Tag 124: Diving license in the pocket and off to Bangkok

There were much fewer travel updates in the last few weeks than before, because now there was always someone to talk to. Our days were filled with scooter rides around the Thai islands of Ko Yao Noi, Ko Jum, and Ko Lipe. We ate many different Pad Thais and developed the ambition to find the best Pad Thai in Thailand.

Ko Yao Noi, short break

Ko Yao Noi, suddenly by the sea after a dirt road

Ko Jum, baby cats everywhere 

Ko Jum

Ko Lipe, turquoise view at the taxi boat stand

Ko Lipe, last day at the beach

Ko Lipe, three snorkel ladies

On the last island of our island tour, Ko Lipe, we finally did what we had been considering the whole time: we took a diving course. We learned the hand signals to indicate if we had a problem underwater and the signals for diving up or down.

Just before the first dive

It took me two seconds to get used to breathing underwater, during which time I held my breath. But after the first few breaths, I forgot what I could be afraid of because suddenly we saw a large moray eel opening and closing its mouth and showing its sharp teeth. Large, colorful fish swam by and we dived past coral reefs where clownfish lived. The three of us swam behind each other, with a dive instructor in front and behind. We sank deeper when the instructors gave the signal and pumped air into our vests to float back up. But the most important thing for diving up and down is not the air-filled vest, but the breathing. If you breathe out all the air from your lungs, you will sink, and if you take a deep breath, you will rise, similar to a balloon filled with air. Once I understood that, all I had to do was take a slightly deeper breath to dive past sea urchins with their long spines.

As a team of three, we helped each other into tight wetsuits during the diving course, practiced hand signals underwater, and took turns taking off and putting on the diving mask at a depth of 12 meters and pumping the water out of it. After two days of floating in the water, falling backwards into the sea with all our equipment, and a test, we each left the island with a diving license in our pockets.

The sea was very rough as we crossed from Ko Lipe to Trang on a speedboat. Each person on the boat had their own strategy for dealing with it. The Spanish children slept and some passengers hid their faces in their hands and thought of another place. Empty plastic bags were passed around and I stood up to be able to fix my gaze on the horizon while the boat flew high and crashed back down into the sea. One partygoer found it amusing and raised his arms like a wave every time the boat was thrown up. Battered and relieved, everyone eventually landed on shore.

In Trang, we made a stopover and stayed there for two nights. I had read about a cave through which a river flows, allowing you to ride a boat under the cave. To do this, you have to lie flat in the boat to fit through. It sounded exciting, and we all wanted to have an adventure, so we found a driver who would take us there in a tuk-tuk.

On the way to the cave in a tuk-tuk

 

We finally swayed into the cave in a boat and lay flat in the boat as the rock approached from above, while the two boat boys rowed ahead.

At the entrance of the cave, with plenty of space between the rock and the water

The cave was now only 30 cm away from our noses and we were still in a cheerful and humorous mood.

Short stop in the cave and solid ground under our feet 

We thought we were now swaying towards the exit in the boat when the boat boy said "very, very exciting, lay down, sleep." I thought, of course, we can do that now too, this cave is actually more relaxed than we thought. However, if Thais say something is exciting, it is almost unbearable for European tastes. The awareness of danger is completely different in Asia. I thought of this as we rode back into the dark cave and the beam of the flashlight showed that there were now only twenty, ten, and then five centimeters separating us from the rock above us. The rock was not smooth, but stalactites hung down from above. The sides of the boat became even narrower, so I turned my head inward, in order not to see this centimeter work. Two screams came from our boat as the rock came so close that we were sure we would have to fly directly to a facial surgery clinic in Bangkok after leaving the cave. Feeling slightly disconnected from the world and in disbelief that we had survived the whole thing unharmed, the three of us staggered towards three cool coconuts and watched a monkey steal a mandarin and eat it blissfully in the treetop.

Our next stop was Bangkok, an unknown place for Rieke and me. We strolled through the old town, unable to speak complete sentences because our entire attention was focused on all the colors, the tangle of cables above the streets, the red lanterns, the street stalls, the trucks full of coriander, and the colorful tuk-tuks. 

Colorful Bangkok world 

Pigeons above the coffee stand are bad for business

Heading to another district with the street stalls

Chinatown

Among all the chaos, Bangkok hipsters strolled by, Chinese women sold skewered innards, vendors carved pineapples and shaped bites, and dusty children rode plastic toy bikes through narrow alleyways.

Chinatown

Pineapple to go

One thing is certain after all these impressions: Bangkok is everything at once. There are modern office buildings, impeccably clean airline offices with body scanners at the door. There are also people who sleep behind cars on the roadside because that is their home. The city is full of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu temples. Every evening, tons of flowers are processed into garlands and arrangements for Buddha in a huge hall. But in the narrow streets of Bangkok, you can also find, according to Taoist religion, red lanterns, red velvet robes, sparkling wall decorations, and red pig patches.

Next to street stalls cooking on fire, there are skyscrapers with a skybar on the roof. In the elevator to the 43rd floor, you will meet people wearing sneakers that cost as much as a week's earnings for the street food vendor.

43rd floor: our last evening with Rieke

At the time when we were in Bangkok, the air was so bad that we, like the locals, wore masks.

On the way to the operating room? More like a bank heist

You could smell that the air did not smell like a spring morning in Brandenburg, especially when there was a fog in the streets that did not disappear all day and the sunset could only be seen as a hazy, distant light.

Gray smog against a blue sky

After two incredibly full, colorful, exciting days in Bangkok, Rieke boarded a plane back to Germany. And we also made our way to Laos. So the well-oiled team of three became a team of two again, missing the odd number. It was a beautiful, light, shared time we had in Thailand.