Turtle Island
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
28
105
Trip End
Jan 19, 2009
Koh Tao,
Thailand
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The next morning we caught a coach to the water and prepared to board for the trip to Koh Tao; some required more preparation than others...Once aboard the hour and a half trip to Koh Tao flew by with the cool breeze, beautiful scenery and many flying fish to pass the time. The fish were flying, not being eaten by the way.
Arriving on Koh Tao was like visiting paradise, apart from the initial landing. Stepping off of the boat was interesting, being immediately swarmed by taxi drivers and their reps, but once you said no they did leave you alone, unlike in many other places. We ended up agreeing to a taxi with a gent who instead of leading us to a car, scarpered momentarilty, returning with a Toyota Hi-Lux pick up and then helped us each get into the pick up tail! He took us to a guest house further down the island and within walking distance from most places we would want to see and about 10 minutes walk from the sea. The girls shared a room and the boys shared a room ( the boys also had to share a bed!!! As you can imagine, many jokes followed this, especially when they were caught rubbing after sun on each other as well)
The gang's first sunset
. What an amazing place Koh Tao is! Scenery to die for, bathwater temperature sea, friendly locals, and a general atmosphere of relaxation and happiness. We'd go back tomorrow...Days and nights of fun ensued. It is hard to say what the best thing about Koh Tao was. The bars on the beach with cushions to sit on, lanterns in the trees and people doing fire poi or the gorgeous weather and beaches or the reefs or the friendly people or the lovely little stalls for shopping.
A day that really stands out is the day we got a long boat around the island. We went to a place called shark bay first and the man who was taking us round the island said that he would stop and we should all go snorkelling as we would probably get to see sharks. It was very amusing all seeing each other in our masks and snorkels for the first time! We have a fabulous picture of Debs (special)!!!! Well we were all very shocked and surprised after Debs, Will, Craig, Chris and Anna got in the water ready to go for a snorkel, leaving Laura on the boat to sunbathe, when we heard a splash, only to turn and see that Laura had decided to try and overcome her fear of water and jump straight in (maybe she hadn't heard the bit about the sharks).
A few of us saw a couple of reef sharks. Quite an eerie experience.
We then went to Mango bay, which was stunning, We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking one of the best views you could imagine. We snorkelled off the bay after lunch and Laura snorkelled too!!! Very impressed
Parrot fish!
. Def one of the best days(possibly not for Laura!)We spent a day on a little island off the mainland. Boiling, boiling boiling hot! Again, an awesome reef and much chilling out.
The last night we were in Koh Tao was the Thai New Years Eve. Sonkran! Well that was an interesting evening. The way the thais celebrate their new year is by throwing water over everybody or by covering people's faces in powder or paste. The boys were feeling sleepy so they left us ladies to our own devices! Perhaps not the best idea considering we had to be up to get a taxi to the boat for Koh-pa-Ngan at 9 the next morning. Te he. Anyway after many hours of buckets of cocktails and being soaked by water, sea water, alcohol and a weird paste that I think consisted of tiger balm, us ladies made it back to our guest house somewhere inbetween 6 and 7 in the morning ready for our alarm at 7.30. Bless Will, he managed to get us up but he did have to try very hard. Somehow we made it in time for the boat. A miracle!
