Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Swimming with the Sharks

Koh Tao has been described to me by everyone as being paradise. I agree, but think it meets that description in two ways. It is beautiful. It is also 'unspoiled', which is to say a bit rugged. I spent several hours last night listening to a small wild animal (probably a distant relative to my long-ago philly roommates) run around our room. And when you book a 3-bedroom air conditioned house, one of the bedrooms may be in a separate shack sans air conditioning and requiring the use of a mosquito net to sleep.

But this island has the best snorkelling, and I must say it lived up to expectations. At first, we didn't think we were going to survive the day. The water was a bit rough, and then smoke started pouring out of the engine on our suspect looking boat. We then were tied to another suspecte looking boat, and rather than being hauled back to dock (this was ten minutes in), pulled further our to sea. Riding in the wake of another boat in already rough sea is not fun. When the rope broke, also not fun. When they brought out a new rope, that was just a sign of the apocalypse. but miraculously, they got the engine running again and the snorkelling was amazing.

The best part for me is that I love snorkelling but am terrified of sharks. I know this is irrational, but it's there. But today when people saw a shark, i not only stayed in the water, I swam around looking for it for a while. I never saw it, but I consider that real progress.

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