Songkran on Koh Tao, waterfight!!!!!!!!!!!!

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So it was time to leave Cambodia and head off on an epic dash to Koh Tao to arrive before everything shut down for Songkran, the Thai new year. 6 of the Irish bunch and I got a morning bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok and were told it would take 8 hours, putting me at the train station with plenty of time to try and get an evening train down to the jumping off point for the islands. Unfortunately, as is usual here, the timings were somewhat off. The 8am bus set off at 9:30 but not before I had a mad panic after leaving my passport at the hotel when I left for the coach. Fortunately they sent a driver round on a motorbike to get it to me before we left, crisis averted despite my never-ending stupidity!

The bus arrived at the border after making a few random stops for the driver to pick up family and change some cash and we stood in line to get our passports stamped out of Cambodia and into Thailand. We then had an hour's wait at a cafe before we were assigned to minibuses for the remainder of the trip. The 7 of us were crammed in with 8 others into a minivan with all our bags stuffed into any remaining space. The van was ridiculously hot and took 5 hours to get to the centre of Bangkok through the crazy traffic. Arriving at the station at 7:10 i thought i would be sh*t out of luck on getting a ticket but I actually got the last sleeper bed on the 7:30pm and dashed down the platform to my carriage.

Sadly sleep evaded me and I was still awake when we arrived at Chumphon at 4 in the morning where we had a small wait before heading to the pier to catch the 7am catamaran to Koh Tao. This nearly left on time and it was a pretty relaxing trip out to the island chatting with a recruitment consultant from London, Imraan, who was on gardening leave prior to starting his own business.

As the island came into view it was much bigger than I was expecting, was thinking it would be more the size of Kho Phi Phi but it was clearly bigger with some decent sized hills in the centre, covered in lush jungle.

After disembarking and grabbing our stuff, Imraan and I grabbed some food and then headed round to the dive shop as, coincidentally he was booked in to do his open water with the same school I was using, Master Divers. I met a few of the staff and did some paper work before being shown to the room they had sorted me for the first week until I found my feet and got my own place. The room was a decent size but I soon learnt that it was located in a spot that gets no air and is ridiculously hot, though everywhere is at the moment.

After a very coincidental meeting with a certain somebody I struck out for the south of the island in search of a nice bungalow to rent. Having tried a few places I decided that there was nothing up to scratch and headed back to town where I managed to get a great place with a big room, 2 balconies, a hammock and a fridge for 8,500bht a month, moving in after my week at the dive place is up.

That sorted I headed up to the main town on the island, Sai Ree for a look at the beach and what was going on. The walk wasa nice one down a little paved road alongside the beach and it didnt take long to get there from the dive school. The main beach is long and curving with white sand and turquoise waters, spolied only by the number of longtail boats which use it to pick up day trippers. A large number of bars open out onto the beach with great chill out areas and plenty of stuff going on. I could tell this was going to be a great place to live for 10 weeks.

In the evening I met 3 girls from the Ha Long Bay trip who were on the island and we had a great meal in town but I was too whacked from the 27 hour journey to head out and they had a 7am dive so the night ended fairly early.

On my first full day I decided to do some exploring so headed for the road up the highest point on the island. It turned out to be a very steep 1,000ft climb in very humid 35C midday sun. I bested it though and the view from the top was fantastic out over the bay in front of Sairee. Unfortunately, when I went to take a photo I realised I had left my memory card in the room....Matt Clarke stupidity strikes again.

On the way down I had a chance encounter with a 3ft lizard which made me nearly cr@p my pants as I hadnt noticed it on the path in front of me as I mozied along with my tunes and shades on. Hopefully will get some photos of one next time I head up there.

After a recovery session on the beach, I headed to the dive shop and met all of the instructors and the other divemaster trainees, all of whom had a significant amount of experience compared to me. Everyone was great and we were soon heading off to buy water pistols together for the ffestivities on the following day.

In the evening I headed out for beers with Imraan, which turned into a random big night out with some instructors from another dive shop into one of the beach bars in town, where a big fancy dress party was going on. I stuck it out till1 but then headed home knowing the following day was Song Kran.

After an early morning work out in the sunshine on the beach, I met up with the other DMT's and we got stuck into the huge water fight going on across the island. Everyone arriving at the pier on ferries got soaked and we were all being drenched by the local kids and covered in body paints. It is officially my new favourite holiday! Along with the water fighting we piled into the beers and crawled down to Sairee to get into the full swing of the parties in the beach bars. Everywhere was buzzing and hundreds of people were soaking up the beers and buckets and the glorious weather, dancing on the beach, on the tables or anywhere there was space.

The daylight ended with an amazing sunset and then they started up a load of fire dancing which just added to the atmosphere. When I finally went to head home in the not so early hours I spotted a girl pretty much passed out by the path and decided I couldnt just leave her there so managed to get her up and talking and drinking some water but unfortunately she didnt know where her bungalow was. I ended up carrying her around a mile back past my own room to where she finally remembered she was staying, without any flip flops as I had lost them in the bar earlier. As I left her trying to get into her room I didnt think she would remember much of my act of gallantry in the morning!

We were all totally destroyed in the morning and didnt manage much more than meeting for lunch to talk through all the funny things that had happened during the day and look through the photos Alex had taken on his waterproof camera (will add when I get copies). We decided a few beers in town in the afternoon to take the edge off was the answer, the beautiful sunset once again helping, nothing better than a beer on the beach to make you smile! Dinner and early nights all round were had as we were all due in to dive in the morning, me for my SCUBA review and the other guys to help teach. The first few days on the island had been brilliant and I couldnt wait to get started with the diving, living here is going to be sooooooo tough....honest! 😊

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Bars
Is it a prerequisite that you spend all your time in bars when there is so much to see??