Hey All

On Friday we had the worst travel day yet. It started off with a 25 minute boat ride to Ko Phangan, the sea was a little choppy and we were not feeling great when we got there. After that came a 90 minute boat ride to the island of Ko Tao in a high speed catamaran on quite possibly the choppiest water ever. A man came round after the first 45 minutes handing out carrier backs, from then on about 80% of the boat had a bag full of sick. Hol was very poorly but thankfully we arrived at Ko Tao just in the nick of time. We grabbed the first hostel we could find as we hadn't booked any accommodation for Ko Tao. The hostel was awful, it was grotty and grimy but neither of us were well enough to be trekking around the island with 18kg rucksacks to find somewhere else. We checked in for one night, chilled out for a bit then went to look for somewhere better to stay for the rest of our time on the island.

After a very sleepless night in the hot, sticky and not very clean hostel we packed up. During the night Pete had seen the most enormous cockroach ever wandering around the bathroom. It probably got in from the huge crack in the wall! We took one sniff of the shower, and decided we'd be cleaner not washing in the water and in true backpacker style, hit the road a little unclean. By the time we'd got to the other hostels a boat load of people had landed and bagged all the good cheap ones. We resided to the fact that we'd need to pay a bit more for an air-con room, but decided this was a good investment and found a nice little place at the top of a hill for a reasonable price. First stop - the shower. We spent the afternoon mooching around the Island taking in all the loveliness of Thailand! We headed down to Sairee beach and found a lovely relaxing bar right on the beach. As it happened it was happy hour so we had a cheap drink and watched the sunset from the comfort of the beanbags on the beach. As it got dark the staff lit flaming torches along the beach which created a lovely tranquil atmosphere. By this point we were hungry - we found an indian restaurant right next door so ate there. During dinner some locals put on a display of fire poi and batons, which was spectacular. We went back on the beach afterwards to carry on watching it and then got a taste of how quickly the weather can change in the tropics. It suddenly started pouring with rain and got really windy. Everyone ran for cover and we waited out the storm before heading back to our room.

On Saturday we slept in to make up for lost sleep. We went and found a snorkelling trip. We watched a video or two about scuba diving in a dive shop and pondered that idea for a bit - then decided we wanted to do it but we wanted to do a whole scuba course so we'd wait. We hunted around for an ATV (quad) bike but couldn't find anywhere that would hire it for half a day so we gave up and found an English pub to have dinner in and scrounged their internet for as long as you can drag out a pint of cordial or two! Surprisingly enough its really hard to come by over here and is imported! :-)

On Sunday we went snorkelling again. It was a bit of a rubbish tour compared to the one we went on in Koh Phi Phi. The boat was crammed full and it sailed in trio so by the time we got to the drop off there was about 70 people in the same patch of water. We managed to see lots of fishes though and Hol even saw a little shark - about 3 seconds before learning to swim at high speed behind Pete! The water wasn't as clear but that's probably because of the number of people snorkelling so we made the most of the day and split off from the group as much as we safely could. In the afternoon we stopped at Nangyuan Island - the most stunning island ever. We chilled out their for an hour and a half before heading back to Ko Tao. It was a lovely relaxed afternoon and the views really were amazing. The sea was really choppy on the way back to Ko Tao and we were thrown all over the place! After we made it back to dry land we didnt feel the best so had some dinner and got a fairly early night.

On Monday we hired an ATV (quad) bike and went exploring the island on our own. It was a great idea as we got to see all the places that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see with a tour / group. We ventured around at our own pace stopping to look at things as we went. Pete drove to Mango Bay but we had to give up as the dirt tracks were at 45° angles and were mostly gravel. We headed to the south of the Island and before long Hol had managed to fall over thin air, down a gravel hill and grazed all up her right leg. Good times.

We headed south to Aoew Leuk Bay but the beach was privatised so we moved on to Freedom Beach (aptly named) which was beautiful. We then went to Chalok Ban Kao Bay which was also stunning! We drove back north to Sairee Beach - the main tourist beach - for dinner and had a lush BBQ on some wooden decking overlooking the sea.

Home to pack as we move house again tomorrow!

Hol and Pete

xXx