So,

Turns out the journey to Koh Tao wasn't me stuck on a bus for as long as first thought it did however include, 1 mini bus, 1 big bus, 3 taxis, a wrong taxi stop and an overnight ferry to get to the island. The ferry was basic a small bunk in a huge room but at least it was clean unlike the bad reports of the other ferry people got on. I arrived in the tiny island at 5 am and spent 4 hours sat on the beach with2 danish girls until somewhere opened and we could get some brekkie. Shortly after 10 am I had managed to locate a cheap room for my stay and had decided my first day on the island would be spent doing nothing. I wandered around, so I could work out where things where and they lazed on the beach, well I actually fell asleep on the beach. The long over night journeys tire me out like a baby.That night I ventured out to find some food and wifi. I love the vibe here on the island, it's so chilled out and relaxed. Its not over built and has a few bars and restaurants on it that line the beach. Everyone ends up in the same bars and loads of the restaurants put on films at night to relax too. I love the way that all the bars etc are built over the sea. When the tide is in the water laps up underneath you and there isn't a scrap of sand to be seen as the sea covers the whole stretch. The waves crashing around your feet and its so relaxing to be sat on a giant cushion eating your dinner gazing out to the sea- very calming. I could stay a very long time here :)

My second day I wanted to be more productful then spending my time wandering the little roads, watching out for scooters and gazing at palm trees. I decided to hire a kayak for the day and head over to the Ayro Nayan islands. I have totally spelt that wrong but hey ho. There is meant to be a gorgeous view point high up on the island that I wanted to check out. I ended up bumping into a girl who I had met in my hostel at Krabi who ended up coming out on the kayak with me. I was slightly grateful for the extra pair of arms on the way back but I'll get to that part. The water was very still at that moment so it seemed the perfect day to be out on the water, you could paddle of just let the current take you over to the neighbouring island but as it took a while to get there most of the time was spent paddling. It's suprising how close things seem when they really aren't. haha, it was good fun though. We arrived at the island and were planning to walk up to the view point after we had gotten a drink. Sadly all of a sudden their were grey clouds looming, we both jumped in the water to do some snorkelling. We thought it was best to get in and have a look at some fish in case the weather did turn for the worse. The fish were cool and I love being under the water and looking around at the coral. Its surrene and so beautiful. There is a huge stretch of beach that runs between the two islands linking them together and its a great place to lie and relax. BUT, a guy charges you to come to the island- the sheer cheek of it. We did mange to dodge him and ended up not paying- go us. However sadly the wind picked up and as it was quite a way from Koh Tao by kayak we headed back pront leaving the viewing point behind :(. It was insanely choppy on the way back and there were points I thought we were going to come off the kayak and into the sea. It was a bit of a struggle to as the current and wind were working against us. It was a hard old slog to get back but funny at points as well, even though I wore sunglasses I still had sea water flicking at me and it burns!!! I swear i did half of the journey with my eyes closed lol. Sadly for the rest of the afternoon it rained and rained :(. I ended up sat in a bar on the intertnet all evening to keep myself amused. I kept my fingers crossed that the weather would pick up for my last day here tomorrow.

On my last day I just could not make up my mind as to what to do. I got up early due to their being some building work going on behind my building which acts as a wake up alarm for me. I still hadn't decided even after pondering over it throughout my breakfast watching the sea.I had narrowed it down to diving and snorkeling, as it had rained last night I thought the visibility would be bad and wandered over to the dive shop to see what they thought. As it happened once inside the dive shop, I made my decision to dive. Best bloody decision I made there. You spend the morning learning the theory and basic rules of diving before being let out into the water. It's simple stuff to pick up but makes you feel better and safer before going under. You then get a break for lunch before heading out into the ocean. It was a lot more choppier than yesterday, and I was on a much bigger boat. I was really lucky as I got a lovely instructer by the name of Gemma all to myself for the day. By the time we arrived to the first dive spot I was itching to get under mainly because the boat was so rocky I just wanted to get under the water and be still. I had to do the safety stuff in pretty rough conditions in the sea before I was allowed under the water. Gemma said I did a great job and then I got to go under and see the fishy's!!!. I still had great visibility and could see so much. I loved just swimming round even though the currents were taking me all over the shop. I knew the best thing to do was not panic and just breathe. I felt happy with dive and didn't think I had done aything special but Gemma thought I had had a brilliant dive, because even with the conditions I wasn't fazed by the currents or anything and just got on with it. This made me feel happy and made me enjoy the dive even more. The boat over to the next spot was awful. I never get seasick but on this particular trip I was feeling pretty rough. I ended up just sitting in the middle of the boat as that is supposed to be the stillest part of the boat and that was pretty bumpy. When we got to our next spot I was desperate to get in the water and get under it. Jumping back in I felt immediately better until I randomly and quite badly threw up, kinda funny though. As I'm no where near the boat, bopping up and down, with waves crashing over my head being sick. At that point in time I was just worried about breathing without drinking loads of sea water. I managed to swim over and gram hold of the line of another point to steady myself but I was literally being pulled out of the water by it. Gemma just grabbed me and we held onto each other as to not get lost and went under. Considering the roughness of the sea again the visibility was amazing underneath. There were huge schoals of fish swimming round my head and all around me. They weren't bothered by me one little bit and didn't seem to mind as I swam around with them. I got to see sting rays and this huge fish called a Trigger fish. I had been warned that these are territorial fish and can get a bit pissed if you go near them. I didn't realise this as I was quite happily staring it until Gemma used the sign for that type of fish and I quickly swam off. It was just incredible the amount of different fish you see all over the place in such close proximity to each other. The coral looks beautiful and even the different plants and everything that grows on it is awesome to look at. I wish I could of had more time down there. The sad thing is that I started to surface and I couldn't stop it and I surfaced up the top which meant I couldn't go back down as we were nearly out of time. Gemma had been doing everything to keep me under even adding extra weights and once we got back up I knew why. There was a turtle swimming just by my feet that I missed because I started going back up. I was gutted, it had been such a fun dive and that would have topped it off. I had had a brilliant day though, was so worth if and I can see why sooooo many people come to Koh Tao to dive. Gema let me swim all the second dive on my own as she had seen before that I could do without needing an instructer. She had swam off and lead me around the coral quite content with letting me follow her. It was the best day ever.

I went out for dinner that night very happy and ended up bumping into one of my friends who I had met in Bangkok. She had left Bangkok a day earlier to come to Koh Tao and hadn't left, she is now plannng on working there until Feb. Crazy but she just loves it and doesn't want to leave. It was good to have a catch up and a drink together, even though she was working at the time at the bar I was walking past but it was all fine. I really didn't feel like leaving Koh Tao but knew I had to move on and see other places and planned to move on tomoz after spending most of the day lounging around the island. I loved it and would definately come back.

xx SL xx