For the past 3 weeks I’ve spent my time on the tropical islands of Ko Tao and Ko Pha-Ngan. Yes, I went for a holiday outside of Chiang Mai again, with a group of 10 (and a few others that joined later) fellow Digital Nomads who live here.
When we had a few hours to spare in Surat Thani, we took a longboat on a river trip.
The plan was initially to go to Ko Pha-Ngan for 2 weeks, rent out an amazing private villa beach resort, visit the Full Moon Party and have an awesome time on the beaches. We did all that, but before we went there, a smaller group of us decided to go to Ko Tao first and take scuba diving lessons. And I can honestly say it was the most amazing experience ever. We got our PADI Open Water Certification at New Way Diving (highly recommended! super friendly staff and great instructors – http://www.newwaydiving.com/).
Me, scuba diving, photos by Christine, a professional dive photographer that joined us on our last dive
Not only was scuba diving really awesome, but the island itself was so much fun too. Every night we’d be out to one of the beach bars, drinking, dancing and meeting fellow young travellers and tourists from all over the world. Whenever we had some downtime between diving lessons, we’d go visit beautiful beaches, viewpoints on the mountains or go snorkeling in the bays (I saw a shark for the first time in the wild!).
Ko Tao’s awesome beach bars have an amazing view of the sunset. Or you can climb one of the mountains and see the entire island!
Unfortunately, through all the partying, dancing and diving I managed to get several wounds on my legs. When we left Ko Tao after 5 days, me having the worst hangover ever and barely able to walk due to the blisters I got while dancing barefoot all night, we met our friends in Ko Pah-Ngan. The next day however, my wounds got infected and I decided to go to the hospital. They put me on antibiotics and had me stay overnight for 2 days! That’s the first time since I was about 3 years old that I’d be staying in a hospital…
Luckily the hospital was very modern, clean, had friendly staff and great food (in many ways it was a better hospital than one you’d find in the average Western city). As my friends were having more fun, getting drunk, high and mugged (yes that really happened to one of them), I was chilling in a hospital bed. Well, at least I got some work done after not having worked at all for a week on Ko Tao…
Being hospitalized won’t dampen my spirit on such an amazing holiday…
Once out of the hospital my infections were gone, but I still had to take antibiotics for a week. Meaning: no alcohol. And omg, the Full Moon Party was in just 2 days… with the Jungle Experience the night before. And guess what? Even though I was sober for both parties, I still had a great time at both of them! Several friends we’d made on Ko Tao (at the diving school) had come over for the parties and we had a great time together.
All in all the experience was unforgettable and ending up in the hospital did not manage to ruin it for me!
The weather on Ko Pha-Ngan wasn’t that great anymore and after the 2 weeks were over we were mostly glad to go back to Chiang Mai. Getting back in the routine of waking up early, going to Crossfit and working at the Coworking space every day is refreshing after an amazing but very unproductive holiday…
It won’t be long before the next one though, as my visa expires November 25th and I’ll have to leave Thailand. The plan for now is a trip of about 2 weeks through Laos and Cambodia, coming back to Thailand in time for the Affiliate World Asia conference in Bangkok (Dec 7).
