May 13 - May 17

Ko Pha Ngan --> Ko Tao


Ko Tao means Turtle Island - its shape supposedly resemblances a turtle diving towards Ko Phan Ngan. I don't know...have a look on the map and you be the judge. As far the diving is concern I do know Ko Tao is THE place in Thailand to scuba. With 50 something companies offering all kinds of diving excursions and trainings, the supply easily handles the demand. The funny thing about Ko Tao is that, unless you came here to dive, there's nothing interesting to do. The island has some OK beaches but one probably had already seen more beautiful places on the way here (unless of course Ko Tao is the first Thailand destination which is very unlikely). Ko Tao is even duller when it's raining. The pouring that bothered us during the last few days on Ko Pha Ngan continued, though when we arrived it seemed for a moment it'd stopped. Wishful thinking. It wouldn’t go away for another few days. From what we understood it has something to do with the very same cyclone that had been bothering Burma. The raining finally stopped on the 3rd day and we quickly took our chance to visit Ko Nang Yuan - only one kilometer away from Tao, the most spectacular spot we visited since Maya Bay. Three petit island all connected by a sandy beach. Somewhat strict regulations helped preserved the natural beauty of the place - 100B admission fee, visitors are not allowed after 5pm, only one accommodation option and ban on all plastic containers. Way to go. Was it up to me same regulations would be introduced to more places in Thailand with on the spot fee for throwing cigarettes butts into the water. We were lucky enough to skip the tourist attack and pretty much, especially before closing time, the sandy isthmus was ours.

We arranged for our transfer to Malaysia for the next day, evening time. We checked out around noon, left our stuff with the travel agent and begun killing time.

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