After spending most of the day travelling, Phung, her friends and myself boarded the bus at 9pm destined for Chumphon. We arrived there at 5am and had to wait 2 hours for the highspeed catamaran to take us to Koh Tao. We boarded the boat as it was starting to get light, and as we departed it was perfect timing to watch the sun rise over the mountains. A couple of hours later we arrived on Koh Tao (literally translated as Turtle Island because it is shaped like a turtle) — many say that this is the most beautiful island in Thailand and it is definitely the most impressive place I have ever been. One of Phung's friends, Pe, was our leader and he had already booked us a bungalow at New Heaven. It is located on the edge of a bay in the south of the island. The accomodation was perfect: halfway up a hill overlooking the bay and clear blue sea. A short walk down some steps and we were on our own private beach, with its own palapa built out from the rocks. A perfect spot for meditation… or sleeping!
The majority of the day I spent swimming, catching up on sleep, and exploring the local area. Its not easy walking around in the blistering heat as the roads are all steep inclines. I noticed that I was no longer special as a farang on this island, and actually the Thais were the special ones — Phung and friends were getting plenty of attention. Thais don't usually come here, and I soon realised why. The prices were still cheap for farang, but having adjusted to being an Isaan (up-country) boy the last couple of weeks, I found it all a bit western. I couldn't believe it the first time we had lunch, the menus were all in English — no Thai — and everything was at least five times more than the rest of Thailand. Farang probably wouldn't notice because it is still cheap, but I was used to much better food out in the country. My biggest shock was going to the internet shop for an hour and getting out 20 baht to pay, and the woman said 120 baht — I nearly fell over! Afterwards I realised that this was probably the first real tourist place I had been to in Thailand and maybe it is the same in all the best tourist spots — I spend all my time in the countryside so I am not familiar with this type of living at all!
In the evening we ate at the restaurant, overlooking the sea which was very beautiful as the sun went down. The we planned activities for the following day…
We woke up early, had a quick breakfast, and donned our swimming shorts. We were picked up by a truck that took us down to the pier. A boat was waiting for us to take us out for the day. The owner of the bungalows had packed us up a picnic (and even I got a special veggie dish), along with life jackets and snorkels. We set off around the island, applying heavy amounts of suncream as the sun was already intent on blackening our skin (something the Thais are not keen on). It was a waste of time though as shortly after it was time for a swim and a snorkel. At this first site there wasn't much to see, so we moved on to the next place. Here the variety of fish was amazing, and you could get really close to swams of them just by holding some pineapple in the water. Back in the boat we were all cowarding under towels, umbrellas and lifejackets to avoid the sun. The Thais find it very funny that farang like to get tanned — they consider it dirty to have black skin as it means you work out in the fields. My usual Thai gossip is about how fat the foreigners are, but here it changed to how black the foreigners are.
After stopping for lunch, our next mooring was at a very unique place — the only place in the world where there are three islands connected by sandy beaches — named Koh Nang Yuen. Two of the islands are small, rocky mountains, so myself and Pe decided to walk up to the top of the smallest. It was well worth it — probably the most spectacular view of my life so far. I have got a few photos to prove it. After this it was time to board the boat back for Koh Tao and relax after a very hot day. The evening was spent singing songs on our private beach and chilling out in the palapa.
The following day we were to depart from Koh Tao in the early afternoon and begin the heavy journey back to the big smoke. We did a bit more lounging around in the morning and spent loads of time posing for photographs. Then we had our last lunch overlooking the sea before heading off.
It is a beautiful place Koh Tao, but it doesn't feel like Thailand. The scenery is amazing, the sea and beaches are perfect, but these things are quite superficial. I realised that the reason I like Thailand is because of the people and the culture.
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