Koh Tao - 27 June - 1st July

Beautiful Koh Tao! ...ahhh what a lovely place. This was the second thai island we visited and i have to look at the diary to remember where we where and when as the islands are all starting to merge together as we are currently on our 4th island now...ha ha..poor me hey! Sorry everyone didn't mean to rub it in, i still have yellow hair so never mind hey you can't have everything!

Ok so got up on the 27th but didnt have hangovers, we went for a nice breakfast we were were't gettin picked up to go to the ferry till 12.30pm. The weather was glorious aswell, so we got the port at 1pm and were not due to leave till 1.30pm and then we seen a storm coming which we didnt think much of. We got on the high speed catarman early as the storm was fast approaching and we got settled in for the journey as we knew we would we stopping at Koh Phan gan first before Koh Tao to let off all those staying on the island for the full moon. The boat was packed for that very reason. Anyway the boats huge so i didnt think anything of the storm until we got going....

It was so scary... the waves were crashing over the top of the boat and the boat kept tilting onto its side, people were screaming and Si and I just kept looking at each other! I don't get sea sick (when i was ill in Sihanoukville on that boat that was purely a hangover!) and the height of the waves was undescribable, we felt like we were on a roller coaster, where your stomach leaves you and you get it again when you crashed down after each wave which felt think eternity.

I filmed it the journey for a few minutes as i couldn't believe it at first and you can hear people screaming.

I looked at Si and said should the boat be doing this? Should it have even left the port? and It is right not to be able to see the sea out the window? and more importantly...i don't think i am feeling too well! Si said he didn't feel too good either and i looked at him...he was slick with sweat ,as if he had just had a shower and he was as white as a sheet. With that i looked around and seen people being sick into bags the boats crew were giving out, at that point i didn't have time to wait for them to get to us. I seen a girl being violently ill into a bag and it set me off. Luckily i had a bag to hand. I felt alot better afterwards but Si was going down hill, although he still hadn't been sick. We eventually got to Koh Phan gan, but it had taken an hour longer than normal. We then had to wait for everyone to get off before we then started our next leg to Koh Tao.

I made Si move nearer to the air conditioning as he was just a lather of sweat. I then started to feel rough again and was sick a further 2 times and then si started. God the whole journey was awful and we both felt so ill for hours afterwards! Si said after the ordeal if anyone ever wants to torture him then put him back on that boat in a storm...take note people!! During the journey he was so ill he couldn't even speak, he was that weak!

After what felt like a lifetime we got to Koh Tao and must have looked very green as people were sympathising with us as we got off! We got a pickup to Hat Sairee beach and booked into a room at Ban's Diving Resort. We got the room for 6 pounds a night as Si had agreed to do a fun dive through them.

Koh Tao is famous for its diving. It is a very small island and the thais here are more interested in fishing than on making money from tourists, which makes a refreshing change, although it does make life difficult when you are trying to get your bill or check bin as they say in thialand. There are diving resorts glaore here and you can even get your accomodation for free if you sign up to do your PADI with them. It is a very chilled out and relaxing island thats why it gets busy here after the full moon parties as its where people come to relax after partying hard at Koh Phan gan.

We spent the next few days chilling on the beautiful and nearly desearted beaches and Si did two fun dives which he enjoyed, however we missed the full moon party as they where only doing one boat from Koh Tao at 5pm and it wouldn't return till 6am, and si didnt return from his dives till 5.30pm. Torie who we did laos with was in Koh Phan gan and really wanted us to meet her that but it wasnt to be. No worries they happen every month, i'm sure we will make it to one at some point!!

On the 30th we decied to move out bums and go explore this gorgoeus island but on foot as all the roads are dirt tracks and you see lots of people with bandages from motorbike accidents, mainly acquired in Koh Phan gan where an injury from a motorbike accident is called the Koh Phan gan tattoo! So we didn't want to be the next casulties so set off on foot across the rocks and took a very scenic route. We had a great day climbing rocks and through forests and found lots of the little beach coves you can only access through climbing on foot or by hiring a longtail boat, as you can see from the photos. We got so far but were knackered so charted a longtail for the journey back!!

The next day we chartered a long tail boat to visit The Nang yuan islands which are 3 islands linked up by a sand bank, it was a gorgoeus idylic place. We hiked up to the top of one of the islands to take photos so that you can see how the 3 small islands are linked by the sand bank...it nearly killed me though!!

We had a great time here but decided we needed to move on to another island, with the full moon party over the island had an influx of 3000 people so we decided to trade places and go to Koh Phan gan...see next entry...