Good very early morning to the uk and very sunny hello from the islands of Thailand.

We pick up the travels from our current position of Ko Phan Ngan and I will catch up and look back fondly on the island of Ko Tao. We had got a 2 hour boat trip over from Ko Samui where we enjoyed a laid back stay without actually doing much. The boat trip was relatively uneventful and I stayed with Tina inside the boat rather than the sunny deck due to her sunburn.

We had a short trailer van trip up the inclines of Ko Tao to our hostel 'Asia divers resort'. A nice welcoming model of a starfish with dive gear on at the entrance gives a good indication that you are suddenly into the divers place to be. Pretty much every hostel or hotel has a pool with a depth of 3-5 metres to cater for people learning to dive (doing PADI courses) and scuba tanks seem to be everywhere. The room was basic but very nice with a balcony overlooking the forest terrain below. We seemed to be oblivious to these obviously picturesque places now as they seem to become the norm but I'm sure I will look on them with a greater sense of appreciation.

On our arrival a short from our hostel took us down to the beach and it's crystal clear waters. Hugging the fine sand were many bars with cushions and decking to just sit there and enjoy food and drink. A drink was obviously ordered and we took in the sunset both realising we had made a very fine choice to visit Ko Tao as it brought back excellent memories of our earlier stay in Ko Phi Phi.majority of bars sold the drinks buckets, they showed film screenings if you just wanted to chill out in the late afternoon and evenings which can be ideal. Meals were generally excellent an the Thai curries were back in abundance with the spicy nature of the dishes cranked up to my pleasure. It was also easy to get some fine seafood, Italian pizzas and again to my pleasure quality coffee. I did however find a place selling toast marmite which sounds like a basic thing but can not find it anywhere. Unfortunately when I asked for this with a smile and great excitement the reply was swift and just as brutal, "sorry, no order for a while". I swear I could have struck him down with tina's sunburnt arm but I got over it after about 2 hours of child like moaning to myself and sulking.

Some of the bars were quite random inland from the beach selling things like laughing gas and advertising drinking crawls or crazy happy hour drinking offers. Other bars were much more relaxed and they just become a place to perch while you dry off from going in and out of the sea. Tina's territory has always been poolside but mine has always been by the sea but we both pleased to have a quality beach with visibility in the water up to 30metres (so we were told but it did seem to ring true).

Much of the first few days were spent
taking in the ever increasing heat from
Ko Tao sun and just relaxing. I will be the first to admit it has generally been a relaxed 3 months but it is almost like having a holiday within a travel holiday. I bought new flip-flops on the first day due to my £2 ones that didnt fit me falling a part already. This still didn't stop me continually falling over which is due to the crazy path like roads that seem to be Thailand and much our destinations trademarks.

Our original intention had been to do another dive in Ko Tao as I has read that it was named as the 2nd best place behind Cairns Australia to take your PADI diving. For some reason we both decided not to do a dive and I can only put this down to having some many people diving and some many dive options. If you can allow me the time to the analogy then I would say it was like having a whole island with beer factories and one with another island with only a couple of ones that you would have to trek to- I think the beer is going to taste colder and sweeter on the more secluded and less populated choice. When i started writing that I realised it was rubbish as of course I would have choosen the island with beer factories and was about to look it up on google map in case it was real but I kept it in as it amused me. Sorry about running off on a tangent then but meant to say we couldn't dive with the whale sharks as we had wanted so due to excellent visibility in the sea we felt we could get alot from snorkelling and save the diving.

The day before we booked our snorkelling trip I had suggested taking a trek across to the other side of the island where I believed they could be a good swimming and snorkelling spot in a bay called Ao Ta Note. Unfortunately I had taken the decision based upon the maps you can pick up here which are never to scale and often just appear made up. It looked like a leisurely saunter along a well drawn out path into the forest and onto the secluded beach bay. The reality was a path/road (if I dare call it that) that looked like an earthquake had hit recently and into a jungle like forest that appeared no one had ever walked. We seemed to climb an entire mountain and I half expected to see bodies of previous people that had been stupid enough to take this trek. The path was anything but what the map suggested and about an hour in we were just surrounded by forest with only the ever increasing noises of various wildlife that we could not identify. I had to actually walk in front as some kind of guinea pig as thought there was some hissing snakes which turned out to be a mass of birds that seemed to be getting closer. We eventually found the other side or civilisation but it was a dis-used villa and the beach about the size of a football goal. We saw the bay I wanted to get to but this was unfortunately about 1km away along the bay with no path to it. We talked over the possibility of swimming to it but unfortunately we had baggage which could not get wet, so it was a case if turning back tails between our legs. Water was running low, our legs had no energy and it was an upwards climb for the first half. At one point I started laughing like someone who was about to turn crazy and be taken away in a straight jacket but we both got each other through the experience. I did also have one moment one of my knees with hands held to the sky like the poster picture from Shawshank Redemption but to my defence Tina does my fitness than I do. We made it back and in a random kind of way we had a sense of accomplishment by the way we had not actually accomplished anything but getting lost.

We duly booked our snorkelling trip for the following day and got a small long boat out to our boat with about 7 people. One of the girls looked like swampy with her dreadlocks, there was a lad from Israel (he looked like the main guy from the series entourage but talked crap), 3 overweight gentleman from Canada (one if which had to use inflatables which made me chuckle) and another non descript girl. Our boat driver was a very friendly chap who I had the up most respect for me not just because I thought he looked like Mr
Miyagi from karate kid but he was also always smiling and shouting something I couldn't understand.

The boat trip took us to various spots across the west and east of the islands stopping for about an hour in each to allow you to snorkel. The stops were Ao Ta Note, Ao Hinwong, Shark Island, Ao Mamuang and finally Ko Nang Yuan. Fortunately they took us to the spot where I had previously tried to get to on our previous trek so we did not miss out totally.

The visibility was as advertised amazing and we saw such things parrot fish, flute fish, glow slugs (I can't remember the name on that one so have taken a punt at it) and other small but colourful fish. No sharks though which I was a little disappointed in especially as they call the small island off the east coast "shark island". I have to saw I was a little disappointed not to see more and I had hoped Mr Miyagi would have delivered on his promises but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We did get to dive off the top off the boat which is always good, although my shorts nearly came off when I hit the water which could have been embarrassing for everyone concerned.

The last stop is where I had originally wanted to go to called 'Ko Nang Yuan'. Located 1km off the northwest of Ko Tao are 3 tiny islands all of which are joined by a causeway of fine white sands. We stupidly left our bags on of these sandy causeways as we waded into the clear waters but Tina fortunately saw that a wave had then come onto beach and started to take them into the water. I have to say the Ko Nang Yuan islands looked amazing and the sandy path like bridges separate them in appearance to the many other island beach paradise we have seen. On the downside it was full of so many people so you don't get that tropical like paradise that you sometimes wish for. It was more like the island of the 'tourist leather people' as I have never seen some many people that brown and in a way that skin has turned to leather which just can be healthy.

There we leave Ko Tao a very enjoyable stay and very relaxed at the same time. The only item of note was my spectacular fall while waiting for the boat to Ko Pha Ngan. We were on the pier and got up to walk to the boat in a crowded outside waiting area when my flip flop got caught and I crashed to the ground. The fall was similar to the falling tree like motion of Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses except I had no funny like to say before or after just pain and embarrassment. I nearly fell again on the actual pier bridge doing the same thing but luckily clung onto the side otherwise I think I would have sunk to the seas bottom with my heavy backpack still strapped to me.

Anyway my next and almost final blog will be on Ko Pha Ngan and will feature the half moon party and I hope other enjoyable items of note.

Robbie C out for now.

I must also give a massive shout out to the town and the amazing result against West Ham 5-1. I still keep checking the Internet in case something was wrong on the website. Well done lads and i hope it is a change in fortunes for my return and first home game against Middlesborough.