Go now, Koh Tao

Location:
Thailand

island, yoga, beach

By Erika Szostak

Koh Tao, island lazing in the Gulf of Thailand, was untouched by the developers' trucks until the beginning of the last decade. Parts of the island are still inaccessible by any way but boat. With only about 750 permanent residents, Koh Tao is small both in terms of geography and population, and it's difficult and sometimes uncomfortable to get to--the ferry ride is long, noxious and choppy and if you've taken the bus from Bangkok, that's only after you've spent a couple of hours napping on the concrete floor of the Chumporn depot at 4:00am--but it's also the kind of place that once you're there, you never want to leave. The Koh Tao you can get to is yoga pillows on teak decks, boundarylessness, green papaya salad, open air salas, cushions on sun-warmed sand. It's bamboo mats, rolling roti carts, portable baby banana pancakes, sarongs, coconut steamed in banana leaves. Go there now while it's still candles burning in dark placid waters and phuang malai, night-blooming jasmine, because Koh Tao is also constant construction, forklifts, fresh concrete, making way. It's beauty perched on the precarious verge of ruin with the island's construction seeming to forebode its destruction in the name of commercialization. As the Thais are not yet well-equipped, nor do they have the infrastructure to manage the mounds of trash out there in the middle of the Gulf, garbage is piled underfoot behind every bungalow despite lush yet ordered front yards. You'll find Tiger and Singha beer bottles and empty flasks of Sangsum whiskey stacked in pyramids beneath the salas and piles of plastic water bottles burning en masse. Go there now, before these flaws get worse. In the meantime, Koh Tao, because of its relative inaccessibility, is a haven of relaxation for young adults and couples. You get there by flying into nearby Koh Samui and then taking a ferry, or by flying into Bangkok, taking an all night bus ride or train to Chumporn and then a three-hour ferry and then braving the gauntlet of cab drivers in Mae Haad to get to your bungalow or guesthouse in nearby Sairee Beach or Chalok Baan Kao. My sisters and I had originally planned to stay in Koh Tao for a weekend and stayed instead for three weeks, leaving only because we couldn't afford to extend our plane tickets yet again. It's the kind of place that makes you contemplate staying forever, or at the very least, making a deal with a Thai citizen and becoming a vacation homeowner. Beyond the island's obvious beauty, we stayed because everyone we met on the island was friendly, warm and welcoming, particularly locals, many of whom were Americans that left their high-powered and high-paying white collar jobs to become dive instructors and bartenders on Koh Tao and loved their lives all the more for it; because this didn't seem to be destination for families with bratty children running around peeing and screaming; because the prices for food, lodging and activities were unbelievably cheap--you can find lodging for as little as 200-3600 baht (the equivalent of $5- 9.00/night), average meals range from 20-160 baht ($0.50-4.00/each) and a full day at the clifftop Jamakhiri spa with transportation, steam room, swimming, wrap treatments, massages, tropical drinks and full dinner can be had for 1400 baht ($35); because of the simplicity of life there—soccer at the water's edge, movies in the open air at sunset, yoga under a thatched pavilion in the midst of palms; because there was always good, mellow house music playing somewhere on the beach. As of yet, the plumeria bushes, the groves of palm, the stray roosters shrieking at the passing of every hour, the baskets of orchids dangling from the pink flowering branches of Javanese cassia—all of these more prominent than the refuse, but in the softening light of Thai sunsets, lonely fishing boats against a horizon, silhouetted against a dropping sun, petals begin to look as if they should rightfully drop from the trees. I wonder, with what strength can they keep holding on? Go to Koh Tao now, before the petals drop with the installation of every new concrete block.

Further Information

Travel tips: Be prepared for lots of stray dogs and cats. Lots of young people and partiers here. Great for couples but doesn't seem to be the best place for kids.

Must see/do at this place: Scuba dive, yoga, eat roti and papaya salad and pad thai from roadside carts, visit Jamakhiri spa, go wakeboarding, check out nightlife in Sairee Beach