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Published: December 11th 2006
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We arrived in Koh Tao following an overnight bus trip from Bangkok followed by a 1 hr ferry crossing. Koh Tao is on of the least developed South Thailand Islands, more popular with divers than backpackers. We stayed at the rather luxurious Coral View Resort, in a bungalow on stilts. The resort had an exclusive beach (see pic) with great snorkeling - especially at Shark Island, just 300m off shore - many friendly tropical fish (see pic) and a friendly dog (who of course Nat called Sandy) who came in to swim with us (see pic).
The island has only a couple of tarmacked roads and the gorgeous bays and resorts are accessible only via treacherous dirt tracks accessible using the 4X4’s or dirt bikes for hire. So we hired a moped! We made it to just 2 bays, the Stunning Janson Bay (see pic) with its 4-star resort and Sai Nuai Bay before giving up after suffering our 2nd moped accident, and Nat’s 2nd burn, of the holiday.
We decided to visit the rest of the island on an organised snorkeling trip. We saw many amazing fish including Parrot fish, Rainbow fish, Butterfly fish, Angel fish and Bat
Fish, which are pretty big! Around the bay from Shark Island was Shark Bay (can you see where we are going with this?....). Much to our surprise, 3 sharks swam within 15ft of us; they were only 2m Black Tipped Reef Sharks but they were certainly enough to get the heart going! Some people on the trip saw 10! The day before saw the 2nd Whale Shark visit to these areas - at 8m long, we do not know what we would have done if we saw this, we didn’t know at this point they do not have teeth!
We also stopped at the striking Koh Nangyuan set of islands where 3 land masses are linked by two connecting sand banks (see pics). Here there was the ‘Japanese Garden ‘ snorkeling area which contained very cool coral and fish but the currents made getting back ashore very hard work!
As mentioned, each resort was not easily accessible, ours included, which meant that you could get stuck in your resort. Our resort was not the worst place in the World to get stuck in but we did want to see nightlife elsewhere so we went for a few beers
in town. After watching a pretty cool sunset at the Sairee View Restaurant, where they had a whale skeleton on display (see pic), the only taxi capable of reaching our resort wanted 500 Baht (8 Pounds - unheard of!) so we hitched a ride on 2 different vehicles. The second truck belonged to a neighbouring resort (we were lucky it found us - it saved us a 1 ½ hr trek!) and they dropped us at the top of the hill and told us to walk 5 mins down the path back to our resort. After 10 mins of walking through dense jungle with all sorts of deafening animal noises around us, many mozzies, little visibility and a couple of left-right choices, we started to contemplate a night sleeping in the jungle. Then we arrived at the resort!
We left for Krabi on an overnight boat with nothing but space for luggage storage, 40-odd mattresses on the upper deck (inside) and a toilet. We arrived in Krabi and headed straight for Ao Nang for a breakfast date with Ricko & Michelle (now officially promoted to stalkers!) before they flew to Burma.
After breakfast we took a longtail boat
10 minutes around the bay to the secluded Tonsai Beach (see pic). This beach is not easily accessible by land and is therefore much quieter than Ao Nang and although it is part of the mainland, it had more of an island feel to it. There were a strip of guest houses, restaurants and bars with a strong Rastafarian influence (see pic); every other song was ‘No Woman, No Cry’! The beach at night became a great sight with fire dancers (see pic) and many lanterns and 'volcano's made of sand (see pic). In the same way that Koh Tao attracted divers, Tonsai was a Mecca to rock climbers. Some of the sunsets were spectacular (see pics).
We met a lovely couple from Amsterdam, Bas and Chantal, with whom we hired a kayak and explored other local beaches, including the picturesque Rai Lei beach (see pic). We kayaked out to an island that looked fairly close to our beach. It turned out to be over 5km’s and we arrived, over an hour later, exhausted! We decided to get a longtail boat back with the kayaks aboard (see pic)! The beaches were worth all the exertion however, especially as a
couple of troops of Macaque monkeys inhabited 2 beaches. They were very friendly and drew in the crowds. As you can see from the picture below, they were a lot more patient with G’s photo taking than his companions! After a great fish BBQ that night back at Tonsai, we shared a few well-earned beers with the guys and bade them farewell as they were homebound the next day.
We went on a couple of organized tours from Ao Nang; the first was a snorkeling trip. Although the dive sites were not as good as in Koh Tao, the beaches we saw were gorgeous, including the amazing Hong Island (see pic). The wildlife was both unexpected, as with the huge monitor lizard (see pic) and unwanted, as some poor guy got ‘Irwined’ and stepped on a sting ray. He was in excruciating pain and was rushed to hospital.
The 2nd trip was to Ko Ping Kan or ‘James Bond’ Island which oddly enough, didn’t appeal to Nat so G went on his own. As well as visiting the island where the scenes involving Scaramanger’s island lair in ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ were filmed (see pic) he
visited a huge cave temple (see pic), a nice national park and a floating village.
We left for Tonsai for the very South of Thailand, in Satun, where recent explosions have been blamed on insurgents. We decided to stay only 1 (uneventful) night! Satun is the gateway to Malaysia, our next port of call!
Thanks again for everyone’s messages - please keep them coming!
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