Rescue Us

Thailand is a place of great contradiction. The people here are extremely friendly, innocent and carefree, but there is a seedy undercurrent to this place that is never far from the surface. We have had a rather up and down few weeks in the country so far, filled with both celebrations and unfortunately tears, but we will certainly never forget it!!

Yet another epic journey

When you’re travelling, you just become immune to the boredom and discomfort of long journeys. Ours began in the beautiful Cameron Highlands and ended on the idyllic island of Ko Tao. The in between bit goes like this:

It started with a 2 hour bus ride to Ipoh, where we waited for 4 hours at the train station. The train departed at midnight, there were no sleepers left so we settled for seats to bed down on.

Gem wrapped up warm

At 8am we arrived at Padang Besar to complete border crossing formalities into Thailand (major visa issue which we will discuss later). This was followed by another 1 hour train journey to Hat Yai, a change onto a 3rd class slow train, then 7 more hours winding our way, very slowly, through some beautiful Thai scenery – rice paddies and small villages – until we reached Surat Thani.

View from the train

There we waited another 4 hours until the ferry left the harbour at 11pm for our 7 hour overnight crossing. We finally arrived at Ko Tao looking and smelling just like we’ve been travelling for 36 hours.

Ells' berth on the overnight ferry



Ells looking tired and sweaty after too long on trains

Ko Tao – the good, the bad and the ugly

So, after 36 hours on all modes of transport we were finally on Ko Tao. It was a real shock when we arrived. We had read many great things about this island, for example, it being a diving Mecca and a chilled out place compared to the other party islands next door. But as the ferry chugged into the bay, the impact of commercialisation really showed. As far as the eye could see, there were dive boats the size of the Titanic, ready to take up to 50 divers at any one time out onto the many reefs the island had to offer.

Some of the many boats, piled up to take divers on their trips

Now, maybe we’re being a bit naive here, but our idea of diving is a small group enjoying the colours and fishes and simply relaxing underwater and enjoying the freedom that breathing underwater gives you. Without trying to do it too much of a disservice (it still was great fun and quite beautiful), it just felt too crammed and a bit claustrophobic for our liking.

So, rather than making it about fun diving, we decided to make it more of a certification mission and to take our diving qualifications one step further – to Rescue Diver.

We booked ourselves on what must have been the best value course on the island – the 2 day academic and practical course, 4 free night’s accommodation and free food vouchers for £180 each – and got settled in to our new digs. Sure, they weren’t the nicest – we had a resident lizard that made huge croaking noises at 3am – but it was fine with us. We didn’t plan to spend much time there anyway (uhh....wrong!!!).

Our hut on Ko Tao

The course began the next day and we met our instructors – Craig and Rubie. They were both really cool and exceptional instructors. We had already read half the course book, so we watched a tacky PADI video, then headed out on the boat after lunch.

It was obviously crammed full of Open Water students – it felt good to be the most qualified students there!! – and we had been told to watch out for anything. After all, we were on a Rescue Diver course. “Pizza” was our “Help” word, as obviously they can’t actually start shouting out “Help” while splashing about in the water. Everyone would probably get involved in the rescue!!

As soon as the boat stopped at our 1st dive site, the shout came “Pizza, pizza, pizza!!!”. And off we ran, jumping over students, trying to save our instructor from imminent death. Obviously we totally cocked it up on the 1st go, but made up for it with some pretty good work for the rest of the dive.

That night, Elliott had a terrible sleep, interrupted by multiple trips to the loo (too much hawker food will serve him right!!!). We had to cancel our diving the next day as the thought of having “an issue” at 15m below in a shorty wetsuit doesn’t really bare thinking about!!

He was feeling pretty crappy along with it, so we just stayed in the room the whole day. The next day he felt a bit better so we braved the diving. The morning started well. We did the course exam and both passed with 100%. It was multiple choice though!!

Then we went to the boat for our final scenario dives. And disaster struck. On our way to the pier, Gem trod on a splinter. A splinter you say, not exactly a great tragedy, just pull it out, right?!! When we got on the boat, Rubie got out the tweezers and pulled out the biggest splinter in the history of splinters. It was huge, over 1cm long and it had gone right in, there was nothing protruding at all. He opened the wound some more and found another mini splinter, then got the iodine out and plastered it up.

Gem with her bandaged foot in our room

Despite the immense pain, Gem soldiered on to complete the 2 scenario dives – a missing diver and “the dive from hell”. We both performed very well and successfully passed the course, then we got back and went straight to a local doctor. He gave Gem some local anaesthetic and had another look in the wound but found nothing else.

Ells and Rubie after completing the Rescue Diver course

We hobbled back to the room, feeling suitably happy that we had become Rescue Divers, but also a bit sad as we were both in need of rescue ourselves – Ells with a dodgy tummy and Gem with a busted foot.

Ells went fun diving the next day, but it wasn’t the best. The dive sites were just packed. Any timid fish would have swum a mile with the sight of 50 divers bearing down on it. And it wasn’t as good without his favourite buddy next to him, who was tucked away in bed feeling sorry for herself.

Bangkok – capital of sex tourism

We decided to leave the next day and head up to Bangkok. We said our goodbyes to our instructors and got a fast catamaran to a town called Chumphon. From there, a 7 hour bus ride took us to Bangkok. We quickly headed to our hostel, had a delightful hot shower (the 1st in at least a week), then went to bed.

First thing the next day, we went to the hospital to try and find some crutches for a hobbling Gem. Her foot really wasn’t getting any better and hopping around probably wasn’t doing it any good either. The docs there had another look and gave it a good clean, then we left with a brand spanking new set of crutches.

Our quiz team on our 1st night in Bangkok

The one thing we had to do in Bangkok was get a Vietnamese visa. They are dead strict with this, so we got a cab to the Vietnamese Embassy only to find that it was closed. This presented a major problem for us. It would take us 5 working days to get a visa, i.e. we would get it on 15th July. The problem was that at the border with Malaysia, we had only been able to get a 15 day tourist visa – a new rule we hadn’t looked into as everywhere gives 30 days usually.

Our Thai visas ran out on 15th July, so if we stayed we would breach our visas and probably end up in prison or something. Hobbling away, discussing our fate, a man who claimed to be a tourist policeman came up to us and started chatting. He told us about the local tuk-tuks and the skytrain, when he asked us why we were in the business district. “Getting a Vietnam visa,” we said. “Oh, today no”, he said, “close for holiday, you go travel agent, my family use get Vietnam visa, I show you on map”

And like that our problem was solved!!! A chance meeting in the street and we secured our visas on an express 2 day turn around. Don’t you just love how that happens!!!

The Buddhist shrine in our hostel

The next day we heeded doctor’s orders and stayed in the hostel all day resting Gem’s poor foot. The rest worked though as the pain is slowly subsiding. Ells went out for a walk to check out the local area. In 30 minutes, he was offered all sorts of massages by young Thai girls and sex with prostitutes he could choose from a magazine. Hmmm...

More bad news

For the weekend Mark and his friend, Florence, were coming up to meet us so we could do the sights together. We planned to meet after breakfast on the Saturday, but got an early wake up call at 7am from Mark telling us that Florence hadn’t been feeling well with pains in her side all night.

We told him about the hospital we had been to (without question the nicest hospital we’d ever seen, more like a hotel really!!) and off they went. After a blood test, an ultrasound and a CT scan they discovered she had an acute appendicitis and would have to undergo surgery that day. What a shocker Bangkok is turning out to be!!

The 4 of us in the Starbucks at the hospital

Fortunately Florence’s surgery was successful, but we spent the next 2 days in the hospital keeping her and Mark company. She was released a few hours before we headed to the train station for our journey to the north-east of Thailand and into Laos, another 12 hour monster.

We will blog again from Laos.

Love Ells and Gem xx