Koh Tao, Thailand

Koh Tao

It was time to change countries. We had a great time in Malaysia but we were ready for the next stage of our journey in Thailand where we met up with Luke’s sister, Sally, in Phuket. Luke and I had some time to rest for a few days whilst we waited for Sally to arrive. We stayed at Paradise Inn, Karon (18 AUD per night). Here we were able to eat plenty of yummy food, fresh fruit and use the facilities (pool, sauna and spa) of a sister hotel Pacific Resort. I definitely wouldn't recommend Phuket for your tropical getaway. But it is a great place to begin your island hopping adventure. Unfortunately due to the season we are currently in (June) a lot of the islands we wanted to go to on the East coast are closed (Ko Similan, Ko Jum etc). So instead once we had our third amigo we headed over to the West Coast to Koh Tao.

Roof top pool, Karon, Phuket

Koh Tao 

Koh Tao is known as one of the cheapest places in the world to obtain your open water diving certificate and has some world class dive spots. So can you guess what Luke and I planned to do in Koh Tao? 

From Phuket we bought a combined bus and ferry ticket through the company Lomprayah for a bus to Surat Thani and a ferry to Koh Tao. This cost 52 AUD pp and was extremely convenient as they picked us up directly from our hotel room. I’m positive that there is a cheaper way but for once we went for convenience. This was a whole day journey. The bus trip was uneventful, whilst the ferry itself was good but the weather was pretty hairy. The ferry took 5 hours because it stops at Koh Samui and Koh Phangan before Koh Tao. This wasn’t the problem. The issue was that it was raining cats and dogs,  lightning and thunder, people vomiting in the inside cabin and the swell was pretty big making it difficult to stay sitting on some of the seats. Also by the time we got to Koh Tao it was pitch black. It is safe to say that I do NOT want to go on a ferry again at night.

*Update: We chose to leave from Koh Tao by night ferry on a miserable stormy day, (leaves at 11pm gets to Chumphon at 6am)... I’ve heard that some people learn from their mistakes, clearly I am not one of them, I will fill you in on how this went in my next post.

Our first night in Koh Tao we stayed close to the pier at Sleep Inn Upcycled Hostel. This was great as it was close to our favourite vegetarian restaurant Le Carrots. The next day we went on a hunt to find the best diving school for us. We felt like goldilocks as there were so many schools on the island and all have really good reviews on trip advisor. We went to about 8 different ones until we found Sairee Cottage Dive School- and it was just right. Here we met Emma who is an Australian who quit her job to travel, came to Koh Tao and never left. It’s safe to say we liked her immediately. She was extremely professional and very friendly. One of us was pretty nervous (I wonder if it was me or luke? I can’t quite remember..) but she put us at ease immediately. It definitely wasn't one of the cheapest places on the island but we wanted quality. To do our open water it was 3 days at 426 AUD pp. We ended up staying at the resort which was fantastic and along with all of their facilities (pool, 15m from the beach and delicious restaurant across the road) It made for an awesome experience.

Sunset out the front of Sairee Cottage Resort

We were really lucky in that our group only had three students and two instructors (when busy there can be up to six students per class). The first day we watched some videos, answered some questions and spent the rest of the day diving in their pool (3m deep). This was to get used to, first and foremost, breathing under water. After this we started doing a variety of skills including taking our goggles on and off underwater, taking out our regulator (that's what you breath from) as well as getting used to taking on and off our BCD (buoyancy control device) whilst under water. This was great as it was a nice confidence boost doing all of this in the safe environment of the pool before the ocean.

The second day we were taken out for two dives one at red rock and another at white rock. Its safe to say it was a bit confronting the first time having to set up all of our equipment on the boat whilst the swell was up and the boat was rocking everywhere (by the second, third and fourth time it was fine). Once we did our buddy checks we were ready to jump in the water. I was pretty nervous (again) but Emma was very patient and made me feel very safe. The next three dives we went on we got to 18m and I absolutely loved! Luke was like a fish to water. I took sometime getting my buoyancy right but once I did it was magical. We saw so much coral, a blue spotted eagle ray, turtle, hermit crab, two moray eels, trigger fish, and a million other things that I am slowly learning the names of.

Luke and I Scuba Diving White Rock, Koh Tao

If we didn't have a yoga retreat booked immediately after our time in Koh Tao we would have definitely stayed on and completed our advanced dive (this would have helped to improve our buoyancy, navigation and let us do deep dives to 30m). Unfortunately it wasn't to be this time. 

Whilst Luke and I were scuba diving everyday Sally took a free diving course where she got 12m deep on a single breath hold (pretty impressive right?). We are hoping next time we are back in the water she can impart some of her wisdom onto us!

Our last day on the island a storm came in and it was pretty miserable, we basically bummed around, eating food, drinking coffee, and waiting until our night ferry to Chumphon. 

We had the best time in Koh Tao and definitely would recommend going to the island. It has such a chilled out atmosphere, heaps of good restaurants (a lot of which are very vegetarian friendly) and is relatively budget friendly. Unless you are like Luke and I who continue to splurge- did I mention that we both bought good quality snorkels and masks? 

Next stop Pak Song in Thailand where we have booked a week at a yoga retreat in the rainforest. We are pretty pumped!

Love,

Claire and Luke (Luke was playing guitar whilst I wrote this so he counts as a co-author too right?)

Luke, Ecologic resort Pak Song, Thailand

Ps sorry about the lack of photos for this blog. We really were just too busy diving everyday to worry about photos.