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Published: April 5th 2007
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We've made it to Ko Samui (eventually) - we got a little side-tracked by Ko Tao, - it was brilliant!
We started off by doing our courses. Both were excellent, and allowed us to do lots of dives.
Ben got to use an underwater "scooter" (DPV for those in the know!)- James Bond style, - felt very cool (but probably looked like a plonker underwater!).
We saw lots of fish and sealife: octopus, triggerfish, angelfish, sea-snake, eels, christmas-tree things, damsels, barracuda, tuna, great big schools of fish, - felt very privilaged! Hannah finished her 4 day course on Wednesday, and Ben his 2 day course on Thursday, after he had a problem equalising one day (apparantly having the occasional beer the night before is not the best thing before diving). He still maintains it was his "cold".
On Friday we rented out a bike and went to visit Shark Bay, where we snorkelled out to see loads and loads of black-tipped reef sharks. After the first couple, Hannah let me have my hand back...... which was nice.
Saturday and Sunday we explored a bit more of the island with a guy we met up with from Bangkok. Hannah had her
first Thai massage on Sunday on the beach which she had been looking forward to.
Monday was a chill-out day as we had the full-moon party in the evening and we had booked a "party boat" to take us over to Ko Phagnan at 5.00 in the evening and pick us up at 07.00 the next morning!
Bit of an eye opener to say the least! - After getting caught up in some poor fisherman's net half way along the boat trip, and lots of arm waving going on, we finally made it to Ko Pagnan at about 8.00, where there were litterally thousands and thousands of people! Everyone walking around with a sand-castle bucket filled with Thai whisky and their equivalent of Red-Bull. Lethal stuff!
We bumped into a Uni mate in the middle of the 25,000 that were on the beach, and after stomping around on the beach with the thousands of other zombies, made our way further down the beach where they were setting off these paper balloons with a paraffin dish with wishes on board!
If the wind catches them and lifts them up into the sky- your wish'll come true, if it wipes out on
the beach its a no-go! Lots of fireworks and hundreds of UV tattoos (they wash off so don't panic anyone!). Hannah got a very sophisticated Thai symbol on her arm, meanwhile a girl went to school on one of our friend's face, and he was walking around with a horrific concoction from forhead to chin in every concievable smudged UV paint there is! Very funny!- Especially when he got on the boat later in the morning completely forgetting he had got it done! (I think actually he kept it unwittingly until the following morning!)
Anyway we survived the whole night/morning, watched the sunrise and caught the boat later in the morning at 7.00.
We got back to Ko Tao at 10.00 and needless to say much of the rest of the day was made up of eating and sleeping! Sleeping taking up the lion share!
We also had a Thai massage together. Probably the most painful thing in the world, but we felt amazing afterwards! It was about 2 pounds each for half an hour, - amazing!
Ben was feeling very poofy, but think he's been converted!
On Wednesday we decided it was time to leave Ko Tao and
head to Ko Samui.
So we've been here for a day and half now. Today we hired out a scooter to explore a lot of the island. We went waterfall exploring, and with the help of a long-suffering guide we made it up to an 80 metre waterfall. I say long-suffering, but towards the end it was clear he was tiring of us. He was pretty much lifting/dragging Hannah the entire way, with Hannah putting out the occasional arm and leg to give the impression of doing something. Quite what I'm not too sure! Ben started with a few words of encouragement, but as he started to fall further behind this power-house, felt that these were no-longer needed and focused more and more on just trying to keep-up!
We would like to say that the gallons of sweat were worth it........, but the fantastic swim you think you'll be getting at the top is little more than a trough of water fit for chucking! Well, win-some lose-some! A couple of the views coming down were great, but we found it little hard to be enthusiastic to the excited groups eagerly climbing up as we were climbing down.
Apart from that we had a great time exploring some other bits of the island. People on the island are really friendly and helpful. It was nice to get out of the thousands of farrang (gringos) we seem to have quickly become immersed in.
We are staying on the North East Coast (Chaweng), - which is pretty touristy, but in the evenings they bring a lot of their restaurants and seating areas down onto the beach, where people juggle fire, and play cool music whilst you choose what you want to be cooked!
So far Ben's had Red Snapper, prawns, King Mackrel cooked on the Barbie! Hannahs had mostly Veggie options and lots of Thai dishes!
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Niki
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Hairdo
Whats with the hair Hannah. Looks like one of mine !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you Niki xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx