The beautiful island of Ko Tao is our next stop, the diving and snorkelling centre of Thailand. The first thing we did was to sign up for a dive, going to a site called Champon pinnacle. Kat and I were dive buddies and we were taken out by James the American dive master. The four pinnacles were covered in anemones and small corals. We saw loads of cool fish including bat fish, big groupers, clown fish, barracuda, angel fish and way too many other divers. The popularity of the island, due to its cheap price, has meant there are so many dive companies and not enough dive sites to cope with all the demand. We learnt our open water in Fiji and it was the same price as Thailand, just as many fish and coral, more dive sites and less divers. In Fiji we were the only company using our dive sites. A couple of days later we signed up for a snorkelling trip around the island. We visited five bays and had a free lunch. This day trip turned out to be amazing, our first stop was at Shark bay, to swim with the black tipped reef shark. Harmless beasts about 2 meters in length with big toothy grins, that swam beneath us as we snorkelled along the coast line. It was the first time we had seen a shark in the sea and swam along side it. The second stop was where the little baby black tip reef sharks live in shallow coral. We snorkelled over and decided to stay in the same place rather than move around. So many tropical fish swam past us, it was like a fishy catwalk show. Soon enough three baby sharks about 30cm swam past us and became curious. They circled closely around us always keeping one eye on us, it was captivating to watch them checking us out. A large and dangerous trigger fish swam past. If you swim over trigger fish you enter it territory and it will attack you have you to defend yourself using kung fu moves. Only, underwater your limbs move slowly so you would look like a Jackie Chan movie in slow motion. At the other bays we saw more coral and fish and swam around a site called Japanese gardens which had all the coral and fish but in miniature form. For the next couple of days we hired a scooter and toured around the island visiting some more beaches and getting browner. In the evening the bars along the water make great entertainment while people play with petrol and sticks and show off how they juggle fire. A friend of ours Harry, was building his home on Ko Phagnan, so after a week on Ko Tao we decided to go back to the island and visit him and his wife Leam. Cooper Out Love Dan & Kat