....Moving around a bit

The island of Ko Tao is lovey; I'd really recommend it. It's the smallest of the three Gulf coast islands which tourists and backpackers flock to when they've left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and want to get some white sand between their toes (along with Ko Samui - much bigger and Ko Phangan - much busier). The main draw is the diving which is the best in Thailand according to some but where there's diving, there's snorkelling so I thought this would be a good option to get going marine life-wise.

Got here on a tourist bus/catarmaran combo ticket from Hua Hin which was much less stressful than the go-it-alone government bus option and picks you up/plonks you down in all the right places. Unfortunately on this bus journey I had to deal with the spectacularly awful film Clueso, with Steve Martin, which was blaring out and was enough to make me jump off and ride with the locals again.

Anyway, took the advice of travellers and travel agents that just rocking up to the islands and finding accom when you get there is the way to go. So that's what I did. Only in the middle of the day (have I mentioned how hot it is here? Unrelenting) with an admitedly massive bag (am definitely going to send things home at the next major town) I went for somewhere way too expensive just so I could stop walking (and it was my own bungalow). However, here began a bit of a disappointing stay on the island.

Even to get the really pricey rate I had to stay two nights, so on the second day went off to find somewhere cheaper and found somewhere half the price and nicer. Planned to stay there two nights then get in a days snorkelling. But on moving there they could only put me up for one night and I couldn't face chaning rooms again so decided to stay the night and head to the next port of call - Ko Phangan - the next day. Disappointing because Ko Tao is somewhere I could have stayed longer. Am thinking it's wise to throw in a few longer stays while travelling to break up the stress of moving on all the time. But I'm sure there'll be good fish watching action somewhere else along the way so will have to contain my snorkelling excitment a bit longer.

And the other annoying thing is that Ko Tao is such a fab party island, not mad just a really cool vibe with all the bars right on the beach and tables in the sand, all marked out with lanterns and candles after dark and the finest array of tanned specimins recounting their days diving experiences. Well this is ok if you're already in a gang, but staying in a bungalow by yourself surrounded by couples is not exactly the way forward in meeting people so was probably a good thing I moved on as was starting to become a bit annoyed by it.

Well thankfully fun (and a bit of a minorly scarely swimming incident) was to await me on Ko Phangan, so I'll update more when I've finished here.

Health update:

Mosquito bites - 5 (pretty good going no?)

Five a day - every day - and some!

Tan/burn ratio - about 90%/10% (annoyingly burnt shoulders badly on the boat yesterday)