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  • Day 100

    Is sunburn meant to hurt this much?!

    May 27, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today was one of our best days so far, even despite the sunburn! We booked onto a tour that takes you to 5 different snorkeling places around the island of Koh Tao. We had arranged to be picked at 9.30 but the taxi turned up at ten to 9 so we had a mad rush to get ready and leave. We made it to the company's office on the pier front and sat around waiting for a good half an hour so I'm not sure why we were picked up so much earlier than we asked. We were given our snorkels and free coffee which was a bonus. Having boarded the boat we set sail to our first dive site, shark bay. Unfortunately it didn't live up to it's name and we didn't see any reef sharks here. We did see hundreds of beautiful fish and untouched coral. Being in the deeper water was so much better than snorkeling off the shore line because you don't have the risk of touching the coral and the water is so much clearer. Our next stop was just incredible. The coral at the sea bed was like something out of a film. Nick isn't a strong swimmer so I left him and his life vest behind to explore the whole shore line diving down to get closer looks at certain fish. So many fish try and interact with you. We had two more diving spots which were nice also because you could see the coral up close on the rocks. I lost all fear of the ocean and just embraced the feeling of wonder and freedom. I can honestly say it's one of the best things I've ever experienced and it makes me want to scuba dive so much more, although I'm not sure Nick is so keen. We had lunch on the boat followed by fresh fruit. We paid such a small amount to do this in comparison to other trips and we had continual tea, coffee and biscuits on top of fruit and lunch. It was such a good deal for everything it included. Our last stop was for 2 hours at a collection of 3 islands that are joined by a small stretch of beach. As soon as got off the boat the torrential rain started but luckily we had everything in a waterproof pouch with us that was important. We waited a little bit for it to ease and then headed up to the view point and what a view point it was. The passing storm brought clear blue skies and low clouds brushing the mountain tops. We had to climb up rock faces to get to the view point which was challenging but so worth it. We spent the next hour snorkeling and once we'd passed the large area of ruined coral we hit a beautiful reef full of life. It's always reassuring to see that humans haven't completely destroyed such beauty. We just have to hope that most people continue to not venture out to this part of the reef. There were gangs of palm sized stripey fish that just swarmed you and tried to nibble you so we spent a lot of time trying to escape them! We headed back to the mainland after enjoying our time at these islands. We had been silly and left our bag with towels in at the company's office and we discovered on returning that it had been sent out on another boat. We had to wait for this boat to return so headed to get some dinner. At this point I realised how sunburnt the backs of my legs were. They were so painful so we also went and got some aftersun. Once we'd eaten we retrieved our towels and took the jeep back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the night applying layer after layer of aloe vera gel on our burns while feeling sorry for ourselves. You forget that when being face down in the water all day your legs are most exposed and even with a few applications of factor 50 it isn't always enough!Read more