A bit of a paradise in Koh Tao.

We successfully made our way to Koh Tao, and the weather has been great! There were a couple of showers on the first day or two, but since it's just been even too sunny! To get to the Turtle Island (Tao = turtle, Koh = island) we took an overnight train from Bangkok to Chumporn. If any of you ever take that train, be prepared for very cold aircon especially on the upper bunk! Other than that the train journey went smoothly, and is much more comfortable than the VIP bus I last time took due to getting a bed to sleep on.

Unlike last year, the catamaran ride from Chumporn to Koh Tao was smooth (or maybe it was the anti-seasickness pills we took?), but having travelled a whole day we arrived quite tired. As we hadn't decided even on which beach we were going to stay, the arrival was not the optimal. However we just hopped on a pick-up and a friendly Norwegian diver recommended a couple of places on Sairee Beach. It turned out that the first place was all too expensive for us, but in the second one, Blue Wind, we managed to get a bungalow just by the beach for a reasonable price! The view was gorgeous, that stretch of Sairee Beach was quiet and we had our own hammock. We really enjoyed the four nights we stayed there!

Mostly we've been just lazing about in beach-side cafes and restaurants, having short swims and avoiding the direct sun (so hot!). We've both had massages; boyfriend had "the best one on the beach" by grand master Samsok and that was actually very good and given on the beach, and I had one in Spa Aurori and that was lovely and luxorious! Evenings we've sitting in the beach bars watching fire-shows and enjoying the atmosphere (much more than the beer - Chang beer is the evil Thai cousin of Stella I think!). Yesterday we even ventured to the Queen Cabaret, which obviously was a ladyboy show and very entertaining. I still struggle to understand the role and mentality of ladyboys, but all of them were amazing performers and seemed to be enjoying it!

This far the only more organised day has been Monday, when we took a taxi boat to the close Nang Yuan island with white sandy beach isthmuses running between three islets. Although we had long clothes for the boat, sunblock for the day, umbrella to sit under AND t-shirt on whilst snorkling, both of us managed to obtain sun-damage. I burnt tops of my feet and boyfriend burned his ankles whilst snorkling. As one does. I think snorkelling was a good way to get excited about the underwater world, as there were large-ish schools of pretty fish as well as some corals on Nang Yuan beaches. So now we've signed up with a diving school! Excitement! Boyfriend just started his theory for Open Water, and I'm doing a quick refreshers' course and we get to action already tomorrow! Yay!