Hi folks, just a blink-and-you'll-miss-it round up of our 2 night pitstop at Ko Tao...

I don't want to bore you with the details of our actual, physical travelling, but several aspects of the trip from Lanta across the country to Ko Tao on Thailand's West Coast merit a mention. First, was the complicated nature of the journey itself: minivan from the resort at Lanta, minivan onto ferry to get to mainland, off ferry-minivan drives up West coast to Krabi, change to larger 'Tourist Bus' (embarassingly, that's actually what it was called) to Surat Thani, wait for 3 huors, catch 11pm night ferry to Ko Tao, arrive there at 7am! Second, was the fact that we booked this entire journey (myriad connections and all) from the reception of our small beach resort on small, beachy Lanta - and actually got there! Third and finally, I feel I must draw your attention to the night ferry. The most accurate description would be to liken it to the galley of a slave ship. Seriously. People were crammed in like numbered sardines (1-120), on paper-thin mattresses in a room no bigger than my kitchen at home. I was number 2, so imagine my horror when I gingerly stepped into the slave-barracks to find that Numero 1 was a Thai lady with a blaring radio (classical Thai!?!) and blase disregard for my personal space. I decamped to number 3 (Emma - number 4, Sarah - number 5), and left Matt, a guy we had met on the bus to fend off Thai Lady number 1. As we were bemoaning the lack of space and air, Matt cheerily announced 'don't worry, I'm an excellent spooner'. Joy. Anyhow, we survived and arrived into Ko Tao, frazzled but intact...

We hopped on a taxi to Sai Ree beach, a haven of beachfront bungalows, dive schools (Ko Tao is something of a diving mecca - more on that below) and all the essentials of a developing beaten-track backpacker haunt (cheap bars/internet cafes/Thai massage). We settled on a bungalow at Blue Wind, a stones throw from the beach in a shady grove. Despite being something of a night-time sauna - the room's sole rooftop fan didn't cool much of anything - the location was good and Blue Wind had a sweet beachfront deck where we enjoyed cakes and books. I made a schoolboy error when sunbathing on our first day on Ko Tao, thinking that the brisk winds meant no cream. How wrong I was. Returning to the bungalow, my back flared up like a beacon - Emma and Sarah were drafted for an impromptu Aftersun Thai Massage. Bad times.

The only real objective for our short time at Ko Tao was to do a beginners dive course, and after shopping around for a good deal, invested our hard-earned baht in Phoenix Divers. We boarded Phoenix's dive drop-off boat and sailed out to Nang Yuan (all the while anxiously positioning myself so as best to conceal my glowing back), a small island not far from where we were staying that had good visibility at two sites called Japanese gardens and Twin Rocks. After donning the heavy equipment and then flippers, all the while still on the boat, we stumbled around comically for a few precarious moments (think fat penguins wearing clown shoes on an ice rink) before taking the plunge. Our Mancunian instructor Phil took us towards the shore to teach us some basic skills (equalise! clear your regulator! empty your mask!) before we followed a buoy rope down from the boat for our maiden dive. I found diving very surreal - at first the focus was very much on regular breathing, as opposed to observing the underwater world we were exploring. We surfaced, and decided to go straight down again, so the boat moored up at Twins diving site, and off we went. Our second dive was even better - with our initial hesistancy gone, we focused more on the corals and fish. Twin Rocks was a much better site, and having adapted our movements, we were able to get a much closer look - circling towering coral blocks and swimming over mini underwater ravines. It was done and dusted too soon (our second dive was 36 minutes but felt like 5), and before we knew it, we were back on the mainland clutching our Diving diploma certificates like excitable schoolkids. Tired from the dives, we grabbed Beer and Pringles (Thai Pringles are tiny!) and settled in for a game night at the bungalow: Uno, Social Stereotypes Guess Who and Poker.

On Thursday we caught a crowded catamaran to Ko Pha Ngan, keen to secure lodging in advance of Sunday's Full Moon Party. For all the gory details on that, tune in next time....