Ko Tao, Ko Phangan and Khao Sok National Park

---

Its been a long time since we did a blog, so we've got a bit of catching up to do!

After a 7 hour bus journey from Bangkok to Chumphon we got an early morning boat to the scuba diving Mecca, Ko Tao. Our reason for going there was to do the 4 day PADI Open Water Dive Course, which qualifies you to dive to a depth 18 metres anywhere around the world. We did our course with Crystal Dive Resort and they were really great, all the people were nice and we had a cool group of people to dive with. The first couple of days of the course was mainly classroom stuff, of which there was actually quite a lot to learn, and then a final exam! On the 2nd day we also had our first go at breathing underwater when we did a "closed water dive" in the swimming pool. By the 3rd day it was time for the real thing; open water dives at sites around the island. Day 4 was the best as we were more confident and went to two really cool dive sites: Chumphon Pinnacle and White Rock. Overall the experience was awesome, the weightlessness feels so cool, not to mention all the extensive and colourful marine life. We would definately recommend diving to everyone! I'd also like to point out how brilliantly Kirstie did, as before the course she had a real fear of the sea, and now she's a fully accomplished scuba diver! Only problem is we don't have photos of us in scuba gear as digital cameras and water don't mix too well! (Isn't that right Phil?) But we do have a DVD of it all to show you when we are back.

After finishing the dive course, we took another boat to the next gulf coast island along from Ko Tao, the beautiful party island of Ko Phangan. We stayed at Haad Yao (West) on the island, in a bungalow right next to the beach. We loved Haad Yao! The beach is gorgeous, there are some bars and places to meet people, but its not too crazy so you can still chill out as well. The sunsets were beautiful, and watching the lightening storms out at sea at night was cool. We stayed there for about 9 days in the end, and had some nice chillout time, as up until this point we have been constantly on the move. We met some really nice people there too; Will, Laura, Stuart, Gary, Martin and Daniel. Whilst on Ko Phangan, we also obviously went to the famous Full Moon Party in Haad Rin with Will and Laura and met up with our Israeli mates, Roman and Yaniv. It was a great night, with UV paint, Sangsom buckets, Psy-trance and an awesome sunrise in the morning!

After a couple of days recovery, we sadly said goodbye to Ko Phangan and got the ferry back to the mainland in order to get to Khao Sok National Park. We stayed at Pantoorat Mountain Lodge and the people there; Toy, Sak and Binh, could not have been better. We had a much better experience here than we did at Khao Yai in the east. We ended up doing a one day 20km jungle trek through the national park, which is some of the oldest rainforest in the world. It was an extremely challenging trek, but well worth it, the scenery was great and we saw plenty of wildlife; monkeys, birds, lizards, a snake and unfortunately leeches (one of which decided to feast on Paul's leg!). That night our young guide, Binh, cooked us a delicious curry, and we chatted away to Sak who is actually Tarzan! 10 years ago Sak was sent into the jungle by the government with just the clothes he had on, some lighters and a knife, and had to survive for a month and get out the other side of the park by trekking 20km each day! So far, he is the only man in Thailand to have achieved this in order to train the army and other specialist professionals in extreme jungle survival. Wow! He told us that in 15 years, when he's 50, he simply wants to live in a hut on his own deep in the jungle, and help conserve the rafflesia flower (largest flower in the world) which is only found in Khao Sok. All together, a pretty amazing bloke!

Yesterday, with aching muscles, we arrived in Krabi on the Andaman coast.

---

Photos

Kirstie under our jungle shelter
When it started to rain, our guide Binh knocked up this shelter for our lunch using just bamboo and banana leaves!

Us with Binh and Sak (right)
Everybody! If you look really closely, you'll notice a rare natural phenomenon... Paul has a tan!!