8 May We're up early, on our way to the North of the island for the sensational snorkeling that awaits us. We eat our breakfast and enjoy some fruit before packing for the trip North. Along the way we made a few stops - we were told that there is a waterfall definitely worth visiting and also that one can photograph the elephants along the way without having to pay the operators.The total distance to the north is 15km, after 5km the waterfall sign come up and we...

7 MayThe plan was to wake up early and head for the North of Koh Phangan where we planned to do a trek to the waterfall after which we would hire masks & snorkels to explore the reefs. But for some reason neither of us could sleep well the last night, waking up regularly. The result was we didn't leave so early and decided to sleep in till 08h00 postponing our plan to the following day and substituting it with a visit to the South East to visit the locations ...

6 May Up at 07h00, we want to see the Big Buddha before having to return the scooter at 09h00. We drove around quite a bit before finding the island where it was located, strange how not even the locals could direct us. The Big Buddha is a 12 m high statue which is gold plated, in essence it looks exactly the same as all other Buddha statues, but it's the biggest attraction of the island. We were harassed by a black dog following us around and jumping on us the ...

5 May We spent the morning either in the sea or tanning outside it. Strange thing in Thailand and Malaysia we found that one could lie in the sun for large parts of the day without burning, nothing like back home. Later we took the scooter for a spin around the island. It's much larger than we thought and exploring it with the motorcycle really added to the island experience. Driving around we stopped at the famous Chaweng beach. It's really a beautiful beach wi...

4 May The morning the lady's husband, a retired police commander, gave us a lift to the bus station. Every 5 minutes we would be approached by an agent who wanted us to take their minibus to Surat Thani. When we told them we wanted to take the local bus because it was cheaper, they would tell us there was no local bus or it was more expensive. We waited for 1 ½ hours before a bus came, checking that it went to Surat Thani, we boarded and paid the mone...