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Published: August 14th 2014
2 excited beans on our first flight from London - Abu Dhabi Sorry it has been such a long time since we posted - I did originally write this blog post straight after Koh Tao but right at the end the iPad had a meltdown and it didn't save! 😞 so here we go - here's our last night in Bangkok and our few days spent diving and chilling on the beautiful Koh Tao (can you tell it was my favourite island already?).
LAST NIGHT IN BANGKOK:
So as I mentioned in our last post we were heading to sky bar. We donned our glad rags, met Amy and Martha, and hopped in a tuk tuk to sky bar - we got there for a bargain price of 150baht after we exercised our amazing bartering skills. It was mine and Hannah's first experience in a tuk tuk and even though they drove like maniacs they were definitely a very cool way to travel around.
Sky bar was an incredible place - the views were pretty breath taking! the pictures definitely don't do it justice. Once you get to the top you can see the whole city for miles and miles! While we were there we received the most amazing service
(because you paid a fortune for it haha) and we ordered the very cool cocktails off the mixology list (basically these cocktails were special!). Hannah's came in a takeout box, Martha's had sushi with it and ice cubes with chilli flakes so the drink got spicer as you went, Amy's was poured from a cafetiere and mine came in glass bottle with a cork and bubbled due to the dry ice used. They all looked and tasted so good! But 3000 baht later we decided to call it quits and head back to the not so glamorous Khao San Rd.
Once back at the hostel we had a few and then headed out to explore! I couldn't believe it when I bumped into a girl I went to school with, Catherine, just dandering down Khao San Road - it really is a small world. On our adventure we inherited two guys called Gaz and Russell and we all headed into a night club. After this we headed to another bar and again inherited an English girl and an Aussie guy. At this stage Russell had been well and truely Chang-ed (for those who don't know, Chang is the unregulated
beer here & when it gets someone drunk you say they have been Chang-ed *cool gap yaaah traveller speak) and decided he was going to pour his whole beer over me - he was a pleasant chap as I'm sure you can tell haha!
Anyways a quick costume change later we went on another dander (it was now 5am) and ended up in another restaurant/bar with a group of southern Irish guys. One of whom Hannah pretended she couldn't understand all night and needed him translated by his pals much to his frustration and our entertainment. We ended up staying chatting with these guys until 8:30am! I'd love to say we saw the sunrise but the smog in Bangkok meant it just got light outside haha! We got back to the hostel to hear the girls in the bunk next us getting up to go about their day while we were going to sleep.
The next day was check out day, so I woke up to my alarm and glanced at the time, 11:40. Check out was at 12 so I shot out of bed and nearly had to manhandle Hannah awake as she was in such a
deep sleep. We threw everything into our backpacks and just managed to check out in time. We had arranged the night before to meet Amy and Martha for some lunch so we headed for some street food. I had my first Pad Thai and while it was nice it didn't live up to my expectations - although at this stage I was too afraid to get involved with the chilli flakes and chilli vinegar which makes it 100 times better 😊.
After food we dumped our bags at the travel agent and said goodbye to the girls as they were heading north. Since we had time to kill Hannah and I decided to go to the weekend market and it was so amazing! It was huge and we barely touched it but it was so cool to see a market for the locals and it was so so cheap!! While we there we got caught in a downpour and ended up looking like drowned rats (was very attractive). We also had some street meat although we definitely went to the wrong stall as it was basically gristle posing as meat haha!
By this stage exhaustion and 3 hours
sleep was catching up with us so we headed back to the travel agent to get our bus to the 'bus station' for our bus to Chumphon - I use this term loosely as we got a bus to the street beside our hostel to a travel agent haha! After checking in we waited about an hour for our bus - I was seriously struggling and actually fell asleep standing up for a second (this amused Hannah greatly). As soon as we got on our VIP bus (aka a coach) I passed out and didn't wake until we got to the port at Chumphon, here we waited about two hours for our boat (again I napped here), and then we had a 2 hour boat to Koh Tao (I cant tell you much about this journey as I slept the whole 14 hours of travelling haha!).
On a side note by the time this happened my bites that mentioned in my last post had blistered and made my leg swell to twice its normal size so I was not having the greatest luck haha!
KOH TAO:
Once we arrived in Koh Tao we were met
at the port by guys working at our dive school and we got in a taxi to the resort. We had a few hours to kill before we checked in so we lay on the beach and napped (it's a tough life this traveling malarkey). Once we checked in we went to our room. It was very basic, 2 beds with a fan that only blew down the middle of them and a lovely ant infestation in the bathroom (which Hannah later sprayed with insect repellant which actually made them multiple haha).
At 4:30 our diving course began. We met at the dive centre and met our lovely instructor Greg (aka the fabulous Greggles) and the two other ladies in our group, Ines and Tash. We watched some videos on the basics of diving and then got told we'd meet tomorrow morning at 8:30am and to do our knowledge reviews for homework. I had started some antibiotics for my bites as they were so sore so we had to go to a doctor to get him to sign me off to dive while taking them - I later found out the Dr we went to was nicknamed Dr Death
as he signed off everyone haha! Greg also introduced me to this crazy Chinese spray called after bite - ABSOLUTE LIFE SAVER!! Never doubting the Chinese and their use of herbs again!
The next day we went over our homework and did a little quiz on each section (Hannah and I both got 10/10 in them - NAILED IT). Then we headed off to the equipment store to get kitted up. After 6 hours in the pool we had mastered the basics and were ready for our first big open water dive in the sea the next day. That night consisted of more homework and an early night (going wild you see).
Day 3 on Koh Tao started with going over our homework and completing more quizzes (100% again!). After a spot of lunch it was time to head to the equipment store to get our stuff and then go to the dive boat to get to our dive sights. I have to be honest I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up meanwhile Hannah was as cool as a cucumber. We got to our first dive sight (white rock
) and because the water was quite choppy we had to do a James Bond style backwards role off the side of the boat (very cool). Once we were all in we headed to the line (this was what we held on to to help us go down and stopped when we were at the right depth) to start our descent. Unfortunately Tash struggled to get down and panicked a little so after 3 failed attempts our instructor thought it was best and safest that she spend a bit more time practicing in the pool and so sent her back to the boat. So our group was down to 3 - we descended to 12m and went for a lovely little swim around the ocean. We saw so many cool fish and underwater life, including a stingray! After what felt like 20 minutes we were back at the line and Greg showed me his watch - we had actually been down there for 44 minutes!! Time goes so much faster under water! Our next dive was at a place called Twins and we went to 10m, this time we had to demonstrate some different skills both under water and on
the surface. After we were done I was so buzzing from the adrenaline rush! It was such a cool experience. This night consisted of revision for our big final exam the next day and a very early night as we had to be at the equipment store at 6am the next morning!
On day 4 we arose very early, before the sun even peeked his head out, and went to get our equipment for our final dives. We got to our first dive sight (Hin Peewee) and again he water was slightly choppy so we James Bond backward rolled in and descended, this time to 18m! This was my favourite dive as we had some time to sit on the ocean floor and just watch all the fish doing their fishy thing. We also found Nemo and Dory up close and personal on this dive 😊! Greg also took us over a shipwreck here which was really cool! Again we practiced some skills before making our way up to the surface. Our next dive was at a place called Japanese Garden and was on much calmer water so we stepped off the back of the boat (not
as cool as James Bond style). We descended down to 12m and the scenery on this dive was incredible - parts of the ocean floor were just covered in coral and plants of all sorts of shapes, colours and patterns. On this dive we were doing a task and while Hannah and Ines were completing theirs I was sitting admiring the view when the next thing I looked down and saw some fish nibbling on my leg were my bites were healing - very surreal experience!!! After our dives were finished 😞 we headed back to the dive centre to complete our final exam. We all passed (thankfully!) and after viewing the cool photos Andre (the underwater photographer) took of our dive we had the rest of the afternoon and evening free to do as we pleased.
After we went for dinner this night we decided to finally explore the town and it's night life. We ended up at a beach bar called Lotus bar and watched our first fire show. It was really cool and the guys doing it are so blasé about the fact they are flinging balls of fire around so close to their body haha.
The next day I was woken up by Hannah telling me to hurry up and get up as it was sunny (something it hadn't been the last few days) so in my rush to get out and attempt to tan I forgot to sun cream one of my arms and ended up with a very interesting tan/burn line on my right arm (see the pictures for its full glory). We spent most of the day chilling with Andre in the dive centre and then that night we headed to our first ladyboy show. It was very entertaining, it's like a cabaret show but they just very badly mime along to popular songs. It was crazy how feminine some of them looked though!! The lady boys are a bit intimidating as they are very flashy and loud but lucky for us being a girl means they generally give us a wide berth haha! After the show we met up with a few of the dive assistants (JJ and Stephanie) and went out. However, our money had been locked in the dive centre lockers so Hannah and I spent most of the night attempting to count our shrapnel in
order to get 1 small beer between us. We scrapped together the 60 baht only to move to a different bar to find out the beers were 70! We'll done us! After a wee boogie we headed home to bed.
Day 6 in Koh Tao was our last day! We checked out and then had to hang around the dive centre until it was time for our boat to Koh Pha Ngan. During the course of the day Hannah got very pale and pretty sick (all the spice wasn't agreeing with her stomach). By the time we got to the port for the boat I was slightly worried about her but she trundled on like a trooper and got on to the boat for Koh Pha Ngan slightly less pale and hoping to sleep during the journey - no such luck pal!
Koh Tao was definitely my favourite island - I loved the chilled out atmosphere and the diving course was definitely one of my favourite things we have done so far. I really enjoyed how small and clean the island was compared to others we went to and the laid back attitude of
the island and the people on it was such a lovely thing to experience. Our dive instructor Greg also played a big part on how much we enjoyed our time there as he was a really cool guy who was very accommodating and just generally good fun 😊 luckily we got to see him again in Samui but that's all for another blog post!
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