Krille Krokodil

Koh Samui countdown

krillek — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:23:40 +0000

Back @Koh Samui again.
Helen is feeling a little better after having a rough encounter with some not so good food/drink and she is now on medication to fight the bacteria.

Today we have seen the “Big Buddha” statue and temple on the north east peak of the island. Now relaxing on a smaller beach north of Chaweng.

Koh Tao dinner time

krillek — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:00:04 +0000

There is a lot to choose from when it comes to food, traditional Thai food, many “Italians” and other western food. Not much Chinese though. But BBQ seems to be very common. We tried most of it and here are a few pics on what it might look like “before and after”.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

During:

Koh Tao sunset

krillek — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:19:15 +0000

Another warm day coming to an end, the air is cooling down, not much but enough to make it feel more comfortable. The sun is slowly descending and we get to enjoy yet another fantastic sunset while listening to the gentle waves as they hit the beach. This is besides the beautiful nature, easy going attitude, nice dives, the beaches etc. what I always appreciated the most from my visits to Koh Tao, such peace and beauty!!

Now it is time for a swim in the ocean before dinner

Hell?

krillek — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:07:12 +0000

The monsoon should have ended in December but is still showing it’s ugly face once in a while. Not to often and when it does it can be rather refreshing if you are not stuck in the middle of nowhere.
When it rains it pours…see the videos and you will understand.

Until I sort out how to post videos from the iPhone wordpress application please use this link to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/krillek

Quick look at these pictures should give you some idea.

Paradise?

krillek — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:36:03 +0000

A picture tells more than a thousand words… Maybe not paradise, but close enough…

Dive Koh Tao

krillek — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:33:39 +0000

Today it was time for some diving again while Helen was working from a restaurant with wi-fi. I went out with a dive firm called Sairee Cottage, as you can guess the resort gives name to the diving firms, or the other way around in some cases.
Early meet up at 6:45 (on vacation!) to gear up and head out to the dive sites before the other boats are there. Nice setup, me with my own DM and two Canadians finishing their AOW with their instructor. No other divers to be seen above or below the surface
Sea was calm and no currents what so ever, this is indeed lazy vacation diving at it’s best. Sure I have been to more exiting dive spots than these but for a couple of quick dives before lunch, to later spend the afternoon on the beach, this is not bad at all.
Second dive was a bit more interesting than the first. Not only did I see some rare nudies, blue spotted stingray, moray eal, a scary friendly butterfly fish and plenty of barracudas, my DM was also attacked by a huge trigger fish. No warning (they can be very territorial) before he attacked. Chris my DM tried to fight him of with his fins but he kept coming around and tried to get to his face over and over. After a while we had managed to swim far enough from his “back yard” and he finally let us go…
We saw a few more during the remainder of the dive and felt a bit uneasy but the other was not bothered at all by us. So indeed an interesting dive and I am glad it was not me being attacked

Again, only crappy iPhone photos until I get a new proper camera to take with me when diving…why bother…

Koh Tao by night

krillek — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:02:15 +0000

Plenty of restaurants along Sairee beach, most with relaxing atmosphere and pillow-mattresses to sit on rather then chairs. Thai food is always good, western food has a very mixes quality, high price does not mean good food and the other way around. Many placed have a fire show with very skilled guys performing with sticks or ropes…see the videos and you will understand.

Until I sort out how to post videos from the iPhone wordpress application please use this link to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/krillek

Koh Tao

krillek — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:57:22 +0000

Koh Tao has a very relaxed atmosphere and you quickly feel any built up stress disappear. But the island was also very crowded this time. Seems that everyone earlier enjoying the full moon party at Koh Phangan was now here relaxing or taking their diving certificates. Most of them will only dive here, a few moves on to become real divers…who am I to judge

Diving the 3 pinnacles

krillek — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:39:39 +0000

Walked past a dive school/shop one night and meat Hans, a Dutch guy with to many years abroad and to many bad habits (seems to be easy to buy drugs on this island). The dive company planned to go to Sail Rock the day after and it seemed convenient to go with them since they where almost next door to us. But this guy did not make me feel confident about the company. After talking a bit I found out he was not joining on the boat at all and yap yap yap… I told him I would consider it over dinner.

Returning from dinner Hans was still there, now with a colleague. I had been hoping they would be closed since I had decided to not go and did not feel like explaining myself. But there we were and we quickly discovered the sweet smell from Hans hand-rolled cigarette, way to represent the company…

We quickly learnt that they changed the planned trip and were now going to the 3 pinnacles, south west, Chumphon and Sail Rock, all in one day with a large but fast speed boat. Despite my better judgement I singed up for the trip. They promised to arrange equipment that I wanted like booties and finns without heal. How desperate was I to go diving??

A bit worried afterwords I told myself that the worst that could happen was to lose my deposit if they in the morning still did not feel 100%.
To my surprise they did and the day went just fine. Sure I would not give them a high score but it was ok. And the dive sites was excellent even for someone as spoiled as me…
Only at Chumphun the visibility was a little bad on the way down but it cleared up to be ok’ish.
Lots of big fish to my surprise and some nudies, but I was my own guide to the marine life (still got it). At Sail Rock there was a huge amount of Barracudas and this made the site together with the total experience one of the best sites in Thailand.
Finally on the way home I concluded that knowing beforehand I should have gone diving from Koh Phangan, but not being so eager to go with these guys (bad move on my side). Do trust your gut feeling and rather miss a day of diving than taking risks…

And no pictures for this post, iPhone does not come with underwater casing

Koh Phangan

krillek — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:02:49 +0000

Stopping at Koh Phangan did not start of well. Felt like we chosen the wrong beach and the first night we had a crap bungalow. Let me illustrate this with a picture from the beach…seems elephants like the beach to.

But the second day it all changed for the better. We found a nice little place called Coco resort and we really enjoyed 2 more days here.

Really nice beach bar and restaurant.

Nothing to do but relax and look at the clouds…