Ko Tao, Thailand (29 April)

We had arranged a taxi with Sam and Doi to take us to Sairee Beach at 8:45am so we had breakfast, packed, checked out and headed over to Sam. There was a group of 6 friends trying to check out, have breakfast, book ferry tickets etc so it was all a bit manic and 8:45 came and went. The group were also getting the taxi with us so we had to wait.

Finally Doi arrived (looking very hungover!) and everyone was ready. Sam came to say his goodbyes and as he was shaking this American girls hand she let out a deafening scream and shouted “oh my God you have a huge spider on your shirt”. We all looked and true as bob there was a massive spider on Sam’s arm. He didn’t understand and just looked at us, when we finally managed to calmly explain he had a spider on him, the spider crawled up the inside of his t-shirt arm – we we all screaming “take off your shirt, spider” – he was very confused and was looking at us like we were mad cause he couldn’t see any spider – anyway just then the spider dropped out of his t-shirt and onto the floor and he saw it and just shrugged as we were all running away (well us girls!). Ha ha

Anyway we all piled into the back of the open top van and bumped our way along the washed out dirt road to the port to drop the guys off and then onto Sairee Beach.

We looked at a few places and decided on DD Huts which is in-between Mae Haad (port) and Sairee Beach. We have a really cute rustic bungalow close to the beach. It has a nice view down to the sea and they have a great bar right on the water with fantastic views of Sairee Beach. Our room was still being cleaned so we sat in the restaurant, did some admin, internet banking etc and waited to checkin.

Once checked in we dumped our stuff and took a walk into Mae Haad. We had to go back t the travel agency to pick up the tickets for our visa run and pay the outstanding balance. We feel so much better now that it is all booked and sorted – we leave for Burma on the overnight ferry on 2nd (should be interesting!). After that we bought the most amazing baguette from a young girl making them on the side of the road and we headed back to DD’s. We ate our baguette at their bar overlooking the ocean. They have the meanest looking dog i have ever seen. Looks like a cross pit-bull/staffie and ridgeback. Luckily he seems friendly. We decided to bribe him with food anyway just in case!

After lunch we headed over to Sairee Beach and went for a swim. Well not a swim exactly as the water only comes up to your knee so you just kind of sit down and frolic around in the warm water. We tried to sit in the shade for a while and read but we got so hot and restless that we decided to walk down the 1.7km beach and then walk back on the road/promenade. That wasn’t the greatest idea, we felt like we were going to melt. Ice cream helped a bit :). The walk was beautiful and it was nice to look at shops again. We have been on such quiet beaches for ages now so I was loving a bit of hustle and bustle .

On out way back we went for another dip then showered and got ready for dinner. I read my book on the hammock on our balcony go a while. We just went to DD’s restaurant and grabbed a Table with a Sea view. The sun was just starting to go down and we watched the most stunning sunset whilst we were having dinner – very romantic.

After dinner we walked down to the bar to watch the last rays of sunlight disappear over the horizon and we watched the stars and the moon come out. We have been on the East side of the islands and is is our first time on the West so it is he first time we get to see a proper sunset and it didn’t disappoint!

Ko Tao, Thailand (28 April)

We decided to go for a morning snorkel so we hired some stuff and jumped into the water at 8:30 am. The visibility wasn’t great as there was still a bit of cloud cover. We decided to swim around the rocks on the left hand side of the beach which was a bit of a swim. Half way there my mask started to leak which was such a pain. We managed to see a bit of marine life but when we got around the corner it got quite deep and as the vis was poor we couldn’t really see much. By this time I was getting really fed up having to clear my mask every few minutes and we had been out for over 30 mins already so we headed back. It was quite a long swim back which was great morning exercise!

We got back, had breakfast and I swapped my mask for a new one. We sat on the Internet looking into accommodation as today is our last day in Tanote Bay and we are going to go stay in Sairee Beach on the other side of the island or a few days. We researched loads of places for a couple of hours and got an idea of what side of the beach we should stay and which places were within our budget.

By now it was noon and we decided to go for another snorkel before lunch. The clouds had burnt off and the sky was blue. We waded into the water and the visibility was perfect.

Pete decided he wanted to do the jump off the huge rock in the middle of the bay so he swam over to do that – nutter!

We decided to just snorkel in front of the huge rock Pete had just jumped off. The coral and sea life here is amazing. We saw 4 black tip reef sharks just cruising around minding their own business. There were loads of fish of all shapes and sizes and we swam through a school of beautiful yellow fish and another school of tiny silver fish. We swam in and out of coral formations and at one stage found ourselves in what felt like a bowl or an aquarium as we were completely surrounded by huge coral reefs with a big hollow in the middle, there were loads of fish and something really big stuck its head out of a cave at the bottom but we didn’t get a good look at it. We were both too nervous to dive down for a closer look!

We snorkelled for an hour and then went for lunch at our resort restaurant. We bumped into the Israeli couple again so chatted to them for a while.

We soaked up some sun for an hour and around 4pm decided to go for one last snorkel. It was great. All the fish were feeding so there was a frenzy of activity under the water. When we got in a huge school of mixed fish started following us. When we stopped swimming they would just swim around us and then when we started swimming again they would follow us. It was really bizarre. We saw another octopus, more reef sharks, loads of fat sea cucumbers of all shapes and sizes, we saw a stunning looking blue spotted sting ray – it was grey with electric blue spots on it. Pete found a massive cowrie shell but we felt too bad to take it out of the water so we left it for crustacean to find and live in. A cheeky black fish bit Pete on his toe which was really funny!

We snorkelled for an hour and were exhausted when we got out. We showered and headed over to Poseidon for dinner but when we got there Sam told us his restaurant was closed as there was a party happening in town and his staff all wanted to go so we headed over to Family Tanote Bay Restaurant to give that a go. The restaurant had great views over the bay and is on the opposite side of Poseidon and our resort so it was nice to get a different view. The food was also delicious.

We had a great last day on Tanote Bay Beach and will be sad to leave this place. Our bungalow on this quiet beach is exactly what we have been looking for. We have loved this place but time to move on and check out somewhere new!

Ko Tao, Thailand (27 April)

We had a nice slow and relaxing day. We tanned for an hour in the morning and then spent the rest of the day in the shade. Went for lunch. Chatted to the Israeli couple again for a while. Spent a few hours writing my blog. I decided to try out another massage so went for the 1 hour full body oil massage at 3:30pm – it was heaven and only cost £7! The lady has a little hut on the beach so you get massaged listening to the sea.

Pete took his lilo out and paddled around the rocks for an hour. We were hungry again at 5pm so we went for a very early dinner. I wanted to upload my updated blogs but could only get internet reception in one spot in the room so I had to stand in the middle of the room holding my iPad at an exact hight to get signal! That wasn’t fun and my arms were aching after 30 minutes. I could have gone to the resort restaurant that has great signal but I couldn’t be bothered so just stood awkwardly for half an hour whilst uploading.

During all of this Pete decided to torture me by going through his iPod and playing really old songs that he use to love (which included some heavy metal) as he had a little trip down memory lane.

Then we just read our books and were asleep by 10pm!

Ko Tao, Thailand (26 April)

We woke up early, had breakfast and then started our hike up to the viewpoint at 7:45am (named Two Views as you can see the east and west coast bays). We first hiked past Tanote Bay Viewpoint which was 20 minutes of steep uphill. We carried on hiking to Two Views which took another 40 minutes of steep uphill. The viewpoint is the highest point of the island at just under 400 meters. It was quite a thigh burning hike up but the views were stunning. From one point we could see the port we arrived at and a few other coves.

We decided we wanted to keep walking so we found a path and hoped it would take us down to Sairee Beach which is close to Mae Haad (the port and main town on the west side of the island). It was a long walk down and the path was really gravelly. Not great for gripping when you are wearing flip-flops! The walk was really enjoyable and we always love walking through the dense vegetation. Pete took the lead as well as all the spiderwebs. Our legs felt like jelly when we finally got to the bottom.

We walked around Sairee for a bit and I really liked it. It is more built up than Tanote Bay where we are staying and the beach isn’t as nice but it had a good feel to it and lovely restaurants along a tree lined promenade.

We carried on walking around the bay to Mae Haad. This area is just crazy. It is so busy and the area where the boats come in is always overcrowded. We did need to go into a travel agent there as we need to do a visa run which means doing a day trip over to Burma. It is such a pain – we got a 30 day entry stamp when we arrived but we are in Thailand for 33 days so the quickest and cheapest thing for us to do is book a day trip to Burma and get a new 15 day entry stamp. Anyway we managed to book a trip trough a travel agent so we are all set to go on 2nd May.

We Carried on walking out of Mae Haad to find the Jax Trek, a trail that winds along the southwest coast towards the southern beach of Chalok Baan. The trail makes its way through a multitude of resorts only accessible to the residents by boat. Having eventually found the trail at the southern end of Mae Haad beach, we headed towards Jensom bay passing some beautiful coastline and smaller bays. Jensom bay is a cute Little bay privately owned by two resorts. It looked great but we did not want to stick around as they charge you to be on the beach.

From there we headed directly south for about a km passing a stunning resort called Bamboo Huts. They have individual luxury huts built onto the cliff face and some have their own private swimming pools and jacuzzi’s overlooking the ocean. This would be the perfect place to go on honeymoon! We carried on walking through Bamboo huts towards Sai Nuan Bay. The bay has some great huts for travellers and nature lovers looking to have some serious peace and quite. There was a fantastic bar built from driftwood right on the beach. The main deck went right up to the waterline. The trail started to deteriorate a bit and I’m sure we veered off course when we found ourselves scrambling over huge rocks next to the sea for about twenty minutes before reaching the next outcrop of land called Cape Jeda Gang. By now we were pretty tired. Pete looked like he had just gone for a swim from sweating so much in the scorching hot, mid-day humidity.

From Jeda Gang it was a case of heading east along the south coast. We found a small stall at June Juea beach and bought an ice cold water – water has never tasted so good! The next trail was very up and down for a few hundred meters, sapping the last of the energy out of us. With the final push we made our way into Chalok Baan beach. It is an incredibly beautiful bay lined with palm trees and rustic accommodation blended into the hills. We had planned to have lunch at the beach but unfortunately we did not have enough money with us as we had paid the deposit for the visa run (and we weren’t actually planning to book that today or walk this far!) It was a case of eat lunch here and walk back (about another three hours trekking) or catch a taxi back….easy decision. We had been on our feet for five hours, having done two of the islands major hike in one go and in half the suggested time. We didn’t even have the energy to barter for the taxi ride we just jumped in.

The drive back was a real pleasure with the wind cooling us down (the taxi is a truck that we sit on the back of). The last leg back to Tanote bay is hideous so we decided to make a video to capture the bumpiness which was a lot of fun although at one stage I nearly got my wind knocked out!

When we got back we headed straight for the sea and had a lovely little dip before eating a hearty meal of our staple, fried rice with chicken.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. We bumped into an Israeli couple who stayed at Dreamland Resort in Koh Phangan at the same time as us so we had a chat to them. Then we just chilled out on our porch enjoying the great view, read our books (Wilbur Smiths Sunbird and James Pattersons Mary Mary). We decided to have dinner at 7pm tonight after the previous nights 6pm South African mozzie feast! After dinner we retired back to our bungalow for an early well deserved sleep.

Ko Tao, Thailand (25 April)

We woke up and had breakfast at the bungalow, packed up and moved over to Diamond Resort. Our bungalow is great and it is right on the beach. We have the most amazing view out of the window from the bed and from the little veranda area in the front. We can literally roll out of bed and onto the beach – it is perfect!

After we settled in to our new home for the next 4 nights we hired snorkelling masks and headed down to the sea. I know i said this already but the snorkelling here is amazing. As soon as you walk in the water off the beach you can start snorkelling. There is coral and fish from the start, about a meter from the shoreline. We saw all kinds of fish like Parrot, Butterfly, Angel, Baracuda, Christmas tree worms, black tip reef sharks. We also saw a huge puffer fish which was really strange and loads of other fish I don’t know the names of.

We snorkelled for just over an hour, dried off in the sun and then went for lunch. After lunch we let our food settle for a while and then went to snorkel again for another hour. We saw an octopus and it had just eaten something so loads of fish we swimming after it to try get a few morsels of food. It was fascinating to watch the octopus change colours as it swam and then stop at a rock and change into that colour so it blended in with the rock. At one stage it attached itself to some coral, changed colour to match it and then puffed itself out so it looked like it was part of the coral. It was mesmerising to watch.

We dried off in the sun again for a bit and then went to freshen up. We were starving so we just went to our resorts restaurant on the beach for dinner at 6pm which was a big mistake – the sun was just going down and the mozzies were out in force! We braved the mozzies and ate our food as fast as we could! They are not great on brining orders at the same time over here, they just make it and bring it out to you when it is ready. For some reason mine is always ready first which is great 😉

We were so tired from all the sun and snorkelling and we also wanted to hike up to the viewpoint early the next morning so we had an early night.

Ko Tao, Thailand (24 April)

it was a slightly overcast when we woke up so we just had a nice relaxing morning in the bungalow. Pete enjoyed eating his breakfast on the hammock 🙂

Later we took a walk to try find the only shop in the area which hardly sold anything. We managed to get bottled water so that was good! We took a different route back from the shop and landed up walking through Diamond Resort. They had a few bungalows right on the beach so asked how much they were and they weren’t that much more than ours so we decided to book in for 4 nights starting tomorrow. We felt bad telling Sam we were leaving so soon but he understood we wanted to be on the beach and he didn’t have bungalows like that. They were also much bigger than ours and not as rustic.

We lay on the beach under a tree reading our books for a while and then went back to Diamond for lunch and to use their wifi as Sam’s isn’t working. Unfortunately we couldn’t get onto the Internet there either.

Later we took our lilos out and paddled around the rocks a bit. We saw hundreds of fish. We took a mask with us and I saw quite a few black tip reef sharks – one was quite big too! The snorkelling here is amazing and I can’t wait to hire a mask and spend the day snorkelling tomorrow.

We went back up to Poseidon for dinner and watched the sun set from the upstairs restaurant. After dinner we sat on the beach looking at the stars- pure bliss!

Kho Phangan to Ko Tao, Thailand (23 April)

We woke up early so we could pack. We met Rob and Joy for one last breakfast at 8am. Rob phoned his friend Doi at Poseidon Resort on Ko Tao (where they had just been staying before coming to Kho Phangan) and organised accommodation for us as well as a pick up from the ferry port to the resort. Our taxi arrived at 10am so we said our sad goodbyes and headed to Tongsala town. The taxi drove so fast down this bumpy dirt road to Tongsala that both Pete and I started feeling sick. The taxi got us to Tongsala in 30 minutes and it usually takes an hour so that was quite an experience. We had 2 hours to spare once we arrived so we had a look around town. We found a Tesco’s supermarket can you believe! I was so surprised to see a UK supermarket on this tiny island. We bought some stuff and headed to the busy ferry port. The boat ride was 1.5 hours on a nice catamaran which flew across the water – we were both very grateful we weren’t on a little slow fishing boat or one of the older slower ferries.

The catamaran made quick stop on Nangyuan Island to drop some people off. The island was tiny and only had few up-market resorts on and it looked stunning. The water around the island was crystal clear and we could see loads of fish in the water from boat. We carried on to Koh Tao and it was chaos when we reached the port. There were so many local taxi drivers waiting to whisk you away. We fought our way through the crowd to look for Doi but we couldn’t find him. After 20 minutes of walking around in the blazing sun and asking the locals if they knew Doi we asked one guy sitting on a motorbike and he just happened to be Doi’s brother so he gave him a call for us. 10 mins later and 30 minutes late Doi arrived.

We jumped on the back of his 4×4 and went bouncing up the road. I was so hot and we felt like we were going to melt on the back. Doi then decided he needed to run a few errands and stopped at a few places. One place was a big power plant factory, he drove us around the back and past a few huge cylinders with massive generators/exhaust that were pumping out hot air which Doi drove through – this air must have been about 50 degrees and we thought we were going to fry getting blasted by the air on the back of the 4×4.

Thankfully that was the last stop and we headed to the resort. The road there was a dirt road in very bad condition. It had been washed away in parts from the rain so it was a very, very bumpy ride. The surroundings were beautiful though so we just held on for dear life and admired the view.

When we arrived we met Sam, a local guy who runs Poseidon Reaort and has become good friends with Rob and Joy. We checked into our bungalow which was very, very rustic but had loads of character and most importantly a hammock outside :). Pete nearly had a heart attack when we opened the door as there was a huge gecko in the room and it made such a loud noise running up the wall. It was quite funny! We were up a little hill in the jungle a bit so there were loads of mozzies. I spent ages blocking all the holes in wood with plastic packets an whatever else I could find that could act like pollyfiller! I managed most of the big ones by the windows and floors but there was a huge gap under the door we could do nothing about. Thank goodness we brought so much mozzie stuff.

We were only a short walk down the hill to the beach so we headed straight there of a swim. We were amazed when we waded into the water and we were surrounded by fish. It was unbelievable. The water is crystal clear and you can just swim out and look at the fish and coral. We stayed in the water for ages.

Later we freshened up and headed down to Poseidon Restaurant for dinner. They have an upstairs area where you can sit outside on these comfy thai style chairs on the floor and look out over the ocean. It was the perfect end to the day sitting up there watching the sun going down.

I thought I would try something new for dinner so I ordered a spicy Thai style chicken salad which was disgusting and I couldn’t eat it :(. It came with minced chicken and i think they had literally minced the whole chicken, bones and all cause there were strange crunchy bits in the clumps of minced chicken. I had one bite and that was it. Pete thought it was ok so he was happy to eat it for me. Think I will stick to fried rice or fish from now on!

Kho Phangan, Thailand (22 April)

It was a slow start to the day (nothing to do with the drinks the night before!). Pete and I decided to head to Koh Tao the next day so went to book taxis and boat tickets etc. We met up with Rob and Joy and had a nice day tanning on the beach and swimming in the sea. Later we decided to take some drinks down to the beach and watch the sunset – it was stunning. We had such a nice relaxing time just sitting and chatting until the sun went down. Later we headed back to Bamboo for dinner – their food is delicious. After dinner we went for walk up and down the beach before calling it a night. It is great to be able to walk on the beach a night and look at the stars and feel safe. I was excited we were going to a new island tomorrow but also sad to be leaving here, we have had an amazing time and can see why so many people return year after year to this beautiful beach and stay for months at a time.

Kho Phangan, Thailand (21 April)

We took our lilos out quite early and floated around for a bit. When we came back in Rob and Joy were having lunch at Dreamland so we joined them. We chilled out around the pool for a while and then decided to have a few drinks in the pool bar. We landed up staying there for the afternoon – we looked like wrinkled prunes when we finally got out the pool. Later we went to Bamboo Huts where Rob and Joy are staying. Very cute place. Their cat had just had kittens and their dog had just had puppies – they were adorable! We had dinner and a few more drinks there then took a walk down to one of the bars on the beach which had a fire show on. The guys were really impressive.

Kho Phangan, Thailand (20 April)

We had a day on the lilos and tanning on the beach. Rob and Joy arrived that evening so we sat at our bungalow having a few drinks and catching up. A giant bug landed on my back which nearly gave me a heart attack. I had a strappy top on and it landed on my skin and had claws so I had to peal it off my back – gross! For those of you in SA it looked like a giant Christmas beetle and it was huge!

It as so good to see Rob and Joy again and crazy that they where coming to this beach for a holiday now whilst we are here! It has been so great seeing friends along the way on our travels 🙂