Although we missed our ferry, suppoesed to be at 7 we payed an extra pound each and got the high speed catamaran, only took 1.5 hours (slow boat takes 6hrs). arrived in the island of Koh Toa bout half three. We jumped in back of a pick up truck and payed the guy to take us to sairee beach, when another guy jumped in the back and I kept asking him where he was staying to which he replied sairee, i kept asking him again cos i thought he was saying sorry in some deranged french accent took three attemts till i realised he was irish and he was staying at siaree beach. as soon as we got here we met a lad from manchester that said if we stayed at the lotus resort we could get 4 nights accom and our ssi open water certificate to dive all for 150 pound each.bargain. so we did, got a beach hut on stilts bout 20 meters from gorgeous beach and were currently doing our course, fisrt 2 days going well so we'll update you all if/when we pass ....................

Beach is amazing, paradise, so relaxed people doing fire poi on beach and all the bars have cushions to lay on the beach,

today manda had panick attack after learning we had to put on our full diving gear then jump off the back of the boat!! the scuba tanks are soooo heavy and with fins on its very hard to walk so you can imagine how hard it was! We did a few exercises on the bottom and then went for a dive, we saw the most awesome marine life in all colours, fish, star fish, coral reefs and even a ray! But thankfully no sharks lol