After being screwed by the travel agent again in Phuket we arrived in Koh Tao or turtle island, we should have arrived at 6am but instead ended up staying the night in Surat Thani which is another horrible place and arrived at 3pm. But we are here and that is all that matters.
We had already booked our accommodation as Herman is diving so much here it made sense to arrange before hand and try and get the best discount for the most dives. But when we arrived they had not reserved us a beautiful beach view bungalow with it's own hammock but a scabby room with no fan or air con above the bar next door to a block of flats, the music stopped quite early and obviously for me being so deaf it is not much of a problem, but there was a guy who sat on his balcony on the phone at 4am and somebody else playing ping pong (the game not some kinky stuff!) it drove me mental. So we checked out after one night and moved to the nicest bungalow (possibly called O' chai) on sairee beach with the best sunset view.(£10 a night per bungalow)
We don't plan to do a lot these 2 weeks as this is the holiday part of our travels with lots of diving, reading, sun bathing and partying! Although I am gutted to miss the full moon party on Koh Samui but we have decided that this will be our first holiday after we come back and pay all our debts off.
We've already had an eventful few days first there was a chicken running around with a plastic bag tied around his foot, so after 5 minutes trying to catch him he hid in a bush and Herman managed to get that off him then the next night we where having dinner when we saw 3 guys chucking a dog around in the sea, the dog was desperately trying to get away but they where throwing him by his hind legs so he was going in face first it was horrendous and yet everyone just sat and watched, until Herman ran down to the sea and shouted at them – they just laughed and the dog made a run for it.
There are half a dozen dogs that live on the beach, there are very friendly and do not beg from the people, but they do like to lay very close to people especially if they own a frisbee! We have watched many people chase the dogs trying to get there balls back, there is one in particular he looks like a pit bull crossed with a labrador he likes to play piggy in the middle with people playing, he watches who is the weakest one then he stands right in front not taking his eyes from that person – it's very funny.
There probably isn't a restaurant or bar that we've been to that doesn't have a stray dog sleeping under a table just chilling, there are some very funky bars on the beach front that have beanbags or those cushions that you can lay while leaning up (?) the dogs love those – so if you don't like dogs this is not the best place to visit.
We have been really lucky with the weather as of course it is monsoon season but also the forecasts have all been for thunderstorms and rain everyday for the last week and yet we've only had rain in the middle of the night once and the temperature has not gone below 30'C.
We hired a very cool moped, it was brand new with only 10km on the clock the best way to describe it is if Bumblebee from Transformers was a moped then this is what we had. (although sadly he did not transform!) we drove around the island but the roads are shocking, there is 1 main concrete road that runs almost around the island then there are a few dirt tracks. Then there are mountainous treacherous almost vertical paths that lead to all the best places! There are no cars on island only 4 x 4's, mopeds and quad bikes. But the quad bikes scare me and I always think of Ozzy Osbourne's accident. Herman wanted to rent one but I said no its to scary.
We passed some very nice bungalows and resorts on the way some are very posh and ridiculously expensive, maybe when I win the lottery I will stay there. I'd like one with it's own infinity pool and amazing view on the sea. Like viewpoint resort which isn't that expensive but out of budget for now.
We have played mini golf then we had some nice greasy fish and chips – I have to keep having stuff that reminds me off home as I'm having a lot of home sickness recently (probably because I'm seeing my family for a few days in November) we also had the best fish BBQ on the beach, it was amazing definitely something to remember, I had a massive tuna with a tomato and pepper relish and rice and Herman had sea bass with a dark sauce and rice – it tasted incredible.
Daily routine was pretty much the same everyday, up early 6-7am coffee on a deserted beach before it gets hot and laugh at the weirdo joggers! Then a snooze for another hour cold shower (there is no hot water showers on the island except maybe the really expensive places) and hit the beach till lunch then back to our bungalow for another shower walk to a bar on the beach normally one called bluewind bakery (but we stopped going when we saw the chef picking the zits of a waitress! Eww) or the other one was called Wind Beach Resort which was very cool with the nicest staff (one night we had to call our flight people as we had problems but it was really late so they left us in the bar and told us to turn the lights out when we had finished!) after lunch we'd go back to “our spot” on the beach and lay there until maybe 5pm then back to the bungalow for an hour or so snooze then a shower before getting dressed and going out for dinner, or on designated “cheap days” we would make tuna sandwiches
for both lunch and dinner or push the boat out and have smash with cheese and watch the sun go down from our balcony with a good book. (and mosquito candles, spray and creams!)
There are lots of bars and smallish clubs on the island, most have fire jugglers and the such like, the bars are very relaxed but can be pretty expensive so we'd have to buy a few beers from the 7/11 and then go out! But cos herman is diving so much we're not really drinking a lot.
Herman has done 9 dives since we've been here, he says it's been amazing although he is a bit upset that he hasn't seen any whale sharks but he has seen a sea turtle and many different fish including Nemo's, boxfish, puffer fish and trigger fish – which chased him and bit his fin (sadly that's all the fish names he knows) he did prefer diving in Phuket but it was so much more expensive. The diving is really awesome and you get about 2 dives per day and 3 if you want. There are about 50 odd dive operators on the small island and all the there boats are moored about 200 meters of the beach. The diving itinerary is as follows. Wake up at about 6am and sit on bed for 45 minutes looking at the beach and ocean trying to wake up and then change into swimming trunks. Walk down to the dive shop that is on the beach. Have a quick toast and coffee at the dive shop café then go get the gear for the days diving. Wait for the rest of the people to show up and then get a small taxi boat to the bigger dive boat. On the dive boat you get your dive gear set up and then go upstairs for a nice coffee and biscuits. The dive briefing follows depending on what site we go to and then about 30 to 60 minutes we are on the dive sites. The water is really clear and there are loads of interesting things to see. The sun is hot and the waters is just as warm. The biggest problem I had was that I did not get any fins that fit me just right so after the first 2 dives I had 2 huge cuts on the back of my ankles. It was very soar but I was determined to dive and did about 6 or so more dives and 1 night dive. By the end of our holiday I could barely walk. My ankles was all bandaged up and the cuts huge and ugly but the diving was awesome.
I would recommend to to bring your own fins but the rest of the gear was ok.

All too quickly our time here has come to an end even though we had planned to be in Australia by now, never mind maybe after America, but for now we are off to South Africa for the next two months.