A 16 hour night bus journey, a 3 hour wait in Surathani, an hours drive to Don Sak pier and a 3 and a half hour boat ride got us to Koh Tao, the most northern island off the east coast of Thailand.

Needless to say we were shattered and sea sick when we arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon so we found the nearest room and collapsed until dinner time. We had a look around the local town of Haad Sairee and wandered along the beach (where we took the gorgeous photo above) We found a relaxing beachfront shack with a barbeque out the front and a great atmosphere and watched the sun go down. The next day we woke up, looked out our balcony to clear blue skies so the day was spent on the beach admiring the views and appreciating the chance to relax in the good weather, only getting up every so often to cool down in the clear blue sea. Although we both applied layers and layers of factor 20, we both burned- me obviously far more so! We found a large bottle of aftersun, took a wander through through the town with all its night stalls and went back to the same beachside shack for food and after dinner watched the films on show.

Due to our lobster appearances we decided not to scare people on the beach and instead took a walk across the island- about 3km south to the pier to book our boat tickets to Koh Phangnan, search for new reading material and have a look at snorkelling prices (too high!) After a full days walking we headed back and again, watched the sun go down and settled in to watch a new release movie on the beach. We couldnt have had a more perfect couple of days In Koh Tao (Turtle Island)

The next day we checked out and boarded the Song Serm 9 to Koh Phangnan...