So we were rudely woken up at around 4 am on Saturday morning and ushered out of the super comfortable bus cabin and dropped in slight rain at a shit-hole bus stop somewhere near the small port town of Chumpon, ordinarily after that journey we would have been tired and stressed but to be honest we all slept as well on that bus as we did in our room in Bangkok. Unusually perky and well rested we had a laugh and a chat at the bus stop while all the other passengers sat in silence trying to hold it together until the bus arrives… By 6:00 am we were at the ferry port winding the coffee’s in and trying to top up our sleep on the soft benches in the waiting room.

6:30 am and we were all ushered on board the Seatran ferry, Sarah by this point was starting to get proper excited and Georgie had got enough sleep under her belt to also be enjoying it, with that I curled up on our bags and got on the zzz train too.

At the pier in Koh Tao we got chatting to a tout who was offering some pretty fairly priced scuba dives that came with discount accommodation and free taxi rides… Seeing as we had planned to have a pop at diving anyway the words free and discount spoke out to us so we hopped in his pick-up to Hat Sai Ri, enjoyed his free coffee’s and then signed up for a dive the next day.

The last time we were in Koh Tao we didn’t really get on with it, everything is overpriced and to be honest not really worth the extra dosh, but this time we had a dive planned and all of a sudden Koh Tao started to open up. Our accommodation was infinitely better than the dingy hut we stayed in the last time and at the same price, of course because of its affiliation with our dive operator but nonetheless it was a lot more like it… We threw our bags down, got some grub and let Sarah get her first look at a Thailand beach – white sand, glorious sunshine, emerald water gently lapping the sand, palm fringed, colourful longtail boats gently swaying in the wind… Needless to say she loved it!

Despite having a super fun/comfortable journey down from Bangers and getting plenty of kip at various points of the journey we were still feeling the miles a bit so we got our stuff together and flopped out on the beach, Sarah started work on the tan and Georgie and I got to work on topping ours up fuelled with a Chang or two… Another hard day at the office!

By late afternoon we had wilted once again (probably more to do with the sunshine and Chang) so we had a little nap at our room that actually turned out to be more of a mammoth kip and didn’t wake up again until 9 pm… Still what does it matter what time we sleep until, we got ourselves up and wandered along the beach to a lively bar with a fire show going full swing, ordered a few more Chang’s and saw the night out.

Yesterday or scuba day as we now call it came around to the sound of the alarm, having had plenty of rest we were keen as mustard to get geared up and make a splash… Literally.

Breakfast dealt with we strolled up to our dive shop excited and a little anxious, our instructor was called Graham and he put us straight at ease with a short safety talk and a brief chat about what we would be ding and seeing. They fitted us up for our gear without any problems and then whisked us off in a pick-up down to the pier where their boat was waiting. Apparently it’s unlucky to have shoes on a boat – just a little something we learned that day.

The dive guys are a bunch of quality people and everyone aboard felt right at home and they gave us free reign while they prepared and checked our equipment (being absolute novices they did it all for us while we ate all their biscuits and drank all their tea). Chugging slowly along the coast of Koh Tao it soon became obvious that we had in fact missed the point of the place last time we were here but at least we had the chance to realise that and it couldn’t have been more idyllic to be honest. They kept us separate from the other divers so we had our own little group and our own instructor then we dropped anchor just off the northern tip of the Island at a small sand bar where the drop was slow and perfect for us beginners.

Getting into the wetsuit was by far the hardest work I’ve had to do since leaving England and by the look of the girls struggling into them they felt the same. We had a quick talk about all our gear and what it all does, try all the buttons and tap all the dials then one by one stride off the side of the boat into the water.

We swam across the surface to the shallow water just to get used to breathing through the mouth thing (I’ve forgot the name already) and it was just like snorkelling, then once in shallow water we went through a few exercises to make sure if we got in trouble we would be OK all the time surrounded by hundreds of colourful curious little fish, all went well apart from Sarah faffing about with her mask but once that was sorted we set off following the sea bed towards the briny deep… To be honest it’s nothing special until you look up and realise you a couple of metres deep already, once past about two metres it starts to get really fun. Sarah kept having trouble with her mask and Georgie had a spot of bother with her uncanny buoyancy and the pressure in her ears but once that was sorted we were away – like a bunch of mermaids we gracefully swam through the water taking in all the beautiful corals and many fish around Koh Tao. 

The hardest part really was keeping at a particular depth because every time I inhaled I started to rise and vise versa but I’m sure its one of those things that is easy to pick up the more you do it. I was always worried that being that deep would make you panic about panicking and fuck right up but it’s just not like that at all, there is so much going on that loosing it and freaking out just doesn’t even cross your mind.

Being total beginners we sucked the air out of the tanks in a half hour flat and as we started to return to the surface we were completely surrounded by a huge school of Barracuda, I’m not sure who was more interested in who to be honest but it was fucking cool to see!

We got back aboard the boat and got used to gravity again, ate more of their biscuits and sank a few more cups of their tea then while the others were still out on their dives we had a chance to mess about jumping off the top of the boat… All in all it was a perfect day and any previous reservations of Koh Tao are out the window really, it’s still over priced for what it is but to be fair we couldn’t have had a more perfect day and the next chance I get I’ll definitely be giving diving another go!

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Our last morning in Bangkok was started good and early by the alarm as we had to be out of the room before check out and also we were off the the weekend market again. This time a little more prepared for the madness and sheer size of the place and Georgie was clear on what she wanted so minimal faffing. We stowed our bags in the safe room at our hotel, hopped into a taxi and soon enough we were there.

It probably seems like the only thing we ever do is shopping but trust me its not, Georgie just like to look if nothing else but the weekend market is a spectacle in its own right. I think we managed 3 hours or there about before I groaned that enough was enough and even at the pet section Georgie took no more than half an hour to cuddle as many sweaty little puppies as she could….

Back on the Khao san road and we nipped off for some dinner at the vegetarian place we had been going to a lot and again bumped into Jo and Tom, our fire spinning friends from Koh Phagnan. We chatted to them for a while because we don’t know when or if we will ever see them again, had some grub then fetched our bags from our hotel and waited for the bus at the travel agents.

By the time we were on the bus I was pretty knackered and Georgie wasn’t far behind… Still I wasn’t risking a bad nights kip and necked a sleeping pill whilst Georgie used the second best method of reducing yourself to a deep deep sleep… Watching bridget jones’s diary! I however managed to sit right through the excellent Iron man on the bus TV before slipping quite gently into the land of nod… Next thing I knew it was something stupid AM and we were at the halfway rest stop, we got off for a drink, a stretch and the obligatory smoke then back on for the final leg of the journey and more super sleeping… Again the next thing I knew it was 5am and we were only a few miles from where the boat leaves having a strong coffee another sensation.

It was a grey drizzly morning at the port but we didn’t mind much, there was an overly cheerful woman selling fine, strong coffee and amazing Chinese doughnuts and after those the sun came out! We lumbered out of the bay past all the vividly painted fishing boats with their crews preparing nets for the day ahead on deck and having their morning wash on board, slowly gaining speed on our big speed boat ferry whilst drinking yet more coffee. The sun was fresh up and after the rain everything felt fresh and cool so we sat out the back to enjoy our first taste of the sea air since HaLong Bay in Vietnam. We knew exactly how we would feel as soon as we got on the water and we were very right… Its been too long! And we should have come earlier! But after an hour and a half, 2 more coffee’s and a amazingly smooth ride we were at our destination of Koh Tao. As we pulled towards the pier and got a good look at the place it seemed like a gorgeous little island with plenty to keep us occupied for our last 3 weeks in Thailand, the water was ridiculously clear and an awesome shade of emerald, fish were all around the boat and where the lush green hills crashed into the sea were big limestone outcrops with herons perched perfectly still. We hopped into the back of a pick up truck to be taken to the south of the island, we have heard nothing but good things of Koh Tao and especially the south. We hiked through a resort to get our first look of the beach… It was at the height of the high tide and there was perhaps 8 full inches of lush white sand left untouched by the gently lapping waves… Now I don’t take up much room but that was going to be pushing it!

So with that we got a taxi up to the main beach area close to where we arrived at on the west side of the island. By now Georgie was starting to flag so we left our bags with a really nice fella who also rented us a moped and we went to seek out some primo beach. We found some absolutely stunning huts overlooking a bay but quite isolated and not a single grain of sand in sight, everywhere seemed to be the same, a simple beach front hut would set us back a pretty penny and one set back away from the glowing waters was still the wrong side of affordable. I think the locals obviously know that so many people go to Koh Tao to dive / spend a fair bit of cash, also they reserve a lot of the bungalows for divers and include them in the price so for us lowly non divers the options were really quite limited. But worst of all is the same disheartening lack of beach at high tide was the same there! We settled on a hut set in some beautiful gardens a few minutes from the beach, too much money for what we got but we had gone there to lay on a beach and maybe be distracted from our slobbery by a bit of snorkelling and maybe a fun dive… Not the other way around! We had an afternoon nap then headed down to the beach to see if things were better at low tide. Of course they were but it was too little too late.

Although we had been thoroughly charmed by Koa Tao’s beauty it wasn’t what we came all the way from Bangers for, we came for a beach and over some good food and several beers at the Fizz bar we decided that to stay and make the most of it would be cheating ourselves and so came to the decision of taking a boat first thing to the glorious, hedonistic and beachy Koh Phagnan. We actually had a really nice time on Koh Tao even if it was only one day, after a fierce rain storm at about midnight we went back to our little hut and from our balcony watched a distant go go bars flashy show of girls and lights before getting our heads down ready to make tracks as early as possible the next day…

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