We are writing this as newly qualified PADI Open Water divers who are now certified to dive to 18 metres in the wide open sea! Woo woo!! Cant believe I've actually managed to do it...that's not to say it wasnt done with a slight bit of drama, I had a bit of an issue with the going under water part, once I was under water, I was fine but its just the actually letting out the air and going under I hated...after numerous drama tantrums and a one-on-one with the instructor by the last day I managed to sort my self out and do it with minimal fuss! The Taylors are proper water babies, they took to it immediately. The actual diving part was amazing though, we saw so many amazing fish including Trigger fish (with teeth, AM was not happy about them in the water), the biggest Pufferfish in Koa Tao and loads of other gorgeous fish, we felt like the Little Mermaid!!! We dove one day in a place called Shark Island, which obviously made me panic even more, why call a place that? Thankfully no sharks to be seen!

We were staying at a place called Budda View which was lovely and met a few people who were originally on a year long or so travelling trip and ended up in Ko Tao, loved it so much that they sacked off the rest of their trip and stayed! I can see how that happens, we're all in agreement that its definietly our favourite island so far. One night me and Clue went to a bar called Castle bar, it was like a My Little Pony toy castle, so nice, all white with fairy lights everywhere and steps leading to different levels etc...that ended predictably with us being drunk girls stumbling home at 3.30 in the morning and having to get up for a dive at 9...surprising how the water seems to cure hangovers!

The next few days, once we were free from diving and using our brains again - its shocking how lazy we've got, I could have died when it turned out we had to d an exam to pass the PADI course! We hired scooters again, I had my Ko Tao Danger Wheels (no injuries this time) and whizzed around the island exploring and sunbathing. We met another traveller called Greig and adopted him as our NBF for Ko Tao. We ended up dragging him along to a Ladyboy show one night, well when in Rome...or when in Thailand, you must see the Ladyboy show (not do as the Ladyboy's do you understand?!!)...it was HILARIOUS! All the Ladyboys mimed to various camptastic songs such as 'I Will Survive'; ABBA and of course the entire Dreamgirls Soundtrack it seemed...it took me back to the days of living next door to Hitesh and Mike and being dragged (well there wasn't much protesting) to dance to the same soundtrack...and being woken up at 4 in the morning to the sound of Beyonce belting one out, so funny. The Ladyboys were mostly men in drag and hadnt had many op's, they were all so so camp and made the show so much fun. One of them took a shine to Greig so we thought it only right to make the macho man from London get dressed up at the end and dance with them - go on Greg!!!

One night someone mentioned they were going to a place called the Ibiza Bar in the hills. We were sold. Jumped on our scooters and headed over there, new Irish friend Eric in tow. It lived up to expectations and was lots of fun...a very good way to end our Ko Tao adventures!

We've had a change of plan on our route and on the stories and recommendations from other travellers have decided to put Oz back a month or so and head up to Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam. So I'm writing this with an hour to kill before we have to get the 2 hour boat journey to the mainland then the 10 hour bus journey to Bangkok AND THEN a 12 hour train journey to the capital of Lao...Needless to say we're not looking forward to it, lots of entertainment in tow!