We arrived in Koh Tao after a very long coach trip and bumpy catamaran ride in the early morning and saw our first Thai sunrise whilst waiting for the boat.

We were pretty disappointed when we arrived at our hotel on Koh Tao but after hearing stories about other people's rooms decided it was better to stick with what we had and put it all down to being spoilt by Nornlen in Bangkok!

We had our first classroom lesson for diving that evening - it was very strange to be on holiday and to be told to have a shave and not to drink for a few days!!! The next morning was our first lesson in the pool - very weird to be able to breathe underwater. All was going well until we had to flood our masks underwater when Jo decided that diving was not for her! The next day we went out to sea at 7.30am (the reason we weren't allowed to drink!). Dan absolutely loved diving and took to it instantly. He would have loved to stay and complete the advanced course as well but this was quite expensive. Although we didn't get to see any sharks we did see hundreds of fish (some particularly big down near the seabed). Dan also saw a family of Nemo's inside a circle of coral. After gaining the PADI qualification the entire course went for a celebratory meal that night...and a few buckets of alcohol!

With a new found love for the sea, we both spent the entire next day snorkelling along the beach. That evening we went for a meal at a restaurant overlooking the sea and found a new interest - huge BBQ chicken kebabs! Although weirdly that restaurant didn't have any male toilets - your choice was Women's or Ladyboy's!!!

Our friends from the diving course were starting their advanced courses the next day so we decided to take the taxi boat to the small private islands - Koh Nang Yuan. They were absolutely stunning, as you can see from the pictures. Taking advantage of the good weather we took an extremely hot trek up to the top of one of the islands. We climbed the rickety wooden steps until they ran out and then scaled huge boulders to the summit. The view was incredible - possibly the most picturesque place we have ever been.

After 6 days on Koh Tao we were very sad to leave. With a much more relaxed pace than Bangkok we had found ourselves unwinding over the week and really appreciated how beautiful the place was. Having spoken to the dive instructors it was easy to see how they had visited the island 15 years ago and never left! We took the morning catamaran across to Koh Samui - a more bustling (and tacky) island than the one we had left.