Sweaty in Koh Tao / AC too expensive

A Koh Tao taxi
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After the hustle and bustle of Bangkok we were ready for some peace, quiet, and scubadiving.  We made our way via a 7-hour night bus ride and 1.5 hour ferry ride to the tiny (21 square kilometers) island of Koh Tao.

Koh Tao was painfully hot and humid, we thought we'd get a nice ocean breeze but it never happened.  The beach we stayed in was tucked in a sheltered lagoon and got absolutely no air movement.  Even in the evenings we would sit completely still and sweat, sweat, sweat.

There was no option other than to yell for help

The resident dog at Buddha View. We called him "Killer"
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We spent 6 nights on the island, split between 2 neighboring hotel properties.  One was a place called Buddha View (because you can see a rock formation that is said to look like Buddha), in a brand new room that was absolutely stunning - modern flat screen tv, flush toilet and fancy tiled bathroom, hot shower, and a balcony overlooking the ocean.  Cost?  $25 USD.  Problem?  No air conditioning.  The cost of the room nearly doubled if you wanted AC, and we were too cheap to get it.  We spent the other nights next door at Sunshine Bungalows, where we had a private bungalow.  Problem?  Our bungalow had a dodgy doorknob that locked us out our first night.  It took a team of 4 Thai men 45 minutes to get us back in, and involved two of them having to crawl through the ceiling crawlspace and come crashing into our room via a ceiling panel in our bathroom.  Guess what happened the next night?  We had just prepared G&T's and were going to enjoy them on our private patio when we found ourselves locked INSIDE the bungalow.  Keep in mind there are no phones in the bungalows.  There was no option other than to yell for help.

Brian helping with the doorknob repairs
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Brian:  "Help!  Hey you with the tattoos"  (At this point every person on the island should have come running)

Drunk English Guy walking by:  "The bloody bungalow is talking to me!"

Brian:  "Yeah you, tattoo guy.  Can you get us some help?  We're locked in!"

Drunk English Guy:  (laughing)  (more laughing)  "Let me get the manager."

Our fancy room at Buddha View
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Thank goodness he was coherent enough to find our now familiar team of helpers, who thought it was very funny that we were now locked IN rather than OUT.  Again someone had to crash through our bathroom ceiling to dismantle the doorknob.

Good things about Koh Tao:  Food there was delicious and very cheap.  Every night at Buddha View there was an outdoor BBQ buffet where you could pick from several Thai dishes, king prawns, grilled marlin, beef and chicken kebabs, chicken satay, grilled sweet corn, grilled tuna, etc.  You just picked what meat you wanted and they would cook it up in front of you.  We loaded our plates every night, for a total bill of about $3-4 USD per person.  Lunch was even cheaper.

View from our balcony at Buddha View. See Buddha off in the distance?
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Bad things about Koh Tao:  Diving was marginal at best.  Visibility was lousy, and dive sites were packed with boats, divers, and heaps of student divers.  In fact, Koh Tao really caters more to the student diver crowd than experienced divers.  It's extremely cheap to become certified there, and many hotels offer students steep discounts on lodging to get them signed on as there is great competition between dive companies.  The other disappointment was all the garbage we saw in the ocean, on the surface and on the reefs underwater.  We're told the fishing boats use the ocean as their personal garbage dump.  Thank goodness for tree-hugger Brian, who stuffed pieces of garbage in his BCD in an attempt to help the environment.  The other annoyance were the packs of wild dogs that would bark their fool heads off every night and wake me up.

Funny thing about Koh Tao:  For some reason, being on the island made Brian very accident prone.  In our days there he managed to step on a sea urchin, nearly split his head open on our bathroom towel rack, and got electrocuted two times.  Don't worry - he's fine now.

Anne