Revisiting Koh Tao, 20m, and The Return

So, I realize we left you all with Ryan dying of Tonsai Fever, and we do apologize for the lack of updates.  Now that we are back in the US with reliable internet and nothing to do, I thought I'd finally update you on our last 3 weeks in Thailand.  After leaving Tonsai we headed back to Koh Tao for various reasons (snorkeling, weather, island living, etc.)  One of the main reasons actually, was so Ryan and Steve could take a freediving class they offered there.  It was a two day course and on day one they were able to dive to 12 meters, day two, both of them made it to 20 meters (about 65 feet).  Impressive, I know. 

 Monica, owner of Apnea Total and an incredible freediver. Steve and Ryan were lucky to have her as their personal instructor. I guess they thought the Vegas kids would need the best.

This guy is awesome, obviously.

                  

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Besides the freediving, our last 2 and a half weeks on Koh Tao were spent snorkeling, reading, hiking, beaching...pretty much just chill-axing.

I win

The beach we snorkeled off of

      

 We took some awesome hikes up into the jungles of the island.

The "roads" we were hiking on were obviously pretty destroyed from the massive amounts of rain that this island gets.  I wouldn't have been surprised though to see someone trying to scooter up this...

 We found these half built structures in the middle of the jungle.  No idea what they were going to be, but they were obviously abandoned and no real road even led up to them.

 Looking East

Looking West


Panoramic View

The last day on the island, we took a day long snorkel trip that went around the island to all of the hot snorkeling spots.  We saw lots of awesome fish (sting rays, reef shark, trigger fish, etc) and it was a great trip. Unfortunately, our camera decided to break at our first stop, so we didn't get many pictures, but we got some awesome stories.

Camera broken.
And notice the brown floatie in the bottom right.  They decided to flush the entire boats sewage system out the back right when Ryan was climbing the ladder...
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Eventually we had to leave Koh Tao and head to Bangkok for our last couple days. Our journey back to Las Vegas (and let me tell you, it was a journey) took over 40 hours, with way too much time spent in airports.

At least they had cartoons in English!!!

Amazing ramen in the Hong Kong airport.

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The End :(

Tonsai Fever

We came to Tonsai only to stay for a few days on the way to the bigger and more popular Railay. We actually weren't really planning on going at all until some girl in the back of a pickup truck said "you must be from the states" and pointed at our chacos. Ella was from Montana, and was on her way back to Tonsai after a day of fisherman pants shopping in Krabi Town (the fisherman pants obsession strangely consumes people). She convinced us to head straight there and we didn't look back. Lonely planet didnt have much good to say about it, but I'm pretty sure that's why it was so good. No resorts, no booking ahead, no 7/11, sporadic electricity, no scooters, no taxis.  It didn't cater to your average traveler, and a desire for simple things would determine if you stayed for a day, or never left (lots of people never do).

Eating some papaya salad on my first day, full of excitement!
I also ate two bannanas, a mango, and a bannana mango shake.

45 mins later, I've thrown up 4 times, once on the street. And I'm laying down on the ground in a crowded market place. Evie bought me the hammock and I'm trying to gain the strength and rehydrate just enough to walk back to my wooden shack. I'm not sure who to blame, my super tasty lunch or this spider.

Meanwhile.....

Evie met coco!!

I finally made it back to my porch and hammock with a fever. I pretty much didn't move from this spot for 3 days. But it was bound to happen eventually and I can't really complain too much (I am in a hammock, reading and listening to Tyson). I didnt eat much either, so I dubbed it Tropical fever diet. But I think I would rather eat Tim's beans.

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Low tide, only in the evening.

Tonsai and Railay are two of the most premier climbing spots in the world. I've never seen so many good climbers in one spot. Hence, the majority of people are insanely ripped.
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These are some of the main roads in Tonsai, the only roads.

Monkeys on Ton Sai from Evie Smith on Vimeo.

We lived in a place called Jungle Hut ran by the notorious "Mister Chang". Mister Chang is number one! So were his bungalows. We actually came to terms with the freezing dirty water, two twin beds, a nest of squirrels in the ceiling and an abundance of creepy crawlers. The monkeys were cute the first time they stole our fruit and rummaged through our trash. But then came the early morning monkey gang riots.  They would run or swoop through in a pack, dropping coconuts on the tin roofs whooping, hollering, and stealing. Then Mister Chang would ride out corageously on his pink bicycle, Bob Marley blaring on his iphone speaker, firing a pistol in the air to spare us the noise. Sight to behold!

Hanging out in the Andaman Sea...

Monkey vs. Kitten from Evie Smith on Vimeo.

This particular spider hung out at our favorite restaurant, but we saw them all over. If you can't tell in the video he's about the size of my hand when fully extended.

Ton Sai Spider from Evie Smith on Vimeo.