Koh Tao

Koh Tao

I spent 11 days on Koh Tao diving with Asia Divers getting my dive numbers up. After diving in the Philippines I’m more interested in the other two thirds of the planet than ever before. So this time last year I began diving and am half way through the rescue course but I really don’t care to be an instructor but to be comfortable under water. It’s coming along.

The reason I dive with Asia divers is two fold, they are competent instructors and guides but the diving is also as cheap as it gets cheaper as you go. If you do your Open Water/Advanced Open Water, or just dive a bunch the price is dropped to 700 baht = $22.00 per dive. Good luck finding a cheaper place to dive. Each time you go out you dive twice so either 730 am or 1230 afternoon costs $45.00. Comment and tell me a cheaper place to see Seahorses, Spotted rays, Eels, and stacks of fish including the aggressive Trigger Fish loaded with colors and a set of chompers that’ll draw blood if you enter their lovely cone of territory. The guides know and will keep you to the edge. There are the occasional whale sharks that eat plankton and don’t want you. They are slow and massive. While I was there two were sighted on different occasions but not by me or anybody I dove with.

I easily fell into a routine of diving in the mornings and having the afternoons available for down time reading or writing by the pool or wandering around the beaches or over the hills to other beaches. Take water. All good and I’ll return again. The coastal bars and music are worth stopping in and watching a sunset or chilling with friends. I am one of those people that can talk to anyone without a moment’s hesitation and figure out quick enough whether I’m going to enjoy their company or wasting my time. I have a tendency to move along because there’s always something to do and I want to do it.

I met some awesome new people of all ages, sizes, and countries and shared stories with many of the past and towards the future of what they’re up to or what I’m up to. Evenings, if possible, were spent at Maya’s restaurant at sunset with great music and a new sushi style menu of fresh fish with great chefs from around the world. You couldn’t ask for more while waiting to go to Nepal.

I head to Bangkok for a few days of visas and so forth and I’ve loaded up on reading material for research for the film project coming up in a couple/3 months in Paris so now I feel I can really enjoy Nepal for what it is, above sea level.

Just FYI on your flights and connections from Bangkok to Koh Tao, if your flight is going to be late like mine was there is a great little place to stay right around the corner from Lamphraya Pier which will take you to Koh Tao the following morning. It’s about a half hour by van from the airport and dumps you off at the dock. Around the corner is Phalarn Inn Resort, www.pharlarninn.com, tel. +66 77 247111, email - Pharlan_inn@hotmail.com. The manager's name is sugar. Go through a back gate and the people, food, and pool are lovely. There’s a wooden sign pointing in a obscure direction but if you are flexible you will understand and see the waist high gate. It’s a quaint little hide away bungalow place with rooms ranging from 400 baht to 45,000 baht/month with two bedrooms and a kitchenette, your call. Right now it’s 32 baht to the US $ + $12.50/night (double beds, bathroom, and high powered fan, no need for air-con when the trade winds blow and it’s better for your health. At the same dock you can catch snorkeling day tips around Samui or all the way to Koh Tao to Nuanyuan Island just off Koh Tao. Have fun and see you in Bangkok.

www.davidcdagley.com
www.davidcdagley.blogspot.com

Women Of Cho (1st draft)

Women Of Cho (1^st draft)

My time in Vientiane, Lao is over. The purpose of going to Lao was to see a friend and his family and also to see if I could finish a first draft of the Women Of Cho. Seeing old friends is always a joy and even more importantly they allowed me to stay and write. I owe gratitude for the time and space.

I’m calling it a first draft but we will see if the editor ‘abides’. There’s still a lot of work to be done. Before I left I took my friends and their son to a restaurant in Vientiane called the Bistro 22 known for its food and French chef. We had to leave a little before schedule due to the child having a chocolate attack. You can imagine the smile on the face on a 10 month old child watching chocolate pour out of a brownie cake and ice cream melting just as fast.

I boarded a plane for Bangkok, Thailand and headed back to familiar ground, Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Since I’ve been here I’ve been diving every day and enjoy seeing many friendly faces that I’ve met in the past. I’ve been here for only a few days but I feel this is also a place I can write as well as enjoy myself with a walk down the beach at sunset or sunrise and still manage to get things done.

I already miss walking down the banks of the Mekong watching the fishermen or boats transporting goods and people up and down the river and of course the sunsets are breath taking.

Another manuscript is taking a loose form in my head. I can see it mystically swimming through a curtain of fog with shapes and shadows coming and going moving like an eel across the rocky ocean floor hunting with a grouper close by. I’m back at Asia Divers Resort allowing the dust to settle around ‘The Women Of Cho’ before a major edit begins.

Another bit of business to attend to while I’m here is Nepal. I leave for Nepal in the near future for two months and luckily for me I have made friends in the past with some trekking guides and hospital volunteers and their previous experience has proven invaluable. They have a tendency to grab a piece of paper and start jotting down places they loved and tell the story as they go. One guide I met at the Strand in Rangoon. This is how my travel guide comes to fruition, people I respect giving information about where they would go if they were going to do it all over again.

It was St. Patrick’s Day here yesterday and I went to a beach party where I knew a friend would be DJ for some serious funk and I could hear it from down the beach. There were lots of green bathing suits, sparkled body painting, food and music. It was a lovely day and the sunset over the Gulf of Siam was filled with smiles and good cheer.

www.davidcdagley.com

Looking Into The Furture

This journey I'm on has a purpose besides seeing places I've never been. I am close to finishing a book and heading to Europe to produce a film loosely tied to 'The Sun Also Rises' By Ernest Hemingway. It's probably clearer if you just open the site below and take a look around. Hopefully we'll keep your interest with film and blogs. Stay tuned.



http://rumfarmproductions.com/Papa_Santiago.html


www.davidcdagley.com