Monique and Justin's Travels

They really take their tides seriously in Koh Tao.  The differences between high and low tide is about 2 vertical meters, which here translates to about 50 meters from the high water mark to the low water mark.  In other words, a boat that’ll be grounded during low tide that you can walk out to and lean against will, during high tide, be 50 meters from shore and you’ll have to tread water if you swim out to it.

Notice the difference between the shot of almost high tide, where the water is almost hitting the trees (at high tide it does hit the trees) and almost low tide where the muck extends out to the boats (at low tide those boats are in knee deep water).  In the low tide photo all of that shiny stuff to the right isn’t water, it’s wet sand.  The water is further right.

Quite a difference.

Anarchy is one of those systems that, like proper Communism, is one of those quaint yet ridiculous things that only exists positively in the minds of college freshmen.

Koh Tao, however, is an example you could use of anarchy that actually works. You can do almost anything you want and no one will say anything about it. Want to get to that pizza place by driving the wrong way on a one way street? No problem. Helmet laws and vehicle registration? Ignored.  There are two cops on the entire island and all they do is sit around making reports for tourists whose cameras were stolen. You can buy weed at the bars.  It’s not Thailand here.  It’s like bizarro fantasy land.

So don’t tell those naïve kids about Koh Tao. I don’t want them to have a working example of functioning anarchy when I’m tearing their arguments apart. -jp