Koh Tao

The Chumphom "pier" at sunrise
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So the time had come to leave Bangkok. A perfectly timed stay of 4 days was enough for us to see pretty much everything we wanted of the City. It was time to hit the beach...

We had heard a lot of good things about an island off the East coast of Thailand called Koh Tao, so we decided to check it out.

Posted by Adam

Leaving Bangkok on the night of the 6 Feb, we jumped onto a "VIP" coach to take us to the port at Chumphon. After about 6 hours on the coach we arrived just in time to see the sunrise at the port, which had now become apparent was actually a very long and rustic wooden pier, and nothing else.

Our bar on the beach at Crytsal Dive resort
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The ride there was hell. As choppy as you like and lasting a good two hours, Paul and i managed to get some sleep but George and Natalie had a slightly worse time!

Arriving in Koh Tao about 9 a.m. we were dropped off at the dive school we had booked ourselves in for and got involved straight away filling in the forms and doing the medicals (back problems and infected feet apparently aren't good for Scuba). We then spent the rest of the day in the classroom, and the following three days out diving.

Classic Pickup taxi ride
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Koh Tao is very Dive orientated, the beach is lined with dive schools and the two main roads heading up from the beach are busy with beach wear shops, bars and restaurants. We stayed at the Insome, a small little hotel 5 minutes from the beach/dive school which proved a perfect location for us, but it could have done with some air conditioning! The shop and restaurant fronts are lined with sandals as it is courtesy to removed your shoes when going inside. They whole place had a really nice atmosphere, the locals were really friendly and the community was small enough that you kept bumping into people you met on the dive course. The taxis were pretty special too. Of all the modes of transport in Thailand, the Koh Tao pick up trucks had the be the most dangerous...but also the most fun. Simply piling in the back of of an open back pick up, holding on for your life as it took us through the hills and bumpy tracks of the island was an experience every time.

We unfortunately missed the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan but had the chance to island hop accross for the Half Moon Party. We were loving on it on Koh Tao so much though that we decided to stay put and instead went to the Underwater Festival, as blogged by Paul.

George and Natalie spent the next two days doing their advanced diving course, but Paul and I made proper use of our time on the island and mooched about on the beach and in the bar.

Although we had all really enjoyed out time on Koh Tao, it was time to move on. Time to try out the west coast...