My time in the south of Thailand didn't get off to a great start. In fact, the few days after crossing the Cambodian border is the period I refer to as my 'mid-travel crisis". On the bus company lady's instructions, I got a bus from Siem Reap to a tiny port town where I then got a deserted ferry across to Ko Chang. From Ko Chang, the bus company lady ASSURED me I could get a boat straight to Ko Tao. Easy Peasy. Upon arriving to this very small island with hardly any people on it an only very expensive hotels, it became apparent that she had in fact lied to me, and I couldn't get a boat to Ko Tao. This wasn't the end of the world, however, so I just booked a bus back to Bangkok and from there to Ko Tao for the next morning. I awoke bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to get to my next destination. I skipped to the ATM to withdraw some cash to pay for my bus to find that my credit card had been blocked. As my debit card had been stolen in Siem Reap just days before I had no other means of withdrawing cash. Damn. I also had no way of contacting the bank as I had no money to buy phone credit and it was the middle of the night in England so no messages to my mum would get through for at least another few hours. And my bus was in 10 minutes. Needless to say I missed my bus. After lots of tears and a move to a slightly cheaper (and a lot more grimy) hotel, I managed to use the phone of my previous hotel to call the bank. I hope the man on reception who let me do it didn't get into too much trouble when they got the phone bill. Yikes! I FINALLY got the bus to Ko Tao the next morning.
I arrived on the island to glorious sunshine and promptly sat myself on the beach and didn't move all day. With the stressful memories of the previous few days gradually fading, I met some lovely people in the hostel and went out for dinner and drinks. The week I spent on Ko Tao was beautiful. Beautiful white sand beaches, beautiful crystal clear sea, beautiful food, beautiful people. The people definitely made Ko Tao. We had a little Ko Tao family: me, Amy, Poppy, Mike, Thom, John Chatterbox, Frederieke, Espen and various other who simply passed through. We swam, we sunbathed, ate, drank, talked, played games and generally had a lovely time. Most days we sat on Sairee beach. One day we ventured all the way to Chalok bay; a whole 10 minute drive away! How adventurous of us! Another day we went to whole other island! I mean, it was only a few hundred metres away from the one we were already on but still! It was a pretty lazy week but a pretty lovely one too.
I arrived on the island to glorious sunshine and promptly sat myself on the beach and didn't move all day. With the stressful memories of the previous few days gradually fading, I met some lovely people in the hostel and went out for dinner and drinks. The week I spent on Ko Tao was beautiful. Beautiful white sand beaches, beautiful crystal clear sea, beautiful food, beautiful people. The people definitely made Ko Tao. We had a little Ko Tao family: me, Amy, Poppy, Mike, Thom, John Chatterbox, Frederieke, Espen and various other who simply passed through. We swam, we sunbathed, ate, drank, talked, played games and generally had a lovely time. Most days we sat on Sairee beach. One day we ventured all the way to Chalok bay; a whole 10 minute drive away! How adventurous of us! Another day we went to whole other island! I mean, it was only a few hundred metres away from the one we were already on but still! It was a pretty lazy week but a pretty lovely one too.
After dragging ourselves away from Ko Tao, me, Poppy and Amy moved on to Ko Samui. Again, we lazed on the beach, drank Chang at a reggae bar and danced at Ark Bar into the early hours. Dean, a crazy friend of Poppy and Amy's came to meet us and we rented a jeep to drive up a mountain we had decided to conquer. We sat in the warm, shallow sea, drank too much Chang, slept in too late and generally lolled about until we decided it was time to move on to Ko Phangan. We made the very sensible decision to stay on the quiet side of Ko Phangan and it was gorgeous. We made friends with some guys who owned a tiny reggae bar right at the end of the beach and spent most of our days there. Quite often we were the only ones there.
I got much more than I expected from the islands. Everybody had told me that they had been completely ruined by tourism and was just full of drunken Europeans. Which I suppose is true to an extent. However, the scenery was incredibly beautiful, the sea was the most insane shade of turquoise (and the temperature of a bath) and I made friends that I'll keep for life. So I really can't complain.
I got much more than I expected from the islands. Everybody had told me that they had been completely ruined by tourism and was just full of drunken Europeans. Which I suppose is true to an extent. However, the scenery was incredibly beautiful, the sea was the most insane shade of turquoise (and the temperature of a bath) and I made friends that I'll keep for life. So I really can't complain.