Koh Tao Christmas and Advanced Diving Christmas was strange. Everything felt wrong. The sun was shining and it was blisteringly hot. I had a massive hangover having celebrated with the continental Europeans the night before and this didn't help my mood. I thought I could make things more festive by Skyping home, but we managed to miss each other in the morning and, needing to be up early the next day, I was in bed before they returned from their afternoon stroll...

Koh Tao - Open Water Course Day 1 My Open Water fee included 4 nights accomodation in the guesthouse next door, so I happily checked out of my room and moved. Later that morning, we met to go through some of the course content, to take a few multiple choice tests and to learn a little about the equipment we would be using. In the afternoon we went to do out 'confined' session. This is normally held in a swimming pool, but my dive school took us to a shallow ba...

Koh Tao (9 nights) Day 1 (Dont worry, I wont write an essay for every day!) My train arrived at the port town of Chumphon around 5.30am. I already had a transfer booked, so I found my open-backed taxi and squashed in with around 15 others and their bags. We reached the ferry in time to see the sun rising over the ocean and began the 3 hour journey to the island. The seas were calm and I slept for the majority of the way. Upon arrival I jumped in a share taxi w...

Bangkok (3 nights) A minivan turned up at my resort on Koh Chang to pick up me and one other, an Australian girl called Jo. We stopped at other places on the island, but nobody else got in, so it was just the two of us! The minivan was new and air-conditioned and drove us all the way. However, the van went to the airport and not to the city centre, so we had to change to an airport shuttle bus once we got there. We were also delayed by a slow ferry journey, so, ...

Koh Chang (2 nights) I took a moto taxi from Koh Kong to the Thai border. I met a couple of German girls and another couple (no idea where they were from) and we all jumped in a pick-up and headed to Trat, where we changed to a Thai style taxi. This is essentially a pick-up truck with a canvas cover constructed over the back, where there are a couple of benches for passengers. We caught a ferry to the island and then another taxi to the beaches. I had separated...