Nobody was feeling their best as we got off the catamaran at Koh Tao port to be greeted by the eager touts. Our sleeper train had been delayed by 4 hours, which meant we'd missed the early morning boat and had a 5 hour wait before the next one, and a catermaran isn't the smoothest ride either. We were eventually taken in by one tout who drove us to Ban's Diving Resort with a promise of free accommodation with every diving course. The free accommodation of course, turned out to be furthest away from the resort and a bit shabby, but hey, we're on a budget. Unfortunately, the diving course started a half an hour later which didn't give us much time to rest after our hectic journey to the island.

Our introduction to Scuba involved a marathon session of dull videos and a pep talk from an overenthusiastic instructor who "lives, sleeps and eats diving man!" Our evening was much more relaxed as we ate dinner on cushions on the beach whilst caked in aftersun.

Having been rather optimistic about the diving and not even complained about the flippers pinching my sunburnt feet, my feelings soon changed when we entered the water. A few of us, not including Kev, had trouble getting used to breathing under water. As hard as I tried I couldn't help the water from going up my nose and the Israeli instructor wasn't too interested in helping me work it out, pointing out that "well you are under water, there's not much more I can say." I finally mastered it and managed to swim a length of the pool with my mask off and then put it back on, no idea why.

It was obvious that neither of us were very taken with scuba, and alongside the fact that it was going to be expensive and all we'd done since we reached the island was 'live, sleep and eat diving,' we decided to call it a day. We are without an Open Water Diving Certificate but don't feel any the less for it.

Our free accommodation however, was not so free anymore so we opted to move down the coast to Ban Mae Hat where we rented a small beach hut. The Mae Hat beach did not meet the standards we'd become accustomed to so we hired a scooter and sped off along the coast to a perfect little bay where we spent most of our time after that. White sands, clear water and a chauffeur is all a birthday girl needs to have a good time, and watching Man Utd v Fulham in the evening of course.

Rosa