Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I had high expectations for Koh Tao and I was not disappointed! We arrived mid morning at the Simple Life Resort on our free pickup truck from the pier. It was a great hotel with a pool, a free fried breakfast and a balcony overlooking the palm-fringed mountain.
The first day we spent exploring Sairee beach village. We hired the best snorkels ever- unfortunately there was not much to see that afternoon and instead, I was rewarded with a jellyfish sting on my thigh. We retreated to a bar looking over the beach for a Chang and I nursed my wound. That evening we went on the lookout for 'Kanya' - a recommendation of Jake's (and the lonely planet). It was a restaurant with only four tables serving up delicious thai food straight from the wok. We chose the chicken and cashew nuts, the Penang and Massaman curry, and a couple more changs to wash it all down. Yum! In search of a beach bar we found the Lotus bar which had a fire show, good music and cushions on the sand to get comfy on. Of course you didn't want to get too comfy just incase one of the spinning fireballs came your way!
Day 2 we decided to head to a small set of three islands joined by sand bars called Koh Nuan Yuan, only a 10 minute longtail ride away. To escape the boat loads of tourists, we arrived early to get some good photos. We paid £2 each to enter the National Park and headed for the viewpoint. This involved climbing a series of rickety wooden bridges, a large set of concrete steps and at the top, and some very large rocks. We were very sweaty at this point and I needed to sit down, but we had to get our pictures quickly before the Japanese tourists filled the beach. It was a beautiful view and it was definitely worth the climb. It was so peaceful with views over the Koh Tao on one side and Nuan Yuan joined by its amazing sand bars on the other. We climbed back down in search of a drink and hired some sunbeds. Using the same snorkels we hired the previous day we went in search of the 'Japanese Gardens', a popular snorkelling site off of the beach. Some of the tourists were happy swimming by the shore with the small black and yellow stripy fish everywhere. But they liked Oli's bites too much so we swum out further. About 20 metres offshore you reach an expansive set of boulders covered in christmas tree and brain coral, anemones, larger colourful fish and lots of sea urchins. This made for some excellent snorkelling, weaving in and out of the large boulders. I got some great underwater shots here! We got picked up by our longtail and sat by the hotel pool after some tasty noodle soup from a street stall. That night we went in search of more street food and tasted something from every stall down one of the soi's (streets). From Thai fish cakes, chicken satay, crispy won tons, steamed dumplings and many more but we only spent £6 in total! Finished off with a flashpacker special of a banana and Nutella roti (pancake).
a-roy mahk (delicious)!
The last day to mention we had booked ourselves onto a Discovery Dive with our resort. £40 for a trial dive and if we liked it we could pay £16 to do another deeper one later that day. I was apprehensive having not liked diving at all in Belize. We climbed on the boat with the other cool kids doing all sorts of PADI qualifications. We were the babies of the group being looked after by our aussie instructor Baden. He gave us a 10 minute lesson on the boat and then it was time to try! The boat stopped at Mango bay in the north of the island. We got all the gear on, tank included and the first thing we had to do was jump into the sea from the boat. I checked my BCD fully inflated in fear of sinking and jumped in, and followed Oli and Baden to the shore. He showed us a few skills such as how to clear the mask of water, how to equalise your ears and what happens if your regulator falls from your mouth. We practiced breathing for about 5 minutes and headed out of depth for our dive. It was brilliant! We went for about 45 minutes at a depth of 6 metres and saw many stingrays and white-eyed eels. We loved it- it was so much better than snorkelling! Baden said we were 'naturals' but I'm pretty sure he says that to everyone, so we confidently opted for the second dive. White Rock was in the middle of the sea and it was quite choppy. This dive involved climbing down a 12 metre deep rope to the bottom. We both had trouble equalising but Baden was extremely helpful with this. After a few minutes of pain I was ready to give up, then my ears suddenly popped and I was free to dive away! once deeper the visibility was better and it White Rock revealed itself. This site was much larger this time with bigger fish and huge colourful corals. We were ready to sign up for our Open Water course but to Baden's disappointment we sadly had to leave the next day to Bangkok. We endeavour to do it somewhere else on our trip though!
Koh Tao has been the best island so far, not too built up, good food and great sealife. Now we have the 11 hour journey to Bangkok to contend with.
Stats-
Noodle soups eaten: 4
Number of moped injuries seen: too many
Fruit shakes drunk: 6
Number of fried breakfasts: everyday
Number of diving converts: 2
- comments
Nickynisbet Wow you've been so busy! But glad you've had time for a few 'changs ' it took me a minute to realise what they are!! The diving sounds brilliant but not sure I'd be brave enough to try it myself! Hope you've recovered from your 12 hour journey to Bangkok, enjoy the big city but be careful!! Love you Mum :) xxxxx
Debbie Hi hope you've had a few hours on the sunbeds , diving sounds great , make sure you do that in the whitsundays! We are all ok here but getting colder and colder and raining. Glad to see you having a lovely time . Xx
Jemma You insisted to me that there was no point in diving!!! Glad its won you over!! Did ko tao live up to the photos you used to admire - you must recognise where they were taken now!! xxx