Blogs from Ko Tao, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 8

Patience really is the name of the game when travelling in Asia. Here's what you can expect from a typical journey: THE PICK UP: - The only security you have that you are going to be picked up in the first place is the rushed phonecall from the person you booked it from and small sheet of paper with "PAID" stamped on it. Its all about having faith! - A piece of paper as a receipt is too much of an assurance, so as soon as you are picked up it is quickly replaced with a colourful sticker which somehow is your key to where you are going ... if lost, all assurances that you had paid for the trip are lost too... while hot and sweaty this doesn't fill you with much confidence! - Suggested ... read more

The full moon party took it out of me a bit so a few days chilling on a beach were much needed; we headed to Than Sadet on the east coast of Ko Pha Ngan - it was lush! Two days in a 2 storey hut on a hill by the beach, jealous much?! Next stop was Ko Tao to learn to dive; we came on the 4th and still here now on the 9th - its that good. We arrived at Big Blue Diving Resort and signed up for the Open Water Diving where you learn the basics and can then go down to 18m, accomodation is included with the course unfortunately its the busiest time of year and they only had 2 beds in a dorm room. Dorm rooms were one of the things ... read more

After arriving in Koh Tao Tom was looking a little worse for wear, which in most cases while travelling may be as a result of excessive alcohol but its safe to say this was not normal! Excessive sweating, severe headache and an aching body, not good... But in Toms case a lack of appetite is when alarm bells start ringing as that really is a cause for concern! img=http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b534/Rachel_1988/8DD96011-31C3-42CF-A639-8E0FDE82AF82-4484-0000095CB0FB3E81.jpg Enough was enough after 5 hours sweating in bed and bringing the patient his third packet of ice for his head and he still was burning up. It would happen on the one night of numerous powercuts, so our worried phone calls home to parents may actually be on par with the excessive hospital bills! We feared Tom was displaying the symptoms of dengue fever so decided ... read more

SCUBA school was out for Christmas Day, leaving us with a well earned break and a chance to enjoy the beach - without the SCUBA kit on! We had a nice breakfast on the sea front and spent most of the day in the sea. The water was lovely and warm but a little shallow and you felt like you were half way out in the ocean to get the water above your waistline! We had pre-booked Christmas dinner at a swanky restaurant on the island (Darawan) we started with sunset cocktails followed by a pretty hefty 5 course menu with champagne and wine. The restaurant and the views out to sea were beautiful. Despite some disorganisation from the staff the food was pretty good (Roast Turkey and Beef) and overall we had a lovely evening. ... read more

Today was our first SCUBA dive - luckily only learning skills in the pool! I found it a very weird experience and particularly struggled with the mask skills (taking off your mask underwater and putting it back on while trying to drain the remaining water). After a few more attempts I got the hang of it and passed my skills test. James was of course a pro and I'm glad he'll be my buddy on the sea dives! We had to learn a bit more theory in the afternoon and we have our exam tomorrow morning. After a nice dinner at a local Thai place (combined with testing each other on our SCUBA knowledge) we headed to the beach to soak up Koh Tao nightlife. Baileys bit: Our instructor 'scuba' ... read more