Koh Tao

We left Chiang Mai on the night bus on the 15th of April, and arrived in Bangkok the following morning. The protests of course were still fully underway, and our plan to get a train south was scuppered when taxi driver after taxi driver laughed in our faces when we requested to go to the railway station, located a few km from the red shirts' barricades. We instead took a bus south, and avoided the city centre entirely.

From Chumphon, it was a ferry to Koh Tao, and then a taxi boat to a secluded resort we'd chosen from our guidebook. Koh Tao in appearance seemed far more jungly and wild-looking than our last tropical island, in Vietnam. The coast of the island is cluttered with gigantic boulders and lush vegetation - the  half-moon shapes of sandy beaches appear like an afterthought.

Our bungalow was perched on a rock over-looking a tiny private bay with impossibly clear water. The coral reefs close to shore meant many different types of fish swam around our toes, including barracuda, clown fish and sea cucumbers. It was a lovely place to spend a few days, although so remote we had to get a boat to get to a shop or restaurant. We did attempt to walk along the coast line of the island to the town in the south - the 6km walk along a dirt track was so steep and rocky t took us over an hour. Inland the breeze died down and we sweated buckets in the afternoon sun. A coconut landed at our feet and Dave spent another hour trying to prise it open. (He succeeded but we lost most of the juice and had to kind of gnaw at the fleshy bit.) On the way home we got lost in the dark even with the assistance of my head-lamp.

The serenity was great at first, but after a few days the need for eating options, access to 7-11 and internet cafes took over and we moved to the main town on the island, Sairee. Our guidebook had represented it as overcrowded, and it may well be just after the Full Moon Party when tourists flock to Koh Tao, but when we were there it seemed surprisingly quiet.

The long sandy beach in town had very shallow water, which was invariably hotter than the average bath. We spent a few days as beach bums, living in a cheap bungalow and spending all our time on the sand or in the water. We adopted a bakery in town with great pastries and sandwiches and went there every morning for brunch. At night we would choose between one of the beachside restaurants, and eat curry or bbq kebabs or Mexican food, while watching the flame jugglers on the deserted beach. It was really quite perfect.

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