Koh Tao Island, Thailand

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We got the overnight bus and catamaran - Lomprayah - from Bangkok direct to Koh Tao which didn't turn out too bad afterall. As opposed to a flight, it saved us time and lots of Baht! Koh Tao is much nicer and its taken me a few days to settle into this extremely prolonged 'holiday' - and I use that term lightly as I have been studying since the first day we got here! I am here doing my PADI Open Water Diving Course which will allow me to dive up 18 metres anywhere in the world (will be useful for Central America!) First 2 days were theory followed by 4 dives. It was unreal and I loved it. I also did my final exam in which I got 47 out of 50 (woo hoo)! Nath has done it, so he is doing the advanced course, altho yester he ran into some trouble and got sick from the dive, which was not fun, but he was better today and came out again.

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This bungalow resort (Sunshine Divers Resort) has turned out to be great because of the course too - it was a bit of a quiet period - so I had an instructor all to myself for the 4 days, as did Nath. My instructor, Paul, was awsome and was devoted to teaching me properly!

I did my first two dives at Shark Island - it was so much fun, I'm really glad Nath convinced me to do the course. My final two dives the next day were at White Rock and Japanese Garden. White Rock was amazing and like being in a huge fish bowl! The visibility was awsome.

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We had a really nice dinner at Taraporn Restaurant - it cost us 410 baht (so 6/7 quid) - not too pricey when you're lucky enough to be travelling on the pound; considering a dinner like this would cost at least 50 quid! We are on the quieter side of Koh Tao island (which we are so grateful for) - its so nice over this side and the beaches have far less people - also its not very commercialised at all. Its all very simple (we don't even have a flush on the loo!) and we sit on mats on the ground to eat dinner - its so beautiful and chilled out though - I definately recommend it!

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Check out Shark Bay which is a really nice swimming and snorkelling spot - again, you won't see masses of tourists with their umbrella's or loungers!