Day 63: Across to Koh Tao

Time to move on! Although we hadn't explored any of Koh Phang An beyond a kilometre or so either side of our hotel, neither of us were that concerned by the fact. And it was time we moved again, this time to the diving and snorkelling paradise of Koh Tao. Checkout was at 11am and our taxi to the ferry was at midday, so we spent the morning having a lazy breakfast and relaxing in the hammock.

At about this point Shandos realised we didn't have a receipt for the ferry tickets we'd bought online a few days earlier, nor was there a corresponding charge on the credit cards we used. So it looked like the payment hadn't gone through for whatever reason. Fingers crossed we could still buy a ticket!

The morning passed and at 12pm we jumped in the "taxi" (read: covered ute tray) and bounced the 15 minute drive back to the dock. A little confused conversation later and it was confirmed that there was no record of our booking, so we ended up paying in cash. Not a huge drama, especially since there's no charge on the card, but it's aggravating because getting cash out of an ATM costs 200 baht or $8 which is absolutely outrageous. We've been carrying more cash than usual to get around it, but paying 1000 baht in cash blew a big hole in our reserves. At least there's plenty of rip-off ATMs around.

1pm came and went and no sign of the boat, which eventually turned up at about 1:30. Long wait for everyone to get off and then the new load of passengers to get on. It's the same company and probably the same boat that we got to Koh Phang-An, a large 400-ish seater catamaran, so loading and unloading takes quite a while. It was very hot and sunny today (same as the past few days), so we opted for an indoor seat this time. Waiting at the dock in the blazing sun and surrounded by concrete wasn't very pleasant!

The ferry finally left at about 1:45 or 45-ish minutes late, and took an hour to arrive at Koh Tao. Not much to report from the journey, the seas felt relatively calm and we passed the time in the usual way (listening to music/podcasts and reading).

Koh Tao is the smallest and by far the least developed island in the Gulf of Thailand. Apparently it was used to house political prisoners until the 1970s when Thailand started to become known on the hippy trail. Our room here is a bit more developed than the previous one - we have a TV, safe and air conditioner, but since Koh Tao is so small they don't have electricity in daylight hours every second day. And of course today was a no-power day. So no pausing under the fan/AC, and of course no wifi for checking in!

So what to do? We went to the beach. Our hotel has a small sandy beach just below the pool area which was being used for a scuba diving class. It was much nicer than the beach at our previous resort - no rocks or seaweed, just sand and very clear water (although a much smaller area). We soon retreated to the pool and I watched the diving class with interest; since leaving Australia I've gotten more and more into the idea of diving, but sadly having epilepsy means that it's a no go for me.

Around 5pm we decided to explore a bit. The "main road" adjacent to the beach is just a four-person-wide footpath where of course motorbikes fly up and down dodging pedestrians. We wandered for a little while but didn't make it past the second bar we encountered. Happy hour mojitos and cheap beers were the order of the day, and a huge cheer at 5:30pm signalled the return of electricity. Suddenly the fairy lights were on, the DJ was blasting out tunes, the wifi was working, the sun was setting and all was right with the world.

Absolutely no cloud on the horizon this time for the first clear sunset we could remember, and the sky lit up with glorious colours which soon faded away. Again we stayed longer than was absolutely necessary, but the cheap drinks weren't going to drink themselves! We left around 8pm and walked further along the boardwalk but neither of us were particularly in the mood, so back to our room we went where the wifi and the air con were both cranked up.

Early to bed as I think we'll be doing a full day snorkelling tour tomorrow!Read more