Thanks for all the messages and comments from back home! We miss you guys! Hard to believe we're two weeks into our trip already.
We just spent three days on Koh Tao, an island famous for it's diving and snorkeling sites. We stayed in a hostel in Sairee Beach, the main beach of the island. It was definitely a different experience sharing our room with eight other people with no running water. The island atmosphere was so cool, and probably our favourite island yet. The streets were all lined with restaurants, bars, spas, and other shops. As in other parts of Thailand, you're allowed to buy alcohol in the 7-11s and other mini-marts, and drink it on the street. It still feels weird to be able to bring your own open drinks into the bars and restaurants, but it's cheaper and that's what everyone does! The taxis here are all pickup trucks, with benches lining the sides of the box. Not super safe but you get a nice breeze up there! We treated ourselves to Thai massages (they're everywhere here for $10/hour). It was super relaxing but different than massages at home. They did a full body massage but incorporated stretches, face and scalp massages, ear flicking, and we were served delicious tea at the end. The beach is lined with hotels and restaurants with bean bag chairs in the sand. At night, they light up the beach with candles in beer bottles, and had entertainment including fire shows. We tried some new street food, including fruit shakes and the classic banana pancakes, shown in the picture.
We found Kristin's cousin Matt, and went on a full day boat tour of the island with him. We stopped at several snorkeling spots and saw tons of fish, beautiful coral, and even a turtle. We also stopped at Nang Yuan, which is three little islands connected by a big sandy beach. We all ended up a little sunburnt from all the snorkeling but it was a very fun day!
We were wishing we had an extra day on Koh Tao. When we went to book our ferry to leave, all the ferries were full for the day we were requesting. So we kind of got what we were hoping for and had to stay another night. We stayed at a divers' resort and left this morning for Koh Phangan.
We're all ready for the Full Moon Party tonight! More updates to come soon.