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When we arrived on Koh Tao we were surrounded by taxi drivers trying to bundle us into their cabs. They all had signs that said 100 baht per person and were not up for negotiating. We continued walking up the street trying to negotiate but it just wasn't happening. I conceded defeat and we headed to the next taxi.
Taxi Driver - "How many persons?"
Me - "Three"
Taxi Driver - "200 baht"
Success!!!! We were ready to throw in the towel but no, we saved about 80p each. England 1 Thailand 0.
The taxi dropped us at Big Blue Diving School, where I completed my Open Water course a couple of years ago. They had plenty of diving spots but accommodation was full. Off we popped to find some accommodation. This was not as easy as we expected. With it being straight after Full Moon and also a Thai national holiday, everywhere was full. We walked around for about an hour, passing other groups looking for accommodation. I felt like we were in an episode of The Apprentice rushing around to find accommodation before the other teams.
We bumped into a couple of lads looking for accommodation for five people. They pointed up a hill and said "there is a guy up there who has one room left". As we walked up the hill I couldn't help but think that I wouldn't have shown the other team how to win! Had they sent us on a wild goose chase to give themselves a head start on the next set of rooms? Fortunately for us they hadn't. In fact, having heard of loads of people paying 1000 baht a night each for a room, we were quite happy to pay 600 baht each. The room had a fan, air con, TV, en suite, free water, tea and coffee, and best of all, those little shampoos in the bathroom. It was a proper hotel and we had managed to find ourselves an absolute bargain!!
When we checked in, what was the plan of action? Shower and a nap! The nap part wasn't for me and this is where I met Carlos - a white and ginger cat who chilled out with me on the bench outside our hotel room. He was really upbeat, had a great sense of humour, and was overall a pleasure to hang out with.....I miss that cat.
After nap time we took a romantic walk for three, getting a few pictures of each other and seeing what the beach had to offer. A long, beautiful bit of sand with some clear salty water. Exactly what you would look for in a beach.
That evening we went for a typical Asian meal. We shared some starters of tempura prawns, prawn fritters, and chicken satay. Then on to the main. Rosella went for chicken in oyster sauce, I went for beef in black bean sauce, and Albert went for banana pancakes....yep, a dessert.
We headed back to the hotel to chill out and let our food go down before the fire show. When it got to 9 o'clock Rosella decided that she didn't want to go so Albert and I went to watch it on our own. Typical Rosella. The fire show was amazing. Spinning fire sticks and fire chains around people's heads, whilst on each others shoulders and finally on a table in the sea, creating a big firework style performance. Fantastic!
We were diving the next day so were not drinking much and after the fire show we headed back for a couple of games of cards (Rosella joined in for this) and then a reasonably early night.
The next morning we went scuba diving. The other two were not sure about doing it and so I bullied them in to it. They were booked on to the DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) and I was booked on to the Refresher course. Fortunately, we could do this at the same time and were put with an instructor called Ian. We started with a briefing and then sorted out our equipment. We got the long tail boat out to a bigger diving boat and headed to Mango Bay. This was to be the dive site for both of the dives.
We got our gear on and swam over to the beach to practice our skills. First, fill up your mask with water and clear it. Second, take out your regulator and replace it. Third, lose your regulator, find and replace back in your mouth. As part of my refresher I then had to take my mask off and put it back on, and do some buoyancy practice. After the skills we did a small dive (down to 5/6 metres) back to the boat.
Once back onboard we were given the option of doing a second full dive. All three of us decided to give this a go, and so after a break, a debrief and a few tips on how to improve we headed back down. Rosella seemed to take everything said onboard and her buoyancy was a lot better controlled. Albert on the other hand was like an underwater yo-yo. I have never seen anyone kicking themselves off of coral so much and one time the coral fought back, leaving Albert with a cut on his knee. Coral 1 Albert 0.
Once back on the boat we chilled out whilst we headed back to Big Blue. On our way back, whilst I was taking in the view, I turn around to see Albert throwing up over top deck. Whether this was seasickness, lack of food or shock from the coral beating him up we will never know.
That evening we headed for some food and got our drink on. A bucket whilst watching the fire show before walking down the beach to try out the other bars. We met up with Jon, Sam, Ben and Tasha from Koh Phagnan but there wasn't a lot really going on. I wasn't really feeling it so headed home about half 1, with Albert and Rosella arriving home over the night.
Yesterday, we chilled out for the day on the beach. Rosella fell asleep on the beach, giving her some incredible burn lines. After sitting on the beach for a few hours we all felt a bit disgusting and so decided to find somewhere to shower before our 15 hour journey. This is when I entered my first Thai massage parlour. After all the stories of 'happy endings' and being touched inappropriately I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. When I entered the shower I expected her to follow me in and lock the door behind her. Thankfully she was respectful and I closed the doors and locked them before she could burst in. From then on, it was one of the best showers I've ever had. Relaxing music, great shampoo and shower gel, and I felt like I was under a waterfall. Bargain at 100 baht!!
Feeling all refreshed and ready for a long journey, we collected our bags from the hostel and jumped in a taxi down to the pier. Our journey consisted of a night boat, bus and then boat.
We got on the night boat, as expected there was no air con but when told there was a fan, we were wrong to assume that there would be more than one desk fan between about 200 of us. So we boarded, eventually found our beds (preoccupied by others), and settled in for the night. Just as we were getting comfy, the engine started. It was the big thing next to us and it produced a constant noise that sounded a bit like a tractor running over a lawn mower and the lawn mower fighting back. That became the background beat to every song I listened to that night. Eventually, I got my head down and when we arrived I was a tad disappointed to be getting up at 5am.
After the boat journey, we got a tuk-tuk to the bus station and eventually got a bus from Surat Thani to Krabi. We arrived at Krabi for 9am to collect our boat tickets before being taken to the port for our boat. This would have all been great had our boat not been at 9am. Instead, on arrival they told us that the 9am boat had gone and we could change to the 1.30pm for free or pay to change to the 10.30am and use our tickets for the return boat. This sounded very dodgy but what else can you do right? Again, the "bus" was late to pick us up but this time the boat waited for us. Thankfully, we are now on the boat and should be in Koh Phi Phi in the next hour.
Josh x
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