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Published: August 2nd 2006
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Wednesday 26th July Paul - So arrived on a cataraman to Koh Tao at half 9. After a long time deciding which beach we would head off to we finally left to go to the east of the island... only to find the place that had vacancies was a HOLE! I wouldn't let a dog sleep in that mess. Brilliant. Left there promptly to go to the south where Laura and Holmsey found two decent places to stay. Apparently one of the places was amazing, gorgeous views, stunning balcony, amazing, amazing, amazing... the only catch was that it was over twice the price of the other place... honestly I can't take those two anywhere. Checked into the cheaper place which I thought was brilliant. The view from our balcony was amazing! It was like paradise, we were staying in a lovely little cove with crystal clear waters and palm trees swaying over the beach. It was seriously lovely. God knows what the other place was like but Laura laughed and said "yeah it was alright..." obviously rueing that missed chance.
After seeing the beautiful waters I was really looking forward to snorkelling. The main reason for coming to Koh
Tao is to go diving/snorkelling so most of the people are divers doing their PADI courses. This is great as during the day you basically have the beach to yourself as everyone else is out diving! Spent the rest of the day strolling along the beach and reading our books. I'm telling you, it's a hard life! Ate in a restaurant overlooking the sea, not that this was difficult as all the restaurants overlook the sea. Played cards in a bar until we felt tired and went up to bed.
Thursday 27th July Paul - Decided today would be another lazy day of relaxing on the beach. Holmsey had caught the sun quite badly and on the way to breakfast all we heard was "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow..."
After breakfast we grabbed our books and read on the beach front for a while and ventured out into the sea every so often. Not too far though as the coral here is very sharp! The only bad point of the beach is that you can't swim in the water as there is so much coral but it will be fantastic for snorkelling in! But
I do crave to be able to go for a bit of a swim! Oh well, I'm sure we'll be at a beach like that soon enough.
Ate at the BBQ on the beach which was fantastic. You picked what meats you wanted BBQing and then they did it in front of you and then you ate on the beach. It was beautiful. Sipped on fruit shakes and watched the waves lap up on the shore. Then climbed the dozen steps to our bedroom and slept.
Friday 28th July Laura - We got up fairly early and went to the boat hire place on the beach, where we'd arranged to meet a driver to take us snorkelling for the day. We were greeted by his scraggy dogs and chickens and after waiting around for a few minutes the driver himself turned up. He informed us that we had to wait for another six people to join us. We were not very happy as we were under the impression that the boat hire was for us three only. Add to that the fact that the boat we were to go on was TINY and the waves were
really choppy. So not only were we to be joined by random people (so that we wouldn't be able to decide exactly what we wanted to do all day) but there was also the chance that we may die due to being cramped into a tiny boat in dangerous conditions. Needless to say we decided that we wouldn't go snorkelling with this guy after all. As we were walking away he ran after us and said that we could pay 1500 baht and would leave immediately by ourselves. As we thought we would be paying 1500 baht anyway, this seemed like a good deal!
So we went to hire our snorkels and went back to find the driver, who had now been joined by the missing 6 people. So apparently the boat ride of death was back on. Not on your nelly mister!! I kicked up a big fuss (being a youngest child I am very skilled at doing this) and eventually we got our own way. Yay!
After walking out to the boat we three finally sailed off with the driver. Now did I mention that the waves were choppy? They were even choppier than they looked
and there were a few occasions during the journey that I thought we were bound to capsize. I closed my eyes and hoped...
Eventually we arrived at a cove where the sea was remarkably calm and the water was crystal clear. In we jumped with our sexy snorkelling attire. It was absolutely fantastic. Fish of every shape and colour were swimming around us. We saw many fish that were straight out of 'Finding Nemo'. We floated and watched shoals of fish swimming around us in their thousands. There were some 'zebra' fish that were attracted to our flippers, so every time we swam for a while we'd turn around and there'd be hundreds of them following us. The coral itslef was also amazing, with so many interesting looking plants and we saw the fish feeding off it aswell.
We stopped off for lunch at a quiet restaurant with amazing views in this gorgeous little cove. It was a piece of paradise! Boating around the island was brilliant (when the waves died down) because the island is covered in jungle that meets gorgeous little beaches at the bottom or amazing rock formations. There are so many interesting little coves
aswell.
At our third snorkelling sight we were approached by some German guy who came up to us and said "big boy downstairs". I was slightly alarmed at first but then realised that he was referring to a fish, rather than his manlyhood. Indeed there was a very big colourful fish swimming beneath us. Me and Paul followed it for a while before it swam beneath a rock. Holmsey came to join us and eventually the big fish came out to play again. Only this time he started circling us, and we noticed that he had very large teeth... I quickly swam off to find some smaller, tamer fish, while the boys braved Mr Teeth for a while longer.
We did 5 snorkelling sights altogether, the last one was at a set of three islands connected by a beach. We didn't stay there for long though because a storm was about to hit and the driver was looking scared. We literally had to race the storm back around the island through the waves which had got very very choppy by this point.
We arrived back into our beach cove where the sky was blue and the sea
was calm. The driver let out a cheer, clearly relieved that he'd got us back alive.
That night we had a few cocktails before collapsing into bed tired and sunburnt.
Saturday 29th July Paul - After yesterdays wild exercise I needed a rest. Both Laura and Holmsey were completely sun burnt so I was the only one to venture on the beach during the day. They spent most of their day reading their books on the balcony. Holmsey decided to have a sleep later on so me and Laura went for a walk round the headland. We found a completely deserted stretch of sand and sat and watched the sunset. It was really lovely. Walked back and sat in a bar for a couple of drinks. Had copius amounts of banana shakes in the bar before Laura told me I might get potassium poisoning! Who said bananas were good for you?
Spent our final night relaxing in the bar that was out in the water. The food wasn't great but you couldn't really beat the location. Plus they did Mars Bar Shakes and as I was banned from banana shakes they were an excellent alternative. Finished our food and soaked in the views one more time before retiring to bed! Tomorrow was going to be tough - we were moving to another beach!
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What a life you lot are leading out there - you make me tired just reading the blog - the beach setting sounds fantastic. We have had a lovely day celebrating auntie maree's birthday and my offspring came up trumps - two managed to phone on the day and one sent an email and e card - i am so proud of them. Please all of you take care in the sun - drink plenty of liquid - i think that means water and put on suncream.