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Published: June 23rd 2008
We are finally caught up! I am sitting in an internet cafe here in Koh Tao, today we are catching a night boat and then we have an 18 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur.
We have spent about a week here in Koh Tao, it has been a nice relaxing escape from the big cities (and pollution) and our last chance of lazing on beaches before we move on to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Our first few days in Koh Tao we stayed a the little area by the pier. We stayed at Mr. J's Bungalows. Mr. J is insane, hilariously funny though. The entire place has laminated signs everywhere in horrible english saying things like "Fish for Friend, not Tom Yum" (Mr. J is an avid vegitarian) or "spend money here is good luck". Mr J also keeps a running tally of what countries people come from and strange stereotypes of each, "Irish has good tips", "Italians complain about motorbikes" and he loved us cause "Canadians don't bargain". His store deal was if you booked snorklling trips with him you got a free pepsi. Mr. J also proudly took us around and pointed out all the benefits of the place "that table, sit for free", "path to the beach, walk for free" and he also offered to wake us up for our snorklling- for free of course.
Our snorklling trip around the island was nice, we saw a lot of fish but all the coral was just different shades of brown. They took us to various bays on the different coasts and out to an island where we could climb up the "mountain" - a 15 minute hike. The water was super warm even though the day was overcast but due to the low tides and rainy season the visibility was not fantastic.
We spent the next few days around Sairee beach which is beautiful with soft white sand. For about 300 meters out the water is only 2 feet deep and just sand on the bottom, no rocks or coral, so you can just float, sit or crawl around. We ate at the various beachside restaurants and just spent most of the time reading.
We then moved to the south part of the island to stay at the View Point Bungalows, which I had read about. They are these artistically desiged bungalows built around a rocky point at the corner of the bay. Although it was a long walk (our taxi dropped us at completely the wrong side of the bay, but thankfully the beach and town are really small) it was definitely worth it and we got a gorgeous little bungalow with a huge veranda looking out to the ocean. We had big sitting cushions, hung up hammocks and spent our last few days in Thailand relaxing and wandering around the bay.
Now we are just hanging around and waiting till it's time to catch our boat. Tomorrow we will be in Malaysia! I can't believe how fast this trip has gone by, and in just over 2 weeks we will be back in Canada.
We will post an update from Kuala Lumpur!!
-Erin
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Jeff Ruehle
non-member comment
2 weeks.....yikes
Well Mr. J sounds like quite the guy! A neat place to have stayed I am sure. I can't wait to get the whole lowdown from you later via the PHONE! Well soak in every last ounce of fun, and culture, eat the food, keep the bizarre things, photograph the seemingly normal, and most of all enjoy!!! Ciao