We are now on koh tao just north of ko phangnan and I've gotta start by saying that island life is really growing on me and i'm glad that we went north to laos and cambodia before coming here otherwise i doubt i would have left. Sorry its been a while since our last update but thats because there really hasn't been all that much interesting stuff to write about, island life is slow paced and involves relaxing/recovering during the days while lazing on beaches reading books, playing frisbee and more snorkelling. Then the evenings are filled with drunken tomfoolery, more playing with fire (i dived through a ring of fire and lost the room key) and ladyboy caberet shows. You don't want to mix any of these up!!

These ladyboy shows are a great laugh as long as you go with a good group of people and therfore dont look like a pervert and remember that they're men cause honestly with some its near impossible to tell, the girls that we watched the show with actually started to get jealous. At the end of the show i was urged (by both my friends and the always helpful ladyboys) to join in for the last song.......dressed once more as a woman in a simply delightful sequine top and blond marylyn monroe wig. Cross dressing twice in one week, oh well when in Rome.

The main activity that ko tao is famous for is its world class scuba diving at rock bottom prices, so i decided to take advantage and do a padi open water qualification (chris tried one day and decided it wasn't for him, as he can look at pictures for free, with all the air you can handle), the course cost about 150 quid and included 5 dives (of increasing depth up to 18 meters). The cost was no doubt a serious dent in my rapidly dwindelling cash supplies but apparantly the only cheaper place in the world to do it is honduras and im not even sure where that is. On my first deep water dive i saw a turtle, an eel, a sea snake (one of the most poisonous snakes in the world) and millions and millions of fish of all shapes and colours. I was hooked and the sightings of the relitively rare turtle and snake had given me hope, so the next day we went a site where juvinille whale sharks (up to about 10 mtrs long) had been seen, no luck!! but still more cool fish and i saw a turtle yawn. The same night i quallified as a padi i decided why wait and went on a night dive........scary but awsome.

Despite the generally relaxed approach on the island stupid things still tend to happen, for the first part of our time here we were on the south of the island and decided go to the livelier west coast (where we ended up moving to) so we decided to rent a quad bike, thinking that mopeds were too dangerous, crash scars being known as ko tao tatoos. It was decided i would drive as i have my driving licence, it didn't help and after misjudging the controls slightly i took us off road and having to quickly duck under a overhanging sign.

we head next to the west coast islands for more of the same

sorry if this blog is slightly jolty and sorry about the spelling mistakes but im knackered