Koh Tao

Hello everyone! Now I know we have been falling behind and we have so much to tell so this could potentially be a long one.
At the moment we are sitting in an Internet cafe outside of our Guesthouse in the Capital of Laos, Vientiane. Lots to get us here and we will update you on Laos as soon as we finish with Thailand.

Koh Tao is where we found our paradise, and thankfully so as we got off that wonderful fishing boat journey at 7am with no sleep, both tetchy, sweaty and the last thing we want to do is set off with our big bags in the scorching heat to find a place to put our feet down.

We walked around for ages with Katerina and Tadej to find a place to stay, we ended up in Triple B bungalows for 300 baht a night (6 pounds) for a lovely bungalow made of completely bamboo. This was a place to relax, close to the beach but we didn't even need to leave the premises and sat in the sky bar in hammocks with a wonderful view and of course a few Chang.

This was also the place our problems started, both of us having dodgy belly's, not having gone to the toilet in quite a few days despite trying, and me growing a massive mountain on the side of my thigh.. thigh bad enough but also on my face and this was no little thing. We went to the doctor who was a little Thai lady who was sitting in her nighty selling us pills for 500 baht and we had no idea what they were, just told us to eat them if we want 'big boom boom' AHH okay. Luckily enough these rabbit pellets worked only for me to end up being sick outside of every restaurant we seemed be in, lovely few days, I was in bed by 7 30 or 8 every night while the others were playing pool and having a jolly time, my mountainous face still growing.

We rented motor bikes with Kat and Tad and to my delight Tom had to sit on the back hehehe. We took them around the island and went to the most beautiful places for snorkeling, the coral, the colours and the fish were wonderful to see. We also went to shark bay which to our disappointment we didn't see any sharks (or to my happiness). This is the bay http://stophavingaboringlife.com/shark-bay-koh-tao-thailand-is-paradise/
''F dem sharks''

Now our trip to Koh Tao is split up by the full moon party which in itself is a whole different story and will be the next thing you hear about. Knowing this was the next day we had to return our motorbikes, with no scratches and returning it exactly the same we needed to go and exchange money to pay, Tom took the bike a few feet down the road to the bank and came back just as it started pouring rain. We were all awaiting in the enclosed bit where the bikes are kept watching him come up and watching him what seemed like in slow motion BAIL!! Right in front of the shop, first thing we thought was Tom are you okay, rushing over picked him up, had a sore ankle but okay. Our next port of call was how much money this is going to be,8000 baht and she cut us a deal but 160 quid is still a massive imprint when your paying 6 quid a night.
 Tom had to go back to the bank accompanied by a staff member  ( again on the back)---- I think the best place for him ;) hah shh..

While we were waiting the lady was really nice, let us use her Internet for free, offered us lunch and thank goodness for Tadej who bought us our first of many rounds of Chang.-- This was the same morning we went to the doctors and she charged us 1550 baht for medicine and now 8000baht for damaged goods it was quite an expensive and stressful morning considering it wasn't even midday yet.


T.

The wallets were feeling it, and to right any wrongs said before i shouldn't be on the back.
It was raining, slippy, i was going too *cough*fast*cough*, so all in all a learning curve. Albeit an expensive one.

We were then faced with a dilemma. We'd really wanted to do the scuba diving course on Koh Tao (the scuba training centre of the world) but after the bike we weren't really sure if we could. I said to Kels that she should do it because i was the one who spangled the bike, but she knew how much i wanted to do it, and of course being bloody lovely offered the same.

In the end we decided to just forget the bike. It had happened. We were poorer because of it, but dammit it wasn't going to ruin our holiday and stop us having fun.

So we both did it, and man are we glad we did.


We registered at a place called Buddha View which we found out about at the full moon (story continues after a brief overview of the full moon party)

Full moon party (in a nutshell)

The full moon party is a massive beach long rave that happens once a month. Loads of bars, dancing, drinking and loads of tourists crammed onto the beach.

Got ridiculously drunk (tadej, kat, kels and i)
Skinny dipped (first time for me!)
Jumped a fire rope (kels)
Jumped through a fire hoop (me)
Danced with Indian guys (at first Kels, then me. Bloody hilarious. They were all down on one knee etc!)
Drunk too many buckets of whiskey and rum
Fell asleep on the beach.
Woke up the next day.
Back to Koh Tao.


So Buddha View...

As i've said, we found out about Buddha View from a couple of guys who were leafleting for it on Koh Phangan and with hotel included they did the best deal. (170 quid each which 4 nights accommodation and lunches).

Now firstly if you could imagine a private beach, with a bunch of people who are all there just to have a good time, you still wouldn't come close to the awesome feeling that this place kicked out. Everyone was happy to see you, the bar was cheap and regularly had a guy jamming with an acoustic guitar (if not Jack Johnson was being played) and in the night times the bar men/women were picking their favourite songs which ranged from Led Zeppelin all the way to some really chilled out acoustic, a bit of country and back to Zepellin.
Heaven.

We started our four day course in the classroom and once things like buoyancy and weight distribution had been explained to us by our instructor (James- also what a dude. Had lived on Koh Tao for 8 years, in East Ham for 4 before that) we headed out to the swimming pool.

Having mastered the basics, and learned some skills (taking your mask off and the clearing it. Mastering your buoyancy by hovering, that kind of stuff) we headed out on the second morning to the sea.

The water was crystal clear and had a visibility of about 25m at some points. We started with a basic dive where the instructors helped our group of 6 (3 instructors) to feel comfortable in the water and just get accustomed a little bit more to the feel of being 12m under the sea.

By the end of the fourth day, we were all scuba-ing like pros. We'd seen some brilliant stuff, stingrays, massive groupers, (oooooh) barracuda and shoals of over a thousand fish. It was just breathtaking. The whole experience made us really want to do it again. And to be a part of this community.

We toyed with the idea of doing the divemaster course which takes a month, but after realising what it would've been at the expense of, thought better of it.

So now we were headed up to Laos, the end of our Thai adventure.
We'd had a fantastic time in Thailand and if people were ever thinking of doing it but were unsure... DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!

We would happily go back, but first we'd have to endure another day in Bangkok....

I think Kelsey wants the microphone now, so i'll let her tell you about Bangkok (again)