Koh Tao: Over The Top

I've been meaning to get to the east side of Koh Tao for a while now. I tried to hike over the mountain pass once before but was turned back by the blazing sun and the oppressive humidity. Having run out of water before even making it half-way up, I resolved to try again another day. Yesterday, it was a bit cooler and overcast, so I packed a huge bottle of water and my camera, laced up my trainers and hit the trail.

An hour later, after shedding a few pounds of sweat and consuming most of my water, here's the view from the near the top of the pass:



To get there, I had to hike up a "road" that looked like this:



And that's before it got bad. In addition to ruts as deep as I am tall, it was so steep in places I had to scramble on all fours, occasionally climbing over or under felled trees and pushing through huge spider webs. I felt like Indiana Jones.

Bizarrely, there was an abandoned tea shop at the top.



Nearby was a residence, believe it or not. When the owners dog started barking at me, the man came out and gave me a hard look, top to bottom. Then he started laughing. I must have been quite the sight.

Finally, I got to see what the view is like to the east of Koh Tao.



Waaay down there is Tanote Bay, my destination. I certainly wasn't going back the way I came. My only hope was to make it to Tanote somehow and maybe catch a taxi boat from there back to Sairee. Thankfully, the way down to Tanote was much easier going.

When I finally make it to Tanote beach, I threw my stuff down and marched right into the water. Aahhh...



Rested, refreshed and refueled, I treated myself to beer at a beachside bar, and chatted with some folks there: a pair from Alberta, Canada and two blokes from Philly. They said they had gotten there the long way 'round on their scooters, and that they could give me a lift back. Great!

I asked the bartender -- a local -- if he had ever walked over the pass. He raised his eyebrows. "Yes," he said, "once," and smiled.

The four were ready to go, so I got on the back of one girl's scooter. We skidded and sputtered and fishtailed uphill about 20 feet when I told her to stop. "Thanks, and no offense, but this isn't working with me on the back." She said she had been thinking the same, so I wished them all well and headed back to the shack.

There, the bartender told me there was a taxi. Not a boat but a car that left at set times. I killed a half-hour and then met up with the driver. The "taxi" was a big, hulking pick-up truck. I climbed in the back, along with two local Thai women. We took off like a shot.

We climbed impossibly steep, rutted, slippery hard-pack dirt roads strewn with boulders and debris. Up, up, up, in no time, we were bumping along this narrow, windy "road" 100's of feet above the water. Oh my god. What kept us from sliding off the side and pachinko-ing through the palm trees into the bay below, I'll never know. Even the local Thai women were pounding on the cab and yelling at the driver to slow down. No pictures. I was holding on with both hands.

I made it back to Sairee minus a few pounds and a few years of my life, with a new appreciation of all that this little island has to offer. Next time, I'll hire a boat.