Koh Tao
Koh Tao is a quaint little drinking town with a diving problem. I came here with the intension of diving and getting certified so I could dive in other countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Sulawesi, Borneo and beyond. Due to a lung infection all the above dive tour is put on hold and I’m heading toward Burma/Myanmar instead. I have been to Koh Tao in the past and it was a quiet place with beautiful water and colorful coral just off shore. The beauty of Koh Tao remains and the characters that work and live here are of a special breed difficult to compare. I found a bar with more amazing people with great stories at the Banyan Bar. Sunday Bar-B-Qs and revolving food specials keep the crowd and the drinks lubricate the British banter.
Koh Tao in the last two years has seen an accelerated rate of development to the point that signs used to say, ‘Koh Tao, the best kept secret’, and now the signs read, ‘Save Koh Tao’. Some small examples that lead the change are; there are approximately 2,000 registered residence on Koh Tao while in actuality there are 10,000 people living on Koh Tao not including 10,000 -15,000 tourists passing through at high season and surging youth around full moon parties. Of the residence legal and illegal it’s a delicate balance of foreign dive masters who are paid the most and do visa runs or own 49% of a business and hold permits, the Thai residence are second on the pay scale and the largest number would be the illegal/semi-legal/legal Burmese living here gardening, cooking, hotel cleaning, wait staff, etc. Business owners usually pay a monthly fee to keep the immigration police away. Of course when they do come everybody illegal scatters to the winds and the four corners of the island leaving only the permitted few to mind the shops. Another reason the Immigration police rarely come to this island is because the entire economy of the island would collapse if they took away all the foreign dive masters. The Burmese are paid little and work long hours. For them it’s acceptable because they have no way of making money like this back in Burma.
My first time to Koh Tao was 1996 and there were dive shops and divers, bungalows, a few restaurants and snorkeling tours. Those that had a foothold back then foresaw the future and bought tracks of land where there wasn’t any development yet, but the is now. The pier led tourists to a walking trail where you’d walk your backpack down the way and pick a bungalow and dive team at the same time and that was it. There were very few cars and most goods were delivered to the island by big boats, transferred to longtail boats and dropped off at their bungalow/restaurant destinations individually. Today there are roads, taxis, trucks, two towns, stacks of tourists and piles of garbage everywhere because the tourists don’t take care for the island as they should. They seem to loose all levels of global responsibility when they arrive and start drinking and partying. By morning, every morning, the beaches are littered with beer bottles and plastic. Some local dive shops such as Rocktopus divers have taken it upon themselves to do a beach walk cleanup and invite all to join in because the tourists can’t be responsible for their own rubbish. Save Koh Tao? Even though a lot of the coral is returning, it’s too late. The island is environmentally stressed out and always in a perpetual water shortage the locals call a drought but it’s more related to tourist water use on the island. More swimming pools and large-scale resorts are still being built and taking reservations for the up coming years.
Koh Tao is a beautiful island with great snorkeling bays, picturesque viewpoints, and memorable sunsets. I stayed at Asia Divers Resort where their dive team has a swimming pool available for the beginning classes and getting divers comfortable with the underwater equipment keeping them alive.
The beach off of Sairee town is lined with restaurants and resorts and there are many more in town with variable themes. Tourists can find Mexican food, Italian, British, Thai, etc. Sunset is a good time to go to Maya Bar. Maya Bar is sponsoring a two-day electronic music festival with guest Dj’s, a VIP yacht tour and more music in a second location in a jungle campground. I’ll be attending the festival and will fill you in soon.
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