Diving in the big blue sea!

My next island was cute, little koh Tao; the Mecca of diving! The journey across from west coast to east was really easy. I used the same company as before, Lompraray, who organise connections between the Islands. My journey consisted of one bus and one boat. The company make it really clear and even give you fun colour coded stickers for each destination. I took the boat from Suran Thani and then passed koh samui, then koh phangan then finally reached koh Tao. If you are travelling from the north down I'd recommend getting the boat from chumpion as koh Tao is the first island.

So as you can probably guess I did what most people do and dived! Initially I was only going to do a days diving course to try it out but I'm glad I did the open water course. I went with the company Big Blue as it was recommended to me by a few different people I asked along my travels. And I would also highly do the same. They were amazing!!!

My course was 3 and a half days long and was a mix of academics and practical. They go through all your skills in the pool first then on the third and fourth day you dive in the sea. Reasons why I loved big blue are that they are really fun, you get to meet so many people but they are also very professional and patient. The latter was crucial for me as on the first pool day I had a little freak out about breathing under water and the instructor Alex was amazing at getting me through. Out in the ocean the diving was incredible. We did four dives in total: two at 12 metres and two at 18 metres. We saw so many different fish and types of coral. On one dive, it was like you were swimming through mountains of coral!

Other than diving, koh Tao is also amazing for snorkelling and the main beach is stunning. Also, the island felt a lot calmer than koh phi phi so I happily chilled there for almost a week. In regards to places to eat, for Thai food it has to be Su Chilli, a little restaurant on the main square just right from big blue. However we also discovered potentially the nicest burgers ever at a place called Bang Burger. A little place, literally a guy frying burgers with a few tables but whose cheese burger was to die for. I don't know if it was the cheddar and Parmesan combo or the homemade honey BBQ sauce that did it but I seriously think it's unbeatable!

So an amazing week all round! I met a great group of people through my course, who would soon become my travel buddies for the next island... Koh phangan!!! Koh Tao,turtle island, was amazing and I would love to come back one day! Great people, great diving, great memories!