Koh Tao:

So the journey to Tao was interesting to say the least. Steph livened all of our spirits by throwing up into her cup, delicious, and trying to explain her situation to the bus driver so he would pull over but to no avail. Things got less funny however when the road got bumpy and her cup was tipping precariously in the direction of Robyn and Amy. The danger subsided when we were dropped at what appeared to be an evacuation camp and left there for 2 hours with the promise of a bus in 10 minutes. Oh the joys of travelling, When we were finally ushered into a disney themed coach we drove back in the direction we had come. Things were going well. The driver obviously thought he could keep us quiet by playing the WORST quality black and white version of 'Layer Cake' followed by 'The Kings Speech' with ridiculously translated subtitles. After a while we grew suspicious of the fact that we were growing ever further away from the port in Surat Thani and so decided to confront the drivers. He kicked the door shut in our faces. At this point Amy decided to take matters into her own hands and finally got an answer out of him- "Bangkok,30" 30 HOURS?! Fully prepared to check into Bangkok Etap we were relieved to find ourselves at a port. The ferry however was not what we had envisioned when we had booked 'a sleeper ferry with a mattress each'. It was a fishing boat with prayer mats and A LOT of mosquitos. Heaven.

Upon arrival in Koh Tao at 6am Helen and Robyn found us all some sheds (generous term there) on the beach which were easily the worst place we have stayed but cheap so we couldn't complain too much. We met up with the swedish boys that we have travelled with in Laos and Phi Phi and to our surprise on a night out at the main bar Lotus, we bumped into the boys from home. Although there was only really 1 major bar in Tao, we fell in love straight away and spent our evenings dancing by the ocean, which helen frequently decided to jump in as a means to cool down after sweating buckets- it was boiling!

One of the highlights of our stay was without a doubt Nats "after party-come- silent disco" with a dress code featuring Nat in her underwear, Helen naked in a wet towel, Amy in her pyjamas and Steph and Tom Francis in their Sunday best after a night out. It was a pretty exclusive party but we will tell you this much- Tom would describe it as the best night of his life. Activities included dancing and shouting to "switch" usng the worst speakers known to man, then miming and humming other such classics after the neighbours got angry. Best. after party. EVER!

Although that night was obviously impossible to beat, other memorable activities included a day spent in luxury (at someone elses expense of course) after the swedes splashed out 8000 baht to hire a hillside, oceanfront bachelor pad for the night. Oh how the other half live, a real treat after living in squaller and waking up to a leaking roof and the lucky few who had curtains found them attatched by bin liners.

During our time in Tao we learnt that Swedish men dance like Beyonce on crack after meeting a group of 8 who were absolute nutters on the dance floor. Amy was a fairly ridiculous person one night (as per) and managed to not only lose all of her money but also all of georgias money and cards and woke up the next morning with a mans shoes, she obviously did a swap at some point in the night without her knowledge. So she now has flip flops that are about 3 sizes 2 big and a completely different colour. We also have a suspicion that they are real havianas. Meaning she has left some poor fellow with a pair 3 sizes too small, fake and very worn down, lucky him!

We would have liked to stay longer in Tao but the full moon was looming and we we were excited to see what Koh Phangan had in store for us!