Koh Tao

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As you are travelling around you hear the same places being mentioned over and over, everyone with something positive to say. Pai is meant to be the hidden gem of the north, and in the south it seems to be Koh Tao. After the stuff that had happened a few days before I was really hopeful that everyone was right about this island.

We parked ourselves on the top deck of the boat, the sun was shining and already things were looking up. The boat over was great, we had some beers and everyone was in a good mood, music was on the IPOD and it turned into a little party which was as good a way as any to spend 2 1/2 hours of your life.

Tao is meant to be an unspoilt quiet paradise, how everyone says all of Thailand was a few years ago. Mostly it is meant to be divers that head there as apparently it has some of the best diving in the country, but i think this will change over the next few years as word spreads.

When we got there we really struggled to find a place to stay, everyone kept telling us they were full because a Phillipino boxing champ was on the island for a fight. Surely it was not Pacquio? Well obviously it wasn't but we are getting ahead of ourselves in the story here anyway. The second day we moved to a bungalow just off the main beach which would be our home for the next week and a half, the staff at the Wind Beach Resort were friendly enough and after my black eye had gone and the resort quietened down a little we hung out with them a bit more.

We had noticed people were whizzing about on quad bikes everywhere so went to try and hire a couple of them but you snooze you lose in that game it seemed as they were all taken, we settled on a couple of mopeds instead which neither of us had ever ridden before. James tried to blag he had already been on them before to the guy we were renting them from but he gave the game away when he couldn't even turn it on. Personally I was just happy I didn't kill myself outside the shop learning how much you don't need to use the accelerator. Not a lot is the answer in case you were wandering.

But we finally got going and went off exploring, we went up to the top of the island where it was quiet and quite hilly and covered in trees. We stopped for a few photos then whizzed off, well Jimmy whizzed, I more lazily buzzed off. We went all the way down to the other end of the island and it was actually quite fun apart from the pain of stopping and starting and being overtaken by 10 year old kids laughing at my attempts to ride. It was definitely a good way to see the island and the last beach we came to was really nice, it had a little beach bar and you could swim out to rafts in the water to relax on and catch some rays. We managed to get split up at one point and I took myself off down a dirt road that I thought was where we were meant to be going, after off roading and nearly breaking my neck on the dirt roads I called it a day and headed back bumping into Jimmy on the way back to dropping our bikes off.

At night there was only really one late night bar on the beach which had the best fire dancers we have seen in Thailand, the guy who chucked it in the air catching it between his toes was impressive, if slightly mental. But we had a couple of good nights there hanging out with some Swiss ladies and throwing a few weird shapes.

Out of everywhere we have been the weather on Tao was probably the closest to home, it seemed to rain nearly every day for at least an hour or so so we had the odd lazy day. One day when the sun was actually beating down we went to settle a grudge on the crazy golf course we had found on our bikes, i lost. However we noticed they had boxing on the TV and when we asked they told us it was a Thailand v Phillipines special event live from literally around the corner from where we were. It was a massive free event being shown live on national TV so we went down and watched a few fights. It was pretty weird having boxing matches at 3pm in the glorious sunshine, no wonder a few of them got knocked out. I would struggle to tie my boots up in that heat. They had the mayor and all sorts of VIPs for the presentations after each fight and it had a real carnival atmosphere to it.

Another day we took a longtail boat over to the twin islands whose name I have forgotten, but it is a nature reserve or national park and are linked together by a beach cutting through the sea between them and it was probably the most beautiful place I have seen. The trees and plants coming out the mountains either side with wooden walkways and crystal clear waters is picture perfect. The waters were full of fish everywhere, at one point I was stood in the middle of a school of fish about the size of a penalty area, some of them were easily over a foot long, it was crazy to see, though slightly worrying when they start swimming a little too close to the shorts.

We decided that because it was our penultimate night that we would be sensible and hit the town tonight instead of on our last night so we would be fresh to travel. We went to the beach for a bit and sampled a few buckets then went to a party in a castle which advertised that it was a Space Ibiza night. Needless to say I was rather surprised to bump into Anna an old school friend there raving it up so we danced the night away which was fun. The castle was a really good club and anyone on Tao should definitely go to a party there if it is open.

I am sure there is a quote about those with best laid plans and good intentions I should be using here for our last night, as contrary to the popular belief we were having an early night it turned out to be a girl who worked at our resorts birthday and we got roped into celebrating with them and somehow came away with more new T-Shirts to keep us from doing laundry for a day longer. At least in our defense the next day we would be travelling to the capital city, good old Bangkok Town where we would definitely be able to relax and be nice and lazy...

You actually thought I was serious?

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