Koh Tao

The ferry journey from Koh Samui to Ko Tao took a bit of working out as to what was going on, where we had to go, etc, but we eventually piled on and our luggage was heaped up at the front of the catarmaran.  About 10 minutes into the journey one of the crew rushed up to the front and I noticed that nobody had shut the waist high ‘door’ that we had come onboard through.  I had visions of our luggage sliding off and into the sea, never to be seen again, so we breathed a sigh of relief when ours was there when we got off.  We had to change ferry at Koh Phangan and had an hour’s wait for the next one that would take us on to Ko Tao.  This time, we had to take our luggage inside, and pile it up in one spot.  That was fine, until it was time to retrieve it when we got to Koh Tao, as some of the passengers were going on to other islands and even all the way to Bangkok and therefore not needing their luggage at that point.   It was a real bun fight to unearth our own cases and then lug them off, but we then joined the throng of people trying to find taxis or transfers.  We eventually found ours, and to our amusement all the taxis appear to be benches in the back of pickup trucks.   I happen to love travelling that way and have done it many times in Africa.
Our room on Koh Tao was about 10 paces away from the beach, (photo courtesy of Jayne) and apart from a day spent on a boat going to various snorkelling sites around the island,we have done very little here except swim in a beatifully warm sea.  To go on our trip we were picked up by another taxi – this time with no roof and it would be so easy to fall off the side!  There is no health & safety here! The sea on our snorkelling trip was unfortunately a bit rough and a couple of people were seasick:(   It also made it hard work trying to swim back to the boat after getting off at each site. A lot of the coral appears dead and I’m really glad that I went snorkelling in the Red Sea about 21 years ago, and then later on in the Maldives.  Global warming and humans are having an impact on the coral, which in turn impacts on the tropical fish.  On this day trip we spent a couple of hours on a private island – along with a few hundred other people sadly.
  It has an interesting bit of beach – a strip in the middle of a cove with the sea either side.

Then back to Koh Tao.Early one morning we walked along the beach as far as we could go.



And breakfast was taken right at the water’s edge underneath the shade of a palm tree.If we wanted a change from the sea we also had a rather nice pool. We also walked up a very steep hill and rewarded ourselves with a fabulous view and declicious lunch.






There have been the cocktails that we treated ourselves to each evening.  Average price – 100 baht.  £2.00 🙂
And the spectacular sunsets.








We have had a wonderful trip and I’m so glad I said ‘Yes’ when Jayne asked me if I wanted an adventure in Thailand.  This afternoon we leave on the ferry back to Koh Samui, then fly to Bangkok.  Tomorrow morning we fly home.  I’ve just looked at the weather forecast for Bristol, and it’s 3º and sleeting:(
In which case I’m now going for one last swim in the sea………

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