some amazing sandwiches, teas and coffees.
Lori’s scuba course took the better part of three days to complete, which gave me a perfect excuse to bum around our little slice of tropical paradise. It didn’t take long before the wheels were turning and I was actively seeking options for moving to Koh Tao.
And why not? We didn’t have any obligations anywhere else and Koh Tao is about as close as paradise as you can get on a budget with all the amenities.
I scoured local classifieds and online forums. Turns out protectionist labor laws in Thailand make it harder than I had imagined for foreigners like us to find work. What work there is to be had (SCUBA instructor, English teacher, volunteer with stipend) pays just well enough to live at the local level but leaves nothing left over, which would be fine with us if it weren’t for our pesky student loan payments (yep, we’re American professionals without trust funds, so that’s a thing…a major thing), we probably would have redoubled our efforts to make this happen, at least for a while.
But we do both enjoy our respective professions, and would miss them at some point, right?
Uhh…right?
Maybe we’ll revisit this idea in another decade or so, if we don’t get too tied down in the meantime. As for now, my swim trunks are nearly dry, so I think I should address that.
On the final day of Lori’s course, I finally got to suit up and go out on a dive with her and her group. It had been killing me knowing that she was out diving and I wasn’t, but anymore diving than what we had planned would have killed our budget. So, I resigned myself to the sidelines until Lori was cleared for open water. In the end it was worth the wait and now she’s fully certified.
I had planned on doing a second dive with Lori but a storm rolled in killing the visibility. The Gulf is headed into monsoon season, after all. We decided to set the money aside for doing a dive on the Andaman side in a week, hoping that conditions will be better then since they are coming out of their rainy season.
Tomorrow, we’ll head down to Chalok Baan Kao on the southern tip of the island for a change of scenery. We’re sad to say good-bye to Sairee, but new adventures await.
