Ko Tao, Thailand

  Ko Tao, Thailand
Sunday, August 24, 2008

We arrived in Koh Tao after a very long and uncomfortable 12 hour bus journey. We had a hard time trying to find accomodation because almost all of the resorts are linked to a dive company and they try to keep the cheaper rooms for people doing dive courses. Myself and Doug were already qualified, Karl wasn't doing a course and Erin only needed to do half a course so it took a while to find somewhere to stay. we searched for hours. We started noticing a lot of resorts putting up signs saying they were full up so we took a crappy room for 400 Baht (8 Euro) per night. Erin and Doug really didn't want to stay there so they decided to look around some more but by the time they got back their room was gone. The room was the worst we have stayed in since we have been away. Doug and Erin ended up having to share our room because there was nothing else, 2 single beds between four of us. Cosy!! The full moon party was just over on Koh Pha Ngan so everyone was on Koh Tao.
One of the owners saw Erin and Doug in our room and gave out to us saying only 2 people allowed. We told him they weren't staying and that we were just having a drink. Erin and Doug got up at around 6 and went for a swim so we thought we got away with it. Karl went to try and get our 200 Baht deposit back but they asked us for another 400 Baht for the room because Doug and Erin stayed there. Karl had a story all ready for them but little did we know that they had a CCTV camera outside our room! Karl just told them to keep the 200 Baht deposit and walked away. The woman started shouting at him that they were going to call the police if we didn't give them the other 200 Baht! Karl kept walking.

5-Ko Tao Beach

2-Lydia & Karl at Sunset

We walked down the road to the resort where we organised the diving and got 2 rooms. They weren't much better than the room we just left. Myself, Erin and Doug were doing 4 dives over 2 days and Karl had to hang around the bars. The dives were great although the dive sites were really crowded. We counted around 20 boats at the first site with at least 20-30 people on each boat.
 I was a bit nervous before the first dive since it had been a month since i did the course and i wasn't sure if i would remember everything but once i got into the water i was fine. The visibility was quite good and there were a lot of fish. We were warned about the Trigger fish which is very territorial and bites but i wasn't sure what it looked like so i didn't notice one chasing me until the divemaster started signalling me to get out of the way. I know what they look like now!! The sea got a bit rougher at the 2nd dive sight and i started to feel a bit seasick but apart from that it was a great day.

1-Karl at Sunset

3-Ko Tao Beach

The first dive on the second day wasn't that great. There wasn't that much to see but the second dive was really good. We saw blue spotted stingray, yellow box fish, more trigger fish and loads of others. I'm really looking forward to doing more diving now especially on the Galapagos Islands if everything goes to plan.
None of us really wanted to stay in our crappy rooms again so we decided to take the boat to Koh Pha Ngan that afternoon.
Koh Tao is definitely not a place to go unless you are going to do a dive course.