Day 57: Motorbikes, Snarling Dogs, Tarantulas, oh my!

Awake after having some lucid yet amazing dreams. One involved friends from The Woodlands, another my family, several others I can't recall. I unfortunately wake with my darn problematic back ... I miss my Impostor NASA Foam Bed from home. Attempt to maneuver into a less painful position and return to slumber, no love, the bed is way too soft. Start to sit up, back is near spasm level, its a no go. Roll over and out, body in the pike position, feet hit first thankfully. Straighten up, posture up, tension subsides, slowly stretch, 5 minutes and good as n... well good enough. 

It's early and no one else is up, saw a small coffee shop up the street with the key words in the window, wifi. Enter but before I order, I always ask two things. 1. What's your wifi password? 2. Is your wifi working? "Yes, 1 baht a minute." No no, I think you misunderstood, I want wifi password, don't need internet station. "Yes, 1 baht a minute." You understand English well? Just want wifi password. "Yes, I understand, 1 baht a minute. Internet 3 baht a minute." You charge for wifi? That's crazy, it's always free. "You go to Mae Head, free there." That's far, by chance is there any other establishment with free wifi down here? "No, you Mae Head." Okay okay. Head down the street to test her story, find another breakfast place, good menu but no wifi, not gonna do it. Back to where I started, blogging in the dark while sitting on my way too soft bed, minding my back.  The crew continues to saw logs, I jealously blog.

10am is check out, pack up, grab a taxi, and head to the north end of Soiree Beach. Land at Coral Grand Dive Resort on the beach. The guys are getting their Padi Open Water certification there, comes with free lodging for the divers, but with the addition of James (Slug) and Mario (Costa), they have no problem with comping me as well - score! They hook us up with a sweet bungalow in the round, brick exterior, thatch roof, tall ceiling with tree limb columns and supports, sleeps 6 (2 Queens and 2 singles), 2 full open air bathrooms, aircon and satellite TV - this is more like it. Turn on the tele excited about regular western channels ... static. Check the cable, play with the connection, nada.  Guess I'll have to suffer through my days at the infinity pool or the beach. 

Back to the sleeping situation, only 2 singles which means 4 people have to share. Costa and Slug have yet to arrive which means they're sharing, 2 more to go, let the farkle begin. Yeah, I said farkle, don't play like you've never partaken. Still confused? In more boring regions, it's  known by it's overtly obvious name - rock, paper, scissors. Best 2 out of 3. 1, 2, 3, shoot - 1, 2, 3, shoot - 1, 2, 3, shoot. Woot - winner number 1 coming from LA to ya live in Koh Tao, what what! Andy (No Nic) was the other, so Rollo (Max Brannan) and Paul (Snake) had to share, suckas!

Grab lunch, grab my passport, head off to the moped rental place. They inspect the bikes, mark down all existing gashes and scratches, hoping you will add a few. It's actually quite the scam. You can rent them for cheap, around 150 baht/day ($5usd), but a single scratch will cost you thousands of baht. They have your passport and will not return it until all is paid up. That's why the hotel encourages you to take pics beforehand because "they're cheap to rent, expensive to scratch." 

Exploration of Koh Tao commences. It's a pretty easy island to navigate, there is one main road running north and south on the west side of the island, with little tributaries running over to the east side. However, you must be careful because many of these smaller paths turn into dirt paths at steep inclines or declines, leaving you in a "likely to wreck" mode. Just ask my friend Will - he and 2 others laid down their bikes on the dirt costing them respectively, 6,000 baht, 9,000 baht, 11,000 baht. To put it in perspective. Max Brannan and the crew are only paying 9,000 baht for their open water Padi course plus lodging for 5 nights. Yep, it's expensive.  Fortunately for us, we were warned by one of the dive masters at Coral Grand, so taking that into consideration, we stopped when the pavement stopped, and hoofed it on foot the extra mile or so to secluded beaches.

A few lessons came from this romp on our hogs. 
           Number 1, there is a reason all the locals put their rides in the shade. No matter how perfect and ideal your location in the sun, the extra 20 meters of walking is worth much more than returning to your smoldering tar-like black plastic seat after it bakes in the 95 degree tropical sun. 
          Number 2, make sure the beach you think you are going to actually exists before going down a thousand steps. It is there, just 200 meters north of our descent, past treacherous algae covered boulders with sharp edges and crustaceous life forms. Once traversed we learn, only way back without adding a few miles to the journey, back the way we came, brilliant. 
          Number 3, even at slow speeds glasses are key because dirt and dust will find their way into exposed crevices, your eyes being the most detrimental one. Never been so thrilled to look like a raccoon, Easier to wash your face than your eyeballs. 

After an adventurous day on the bikes, Costa and Slug are waiting at the resort. They had stayed in Koh Phangan an extra night and told tales of The Drunk being passed out naked holding himself, and the ghost-like condition of the town. Bonnie would have been left with him had she not made a last minute decision to meet us on Koh Tao as well, smart move!  

So Costa, Slug, Max Brannan, Snake, No Nic and I all enjoyed a fine dinner on the beach at the resort before hitting up Lotus, the one happening bar on the island. Run into Bonnie, all the usual suspects from Full Moon, a few oldies but goodies from Phi Phi, as well meet some new additions, Sophie, Amy, Emma, Justine, Emilia, Chris, etc. 

Its getting late, I'm in need of some solid sleep, Snake was ready as well, so we leave the other 4 to their own devices and head back along the beach to our bungalow, 500 meters up the beach. The tide is in, maybe 20 feet of beach between the ocean and the infrastructure, and then came the dogs. A note about all Thai islands, tons of random dogs roam everywhere, some nice, some mean, some with rabies. They are pack animals so typically if you see 1 you see 5. As we walk, we run into a curious one, sniffs around us, in the darkened shadows we cannot make out the temperament, so we continue at our normal pace. His pack mate was a bit easier to define, we hear snarling, see teeth in the moonlight. Remember there is not much room on the beach, so I do what I do, snarl back and position my sandal in my hand as a weapon. One aggressive step forward and he retreats. We quicken our pace and make it to the steps of the resort restaurant without further dog incident. As we turn down the sandy path to our bungalows, I see what I assume is a small puppy or lizard scurry on the ground towards Snakes feet, stops, turns around and retreats. Snake just thinks it's a big rat, I see it start to crawl sideways up the rock, that ain't no rat, it's got to be a huge crab. Camera in hand, I pursue, the mystery will soon be over. It crawls between a few large boulders, I position myself a good 10 feet away, flash illuminates the space before it snaps a shot and I realize, it ain't no crab, it's a massive arachnid, of the tarantula variety. It's body the size of a large fist, it's eight hairy extensions poised to jump, it's eyes fixate toward the light. As the camera flashes, it retreats a bit more, I only capture a few legs, start to yell, let's get out of here Snake. "What?" Tarantula. It's a huge tarantula! "Are you sure?" I got a picture but it moved, we can look back in the room, it could be on the move, I think I pissed it off, let's go! 

Arrive back in the bungalow, sweating a bit from the quick step pace, brush my teeth, crawl into bed, and attempt to convince myself it could never get through our thatched roof ... Right?

Nite nite via the iPhone blogger.