Koh Tao

Day 1 - Sleeping

Following our overnight train from Bangkok, we arrived at Chumphon at around 4am, waited at the station for just over an hour, munching on the snacks and granola which we bought at the mall in Bangkok. A well organised van then took us to the pier to board the boat to Koh Tao. At the check-in counter the lady stared at our ticket for a bit too long and informed us we had booking the ferry for 14th April instead of 14th March - oops. New tickets purchased we boarded the catamaran. With our first daylight view of southern Thailand - we were given a first hint of how pretty this part of the world is.

An hour and a half on the ferry later, we arrived in Koh Tao where we were spending the next 6 nights! As we were too early to check in, we went to get some breakfast from the restaurant at the end of the road and had a smoothie bowl and eggs on avocado toast.

Having barely said a word at breakfast, Dan knew Lauryn was tired so left her to sleep on a sun lounger for a few hours whilst the hotel rushed to get our room ready. We were very grateful that the room was ready early and we got settled in our room, slept some more and then decided to explore the local area. We were immediately very impressed, with a relaxed 'diver' atmosphere and lots of cute coffee shops! We booked a snorkelling tour through the hotel for the following day, after the kind man described the different options. We selected the mid-tier option, which he told us was a smaller boat, meaning less waiting around and a quick google showed a well reviewed lunch too (and obviously food is very important to us!).

For dinner, we decided on a Burmese restaurant (neither of us having ever tried their cuisine before). We weren't thoroughly impressed as it was very salty but the mango sticky rice was good. We got a fairly early night as we needed to be out early for our tour!

Day 2 - Snorkelling Tour!

We were up and out early and headed to a cafe with good reviews (Blue Shark). We had shared a local drink: dirty coffee - sweetened espresso over milk which you drink as is without mixing. Dan also had bacon and banana french toast and Lauryn had smoked salmon and avocado on toast.

The tour provider picked us up in a pickup truck with benches which seems to be main way of getting around in this part of Thailand (except on scooters which we are avoiding).

Our snorkelling tour took us all the way around Koh Tao (which is only a few km long), stopping at four locations: Nang Yuan, Lighthouse Bay, Mango Bay, Shark Bay. After falling onto the boat (quite literally for Lauryn who then had a swollen bruised knee), the first was Koh Nang Yuan - a privately owned pair of islands connected by a sand bar. You can stay here, which we would definitely do if we came back to experience the island without the crowds. First was a small walk (limp for Lauryn) up to a viewpoint over the larger island, which involved some queuing (and tutting to any jumpers - plenty of Brits here) to get a photo at the top. The views were definitely worth the queuing.

We probably only had around 20 minutes before having to get back on the boat so grabbed our masks for some snorkelling in fairly shallow coral reefs a few metres from the shore. We saw lots of amazing and rather large tropical fish (parrotfish, zebrafish etc), sea cucumbers, and lots of others that we don't know the name of and couldn't take any photos of. We were surprised how many massive fish we could see at such shallow depths and this was probably the best snorkelling of the day, with so much of the coral still intact. Probably the biggest draw of Koh Tao is the water clarity - we are not snorkelling pros and saw an amazing amount.

Koh Nang Yuan is one of prettiest places we have seen.

Next was a short trip to the next location - the very friendly crew had a GoPro with them so everyone could have a couple of underwater photos with the coral. The water was deeper here which really meant you appreciated how clear it is - we have never seen the seabed over 10 metres below and probably would be weird if you didn't like heights.

After some chicken fried rice (with plenty of chilli + fish sauce) and some fresh fruit for lunch, we made two more stops which were equally amazing. The third we spotted a baby green turtle and the the last one we managed to see three bigger turtles which was the highlight of the day! We swam above one for around 5 minutes until it took us to his other friend, bumped noses and swam off - it was incredible! They are massive creatures that look straight out of a Disney film!

We finished the day with food at a Thai fusion restaurant who combined pizza with most Thai dishes - we stuck to the traditional 'with rice' version though.

Day 3 - Wandering around Koh Tao

We headed out for breakfast after a lie in, to the Factory Cafe, which was recommended in the guide book and about a 25 minute walk from the hotel. We both could've chosen lots of dishes on the menu but opted for vegan banana chocolate pancakes and shakshuka, with an iced coffee. We read our books for a while and then went to sign some paperwork for our scuba dive tomorrow.

After being told the e-learning we needed to complete for the dive, we popped in for some dairy-free ice cream at a cafe on the beach on the way home. Not a bad view either!

We chilled around the pool when we got back and completed our e-learning for the following day, learning all about diving hand signals and the essential things to remember. KEEP BREATHING!!!

We finished the day with a drink at Fizz: a beach bar whilst watching the sunset and dinner at a restaurant.

Day 4 - Scuba Diving

We headed back to Factory Cafe for some breakfast as we had spotted more things on the menu we wanted to try.

We were picked up from the hotel for diving at 11am, after the driver originally going to the wrong hotel (they were very apologetic)! We chose to do a discovery dive with Black Turtle as had read good reviews online.

As neither of us had ever dived before, they took us through the underwater skills first in shallow water such as what to do if your regulator (breathing piece) falls out or your mask fills with water. We saw baby reef sharks and a school of baracudas before even properly diving too! We then went on a 5m dive around the area where the boat was and saw a turtle swimming underwater, which was very cool and a different experience to dive with them compared to snorkelling! Once back on the boat, we enjoyed some fresh fruit and a rest before going on our second 10m dive in a different location. We saw mostly colourful fish, lots of coral in bright colours and sea cucumbers in this dive and the sensation of coming back up to the surface was like nothing we have ever experienced before. Lauryn found the diving fun but very tiring, particularly mentally which we were not expecting. Dan probably enjoyed it more and is thinking about completing the Open Water PADI course, if time on our trip allows.

After being dropped back at our hotel, we stayed local for dinner, having a green curry, pork with rice and mango sticky rice from a restaurant around the corner. Oh and a chocolate + banana roti for Dan from Chef John's roti stand.

Day 5 - Hike up Tanote Peak

We spent our last morning on Koh Tao taking it fairly easy and then doing some planning for our next stops around southern Thailand. To make best use of Koh Tao we did that on a cafe on the beach, with some fish and red curry sauce, and pork teriyaki burger to keep us going.

In the early evening after it had cooled off slightly we set off on a hike up Koh Tao's main peak. The island is basically a granite mountain with 300m above the water, and it is only about 2km wide so offers a very steep hike up to the top!

We set off from the hotel on a concrete road, which carried on for a surprisingly long way, with one or two motorbikes heading up to their houses or fancy hotels. It turned into a dirt track through some jungle, but we only got lost once on the way up and tried to follow the most worn bit of ground. There is no Ordnance Survey here.

A very sweaty hike was well rewarded with the amazing views!

We walked back down a longer but slightly more popular and forgiving way. A few hundred metres from the top was a bar that can (and does) charge any price for beer that they like, because of the view - still cheaper than home though :)

Our walk back dropped us at the other end of the beach, so we walked past all the main bars and hotels to our end of town. As a result and by complete fluke, Dan spotted someone a few metres down the road that he recognised. Thankfully it was Izzy from Hartree (Dan's work) and her partner and not a just lookalike! They had arrived on Koh Tao that morning - we knew they were in Thailand but not where, and in a country of over 70 million people, its another "it's a small world" moment! All a bit surreal.

For dinner, we felt we had earned a deep-fried pork Pad Thai each from House of Pad Thai, which we were very impressed with and was worth the 15 minute wait for a table. It was spicier than the others we have had, possibly the best Pad Thai we have had, although much like a roast dinner in the UK, you can't really call one of them the best.

Obviously, this was followed by another visit to John the Roti man on the way home.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and after a pretty chaotic boarding process, were on a catamaran to our next island: Koh Samui.

We absolutely loved Koh Tao, and both would come back here for a holiday without a doubt.