After a short night in BKK we took, guess what...a night bus south to Koh Tao, the best known island in Thailand for scuba diving. This time it rained all night and we arrived already at 5 am at the harbor to take the speed boat. The weather was't too promising but we already were on the east coast and didn't want to go back west. So we took the boat and arrived in Koh Tao around 8am. We had reservations for the Crystal Dive Resort. Unfortunately, because of the bad weather some people had not checked out and we ended up waiting for 3 hours in the restaurant waiting for our room. Then they finally told us that they were putting us into another resort which was supposedly only a 5 minute walk away. We loaded our bags on a truck and drove away. What they had omitted to tell us was that it was 5 (long) minutes by car, so not something you walk that easily. But at this point we didn't have much choice since almost everything was booked due to the new World record that was taking place right while we were waiting at the restaurant. Between all the dive schools on Koh Tao they were trying to put 800 divers underwater at the same time. From the beach we could see all the heads in the water and then a huge yell when all the divers came back up. It looked pretty exciting. Unfortunately it rained during the whole thing.
So here we are in our bungalow at the other end of the island. Since it was kind of cool and grey we took a post-nightbus nap. Then we decided to rent a motorbike since there was a big party going on for the world record and we didn't feel like walking that far. It was a big outdoor area with lots of yummy food stands and a big stage. We sampled all kinds of foods and watched the Thai dancing for a while.
Next day we packed our stuff and moved back to the Crystal Dive Resort. We had had a chat with the owner and he helped us get something nicer. At noon we went for a dive trip. It was cool to dive together again. I'm really happy that Seth and I can now share this experience. Unfortunately the sky was pretty cloudy so the colors were not the best. We also realized that what people had told us about visibility and quality of diving in the Gulf of Thailand was true. It's by far not as good as Phi Phi or the Similan islands. That night we first had some great italian food and then we went back to the outdoor festival. This time there were some fun bands playing more modern stuff. We also watched kids climbing on a small climbing wall. Real monkeys!
On our third day we went back on a dive trip but we only did the first dive, which was a good decision. The second dive was so shallow and in such a boring place that we saw as much snorkeling as the divers did. The rest of the day we just relaxed. Next morning we packed our stuff. Since the weather was pretty cold, we basically just waited for the boat to Koh Pha Ngan which was around noon. It was kind of sad that we didn't enjoy these beach days more since they were some of our last ones before the big jump to Switzerland, but this coast is just not as beautiful as Phi Phi and the weather didn't help. We like to think that Thailand was crying for us about our nearing departure.
I added a few pictures to the website but they are stolen from somebody elses' website. An Inebriated friend accidently erased all our photos from the last week or so of the trip. More thumbnails ...
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