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So we decided to return to koh tao after Samui because we really liked it but didnt see much the first time around. We said we would stay for 2 nights 3 max, turns out we stayed 12 nights and only left because we really had to. Hand on heart it was the best 12 days of my life, so much fun and so many stories. We got the boat over and decided to go back to Sairee Cottages where we had stayed first time around. It was really busy around because supposedly everyone flocks there after the full moon, us no different. When we arrived they said that they didnt have a room for non divers, we walked around a bit but they told us to come back. We went back at half 5 and they had a room for 350Baht per room, so cheapso we looked at it and thought ya it would be fine for a few days. Turns out the tap in the toilet flowed onto the ground so we were washing our teeth and it was coming out of our feet, pretty disturbing and I am not lying when I say that the fan gave off hot air! I have never been so hot in my life, we eventually had to sleep upside down in the bed so that we could get a bit of air to our faces, Apart from waking up every morning to someone sweeping outside our door for hours and people talking we soon got used to the room and it was fine and on the beach so what more could you want.
Anyway down to the trip itsself, We went for dinner the first night in a place called Brothers where we had eaten the first time, then we went to a bar called Choppers, It was a australian bar with live music every night, Thr first time we say Tim, "The Hoff" but this night we saw Bazza from Armagh, He was really good we so drank our two for one buckets and had a little sing song before we headed to the local club called Lotus, The place was pretty busy so we sat up the back I started chatting to this swedish couple who were asking where I was from. I was like oh Galway.. (so much easier to say Dublin or Galway) and they were like oh havnt heard of it so i was like Dublin, and they were like Oh we only know Ennis, I was like OMG!!! anyway their brother lived in Ennis or something so we chatted to them for a while and then decided to go to the Cave bar which is exactly as it says on the tin, a cave, was pretty cool actually and it stayed open til about 7 o clock. The swede girl went home and her boyfriend decided to come with us. To be honest he got really headwrecking, so in true Siobhan style i decided to go for a nap on the beach. Woke up and he was like u really shouldnt fall asleep on the beach u will get robbed bla bla bla anyway he insisted on walking us home about 6am and we went off to bed.
During the day was spent mainly on the beach or in bed or walking around the island, its a small island and we were on Sairee beach which had everything we needed so we didnt have to exert ourselves too much. The beach was so amazing but the water was really shallow and it was so hot I mean like a bath so it really wasnt refreshing at all. but it was pretty amazing standing at knee level and having the most amazing fish swimming around us and being able to see them perfectly. So after the second night in Choppers and after having a early one which meant going home at 3 o clock we decided to make the most of our time in the best diving place in the world and bought a snorkell. We went into the sea at our place and have to say we looked ridiculous haha but we snorkelled and eventhough im not a great swimmer it was pretty amazing. there were so many fish it was unreal like. Really something special.
That night anyway we decided to, u guessed it.. go to choppers, Bazza was back and it was a fun night good buzz around the place so digging into our buckets we started chatting to these Irish guys, think they were from Offaly and Wicklow but anyway they were great craic and we had such a fun night, amazing how much BS comes out of peoples mouths when they are drunk haha anyway we went to head off to Lotus when i went to find my shoes (you had to take off your shoes going into the bar) anyway my very pretty black dressy flip flops were gone and there wasnt anything for me to take so i resorted to walking in my barefeet til they got sore and i got a pair of real white havanahs from one of the irish guys ( haha score!!) anyway we headed to a swede bar and then to Lotus after a while i got lost and decided to sit on the beach outside our bungolow with a thai man for a while and eventually i went back looking for Hannah only to find her asleep on the porch she had been looking at me, but in fairness to her she had set up camp with her sarong so looked very comfortable :). We were pretty much total write offs the next day but went for a meal and decided to have a very early night which actually meant half 9!! impressive eh?
Then next day was the saturday and we were refreshed and revived and after dinner we went to see Lee Shamrock in.. wait for it... choppers!! by now Paul the manager was well used to us and used to "kick us out" every night anyway we didnt know what to expect from Lee Shamrock, we didnt think he could possibly be as good as the Hoff, he was playing kind of blues music when we went in and it was ok but we wernt overly impressed. After about an hour our opinions had totally changed!! the place was electric it was so crazy in there, everyone dancing singing along, Lee Shamrock (a withered looking older man with an old green t shirt and an even older guitar) was the best musician ever, ask him anything and he was able to play it it was crazy. Yellow Submarine went down a treat!! The mic was taken off him and everyone were on tables it was by far the best night we have had since we left home, Choppers finally finished after about 20 "last songs" and even though Lee didnt actually know all of "all these things that iv done" and made a complete f*** up of it we decided to have our own version of it. When he finally finished the crowd proceeded to sing HEY JUDE it was crazy. anyway after interrigating poor paul about how we could stay in the country for longer we headed to Lotus but it was actuallly closed so we decided to go home. Before we went to Lotus Hannah looked for her shoes but alas they were gone. That was when Paul decided to inform us that in fact we didnt need to take our shoes off at all and asked us where the sign was. so after acting like a pair of sheep and losing 2 pairs of shoes we felt a bit stupid so i donated my white havanahs to Hannah which had been robbed by the Irish guy because his were robbed in australia then when mine were robbed in thailand he had given them to me and then i had given them to Hannah, they are a special pair of shoes haha.
The next day we headed to the beach again, it was so nice, unfortunately it wasnt refreshing at all as it was so warm and there are dogs everywhere but apart from a few random dogs jumping all over us and trying to play with us we had quiet a relaxing day. that night surprise surprise we went back to Choppers, (afraid to show our faces but thankfully paul was on holidays but the local staff were def recognising us at this stage) Bazza was back and well lets just say he is no Lee Shamrock but we stayed and had a few drinks and were talking to these norwegians but they had no english and the english they had was so boring so after about half an hour of torture conversation we headed off to Lotus while they went to bed. We said we would only go to lotus for one because we were wrecked but when we got there we started talking to Paul the Chef, He was from England (cant remember where) but anyway we were chatting to him and his friend who was also eng and owned the chipper and a few places on Koh Tao including the hostel. We liked him coz he gave us free chips that were absolutley amazing, anyway from there Hannah Paul and myself headed off to AC bar for the after party. Along the way we picked up two austrian body builders so i was walking down with a body builder one one side of me and paul on the other side who looked like he had never eaten a meal in his life it was very funny. The other austrian looked the head of Hulk Hogan.. um yummy!!! anyway we lost them when they realised we wernt exactly interested in the body builder type.. uh i have shivvers even thinking about them. The place seemed to have been run by lady boys and when Hannah made a disgusted face at the state of the toilets she was attacked by lady boys asking what problem she had with ladyboys. wow insecurity issues anyone??? it was so funny seeing fake nails and hair extensions flying around the place. she was like WTF and we made a quick exit. After an hour of Paul telling me how i can live on Koh Toa i was convinced i was going to move there his motto was " poverty in paradise" because the money really was bad!! 200E a month!! Anyway content that my family were going to have to come visit me because i was never going home we headed off home at 6 o clock, We met the lady boys again in the 7 11 (local shop) and again made a quick getaway that was where we were introduced to mitzy, the local dog, Paul had a trail of dogs following him but Mitzy was his favourite so Hannah made peace with her dog fear and stroked the dog. result all round that night :)
The night after that we were having dinner when a young eng guy came over and asked if we would like to have dinner with him and his friend (not going to lie i did NOT want to have dinner with him and his friend but we couldnt say no) so we did anyway and turned out to be a lovely evening they were lovely boys and they had been travelling for a few months so they shared their stories and we shared ours it was really great fun we spent way too long in the restrauent though haha anyway we said we were going to choppers and parted ways, off we went again to choppers for the Hoff tonight. It was a good night but we were knackered so were taking it easy when we were approached by 2 guys from Brighton who were lovely fellas. Headed down to Lotus with them and then the late bar was at AC bar, I was sitting at the beach watching the fire dancer when the bloody eejit dropped his fire stick on me. I was in so much pain and obviously I couldnt pick it up so it was there for ages, the agony of it all!! We tried to get a free drink out of it but he didnt work for the bar and was afraid he would lose his job so we felt pity on him, still so sore though haha. Anyway all of a sudden the heavens opened and Hannah found refuge in the mens urinals when i decided to go into a shelter beside a shop. I hopped up on the marble table not knowing it was loose and flatened myself and the table, I could barely move my back and neck the next day, ( ha people say they lose weight in Asia and i manage to break a marble table!! ) anyway we arrived home at 8 am after the funniest night possible.. We were sooo knackered and slept nearly all day and when we wernt sleeping we were laughing I counted 63 mosquitos bits on my legs from the night before so between the bites, bruises, my sore back from the marble table, a sore head and sore sides from laughing oh and obv the burnt leg, we really wernt up for much that day at all. I was in agony so we went for dinner in Choppers stayed and watched the music and went home.
We woke up the next day with clear heads and seeing as every night we went into choppers and told Paul that yet again we had done no exploring just had gone to the beach we said we would do something productive and we hired a moped. I was scared s***less to drive one so the night before I had persuaded hannah to drive and we only get one. We thought it was a great idea at the time. Anyway we were going to get one in the town but I had said to Hannah that best get one with no people u know just in case (saying just incase and haha imagine if we crashed thinking it wud never happen) anyway Hannah listened to the instructions when we hopped on. The man showed her the bare basics and just as he told her to go easy on the trottle but seeing as it was so heavy with 2 people on the back Hannah thought she wud have to go way faster so put the foot down we sped off screaming not knowing how to stop at the main junction in Koh Toa for trafficthank god there was no traffic but anyway we were laughing and screaming and we most def had an audience because everyone were roaring laughing at us. We headed off for Mango bay even though we had been told by people that 2 people on a moped would not make it up the hills we were like ya what ever how hard can it be!! anyway we balanced ourselves and were going ok when we came to what we thought was the hill and we attempted it and well we didnt exactly make it we started rolling down again so i got off and walked. We met a couple coming down in a proper motorbike and they were like ye are not going to make it, so we admitted defeat and turned around and went looking for rocky bay on the other side eventhough we were warned against that aswel. we were fine til we had to come back into the village and barely made the turn at the same junction again we were roaring laughing and if people were still around they wud have had some laugh, id say the guy that owned the bike was sure he would never see it in one pice again, anyway we got our bearings back and headed off. We were going well but still everyone were laughing at us and passing us out, i left like the two from dumb and dumber when they had the moped. Anyway we came to another hill and it was a big one but we attemted it and we so wernt going to make it we were crawling, our whole bodies pushed forward to give the bike any bit of strength. The bike had full trottle in the hope we woudl get to the top then the rest was a blur, we shot across the road right across four fit young me nearly killed them and we ended up in the hedge. we were after crashing the bloody moped!!! hannahs shoe had broke. the guys stopped and in between howls of laughter they were asking if we were ok, when i realised we were i said ya we were fine i couldnt even look at them i was so embarrassed. When they made sure we were ok they went off.. so we waited around a few mins and got the bike out of the hedge and loads of people were stopping to see if we were ok.we checked to see if the bike was ok and it was thank god and we were being harassed by a dog. we were both really nervous so i walked to the bottom of the hill and hannah drove the bike we managed to get the bike back to our hostel i have no idea how but we did. It was absolutely hilarious and apart from another bruise and a few scrathes we were absolutely fine. so funny. I attempted to drive the moped later that night and i was sooo awful i ended up on the main road and hannah had to save the day haha but lots of fun. still didnt get to see any of the bays or anything though.
That night was going to be our last night as we had finally booked our boat to Krabi for the next night. We went to the Brother for dinner and they recognised us there asking did we not want another jug of strawberry daiquiri, that was when we realised we had to leave the island haha. For our last night where else were we going to do only Choppers, the manager was back and refusing to let us in til we told him it was our last night there. He then told us we shouldnt leave and was giving us the reasons to stay which i have to admit were all valid reasons but we had to go. :( Bazza was back that night so we had a few drinks ahave to admit the drinks were going down too well. We went to another bar called the office i think, it was a cool bar we were talking to randomers. We went to Lotus and were chatting to Eng guys and a Burmese guy who owned a bar there. Anyway i managed to lose my handbag. pretty sickened, my camera, wallet, money, make up all gone. we were pretty unfortunate with our belongings in Koh Toa have to admit.
Anyway we had an early night that night after Lotus and that was it for Koh Toa. The next day we had to wait around for the day to get the train at night. we were so sad to leave Koh Toa. It was the best place we had been by far, it craic was mighty and we have the best memories of there. Its sad we dint even have one photo between us but at least we have the memories, cant wait to go back we wud have stayed there for alot longer if we could. The day we left was a quiet day. It is such an underrated place, it really is amazing but because everone sayd its only for diving we actually wernt going to even go there. We were so lucky we did. I even miss it now.
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