Koh Tao - Thailand Pt 1

We have been here in Koh Tao - Thailand for 5 days now after leaving Nepal on the 26th and on the flight out of Kathmandu we were able to catch our last glimpse of the Himalayas:

It was a very loooooooong 25 hr journey we had ahead of us as we'd decided to go straight from Kathmandu to Bangkok and then take the over night bus to catch the Ferry to Koh Tao the next morning.

The bus was super comfortable and we managed to get a bit of sleep. Then at 6am the next day we arrived to the Ferry and took the 1 1/2 hours trip over to Koa Tao.

Lomprayah Overnight bus

Lomprayah Catamaran

The crossing was really rough and choppy and at least half of people on the boat were suffering badly and vomiting 🤮 which was not so pleasant! Me and Wout we’re both fine though and managed to sleep - or at least I was asleep until my earphones ran out of battery and I was woken by the vomiting noises!!! 

As soon as we stepped off the boat and walked down the pier we found our ride to the dive shop which is on the other side of the Island from the pier where it's much quieter - The dive shop is called Big Bubble Dive Shop. This place had been recommended to us by my friend Gerd (aka PaPa) who I dived with in Honduras 6 years ago.

PaPa is from Germany and is 74 - he has over 3500 scuba dives under his belt and is quite the legend in the diving circles here in Thailand and across the world. He comes to Thailand for a few months every year and I’m really happy to get some more time together and to introduce him and Wout.

We’ve taken our first two days here trying to acclimatise to the humid hot hot weather and we just chilled and caught up on our sleep in our little jungle bungalow.... then on Thursday we took a refresher dive as we haven’t dived in 3 years so needed to brush up on our skills.

Jungle bungalow

Views from our Dive Shop

Wout was absolutely fine and got straight back into it however I on the other hand had a few issues relaxing back into it - my first dive was okay after I’d swallowed half the ocean trying to clear my mask under the water - then I was okay for the second half and managed to catch sight of some big parrot fish and angel fish amongst others. The second dive site was super windy and choppy and I struggled to equalise in my decent, that teamed with the poor visability and me feeling a bit overwhelmed and I decided to pull out of the dive and go back to the boat.

Wout started his Advanced open water course on Friday which he has been doing the past two days now and is finishing this evening with a night dive!

Night diving is not for me plus the visibility and windy weather have made the conditions for diving not that great so I’ve been staying to dry land and drinking lots of fruit smoothies and sun bathing.

Smoothie Spot

My new Fav Pineapple Smoothie!

We have made some really nice friends here with 2 of the dive masters so in the evenings we’ve been having dinner and drinks together and tonight we’re going out celebrate Wout passing his course with a few beers.

Raj / Felice and PaPa

We have another week here before we move onto Koh Samui for another week of sunbathing and relaxing - it’s a hard life! We've decided to move out of the Jungle Bungalow to a bigger room which has a fridge so we can buy some food and drinks in to try to save some money as eating out for every meal is getting expensive, even with how cheap it is here.

Missing home but not as much when I see all your pics of frost and snow!